November 20-23, the World Science Forum 2019 will be held in Budapest. The conference will focus on ethics and responsibility in science, ranging from the ethics of science funding to the ethical conduct of science, and from science diplomacy to the ethics of science communication. I’ll have the privilege to give the keynote at the opening ceremony on Nov 20 in the Palace of Arts.
November 13 2019, Ching Hung will defend his PhD dissertation “Design for Green: ethics and politics for behavior-steering technology”. In his dissertation, he examines the limits of liberalism to deal with environmental problems. By means of an original and unorthodox combination of insights from the work of Skinner and of Popper, combined with a detailed analysis of the structure of human-technology relations, Ching Hung arrives at interesting and innovative proposals to design our material world in a new, green way. More information: https://www.utwente.nl/en/bms/events/2019/11/218167/phd-defence-ching-hung.
Oct 28-30 2019, there will be a Global Forum on AI for Humanity (GFAIH) in Paris. Several members of the UNESCO World Commission for the Ethics of Science and Technology will attend the meeting. The event takes place in the context of the forthcoming organisation of a Global Partnership on AI (GPAI), as decided at the last G7 summit. It will serve as the formal launch pad for GPAI and will inform GPAI Working Groups’ future agenda. More information: www.gfaih.org.
At Oct 18 2019, 13h00 – 14h30, during the meeting of the UNESCO Executive Council, The Netherlands Permanent Delegation at UNESCO is organizing a side-event on the ethics of artificial intelligence, with a special focus on education. Opening speakers will be Dutch Ambassador Hans Wesseling, Dutch Minister of Education Ingrid van Engelshoven, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. Presentations by Inge Molenaar (Educational Science, Radboud University) and Peter-Paul Verbeek (University of Twente).
More information: unesco_side_event.pdf
Op 21 november aanstaande – rond de geboortedag van Spinoza – vindt in Amsterdam de bekendmaking van de laureaten van de Spinozalens 2019-2020 plaats: één voor een levende en één voor een dode denker. De prijzen staan dit keer in het teken van technologie. In toenemende mate stellen technologische ontwikkelingen ons voor complexe morele en existentiële vragen. Kan technologie ons helpen om duurzaamheid te bevorderen? Op welke manier kan ze bijdragen aan ons geluk? In hoeverre bedreigt zij onze privacy en hoe erg is dat?
Voor de Spinozalensronde 2019-2020 bestaat de jury uit:
Nov 4 2019 I will give a talk at the Brave New World Festival 2019. The entire day will be dedicated to “The Future of all Species”, and I will speak about the future of human beings, artificial beings, and their interminglings. More info: https://bravenewworld.nl
October 17 2019, Bas de Boer will defend his dissertation on the mediating role of technological instruments in scientific practice, titled ‘How scientific instruments speak: a hermeneutics of technological mediations in (neuro)scientific practice’. More information: https://www.utwente.nl/nl/bms/agenda/2019/10/244419/promotie-bas-de-boer
October 10 2019 Theo Wobbes will defend his dissertation on Human Enhancement in relation to the philosophical anthropology of Helmuth Plessner, titled ‘Mens of geen mens? Een filosofie van de posthuman’. More information: https://www.utwente.nl/nl/academische-plechtigheden/promoties/agenda/2019/10/106160/promotie-theo-wobbes
In het kader van de Nationale Wetenschapsagenda is de afgelopen maanden hard gewerkt aan een interactieve animatiefilm over wetenschap en samenleving. Tijdens de film bepaalt de kijker het verloop van het verhaal, door keuzes te maken in een aantal dilemma’s rondom wetenschap, van robotica tot climate engineering en van health apps tot biotechnologie. Reint Jan Renes, Tim de Mey en ikzelf hebben meegedacht over de dilemma’s die aan bod moeten komen, en de manier waarop die in de film verwerkt kunnen worden. Meer informatie via deze link.
De film gaat op 4 oktober in premiere, tijdens de Nacht van de Wetenschap, op 4 verschillende locaties. Meer informatie: www.wetenschapsnacht.nl. Bij de premiere in Nijmegen houd ik een inleiding en voeren Lotte Krabbenborg en ikzelf een slotgesprek. Meer informatie en aanmelden: https://www.ru.nl/radboudreflects/agenda/lezingen/vm/2019/raakt-wetenschap-ontspoord-robin-interactief/
Happy to announce that we received a very large grant from the Dutch ‘Gravitation’ program, for a 10-year research project on the Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies. Goal is to investigate how new technologies (digital, brain, bio, environmental) affect society, nature and the human being, and require radically new ethical concepts and frameworks.
Principal Investigators are Philip Brey (Twente, coordinator), Ibo van de Poel (TU Delft), Sabine Roeser (TU Delft), Ingrid Robeyns (Utrecht University), Wijnand IJselsteijn (TU Eindhoven) and myself. Many researchers collaborate in the project, not only from these four universities but also from Wageningen University & Research, Leiden University, and the University Medical Center Utrecht.
More information in this press release.
