Future Morality

Description

The world is changing so fast that it's hard to know how to think about what we ought to do. We barely have time to reflect on how scientific advances will affect our lives before they're upon us. New kinds of dilemma are springing up. Can robots be held responsible for their actions? Will artificial intelligence be able to predict criminal activity? Is the future gender-fluid? Should we strive to become post-human? Should we use drugs to improve our intimate relationships -- or to reduce crime? Our intuitions about questions like these are often both weak and confused.

David Edmonds has put together a philosophical task force to get to grips with these challenges. Twenty-nine philosophers present provocative and engaging pieces about aspects of life today, and life tomorrow -- birth and death, health and medicine, brain and body, personal relationships, wrongdoing and justice, the internet, animals, and the environment. The future won't look the same when you've finished this book.

About the author:

David Edmonds is Distinguished Research Fellow at Oxford University's Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics. He is the author, co-author, or editor of over a dozen books including the bestseller Wittgenstein's Poker (with John Eidinow), The Murder of Professor Schlick, Would You Kill The Fat Man?, and the children's book Undercover Robot (with Bertie Fraser). He is the host of Philosophy247 and Social Science Bites, and with Nigel Warburton he co-hosts Philosophy Bites (www.philosophybites.com), which has had over 42 million downloads worldwide.

Table of contents

Future People
1. Future versus Present Morality - Hazem Zohny
2. How Should We Value the Health of Future People? - Bridget Williams
3. Can Alt-Meat Alter the World? - Anne Barnhill and Ruth R. Faden
Future Lives
4. Abolishing Gender - Brian D. Earp
5. The Future of Friendship - Rebecca Roache
6. Avatars - Erica L. Neely
Future Machines
7. Predictive Policing - Seumas Miller
8. AI in Medicine - Angeliki Kerasidou and Xaroula (Charalampia) Kerasidou
9. Robots and the Future of Retribution - John Danaher
10. AI and Decision-Making - Jess Whittlestone
11. The Future Car - David Edmonds
Future Communication
12. The Future of Privacy - Carissa Véliz
13. Persuasive Technology - James Williams
14. Conspiracy Theories? - Steve Clarke
Future Bodies
15. Mind-reading and Morality - Stephen Rainey
16. Love Drugs - Julian Savulescu
17. Technology to Prevent Criminal Behavior - Gabriel De Marco and Thomas Douglas
18. Artificial Wombs - Dominic Wilkinson and Lydia Di Stefano
19. Genetic Immunisation - Tess Johnson and Alberto Giubilini
20. Genome Editing in Livestock - Katrien Devolder
21. Brain Stimulation and Identity - Jonathan Pugh
Future Death
22. What Is Death? - Mackenzie Graham
23. Should We Freeze Our Bodies for Future Resuscitation? - Francesca Minerva
24. Posthumans - Anders Sandberg