AITEC Podcast

Kelly McDonough is an Associate Professor at the University of Texas, Austin. We'll be discussing her new book Indigenous Science and Technology: Nahuas and the World around Them [https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/indigenous-science-and-technology] (2024). This is a work in Nahua intellectual history, and it examines how Nahuas have explored, understood, and explained the world across pre-invasion, colonial, and contemporary eras. Some of the topics we discuss are competing conceptions of science and technology, whether only Western science is real science, Nahua science and technology, and the Nahua focus on balance and interrelatedness—among many other topics. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did.

Sara Migliorini [https://fll.um.edu.mo/sara-migliorini/] is Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Macau, specializing in international law, AI, and big data. We'll be discussing her 2023 article "Biometric Harm," which examines how the use of biometric identification—identifying people by their bodily or behavioral features—can pose significant harm to both individuals and society. Some of the topics we discuss are the different technologies used for biometric identification, the human need for unobserved time, the right to control our informational narrative, and laws that might protect us from biometric harm—among many other topics. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did. For more info on the show, please visit ethicscircle.org [https://www.ethicscircle.org/].

Amy Kind [https://www.amykind.com/] is the Russell K. Pitzer Professor of Philosophy at Claremont McKenna College, as well as the Director of the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies. She is a leading philosopher in the philosophy of mind, with a focus on imagination and consciousness. Her books include Imagination and Creative Thinking and Persons and Personal Identity. Today, we’ll explore her recent article, Biometrics and the Metaphysics of Personal Identity. Some of the topics we discuss are the metaphysics of personal identity and the question of whether biometric technology actually tracks personal identity. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did. For more info on the show, please visit ethicscircle.org [https://www.ethicscircle.org/].

Muriel Leuenberger [https://www.murielleuenberger.com/] is a postdoctoral researcher in the Digital Society Initiative and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Zurich. Her research interests include the ethics of technology and AI, medical ethics (neuro-ethics in particular), philosophy of mind, meaning in life, and the philosophy of identity, authenticity, and genealogy. Today we will be discussing her articles “Technology, Personal Information, and Identity [https://www.pdcnet.org/techne/content/techne_2024_0028_0001_0022_0048]” and “Track Thyself? The Value and Ethics of Self-knowledge Through Technology [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13347-024-00704-4]”—both published in 2024. Some of the topics we discuss are the different types of personal information technology, narrative identity theory, and the effects that personal information technology can have on our personal identity (positive, negative, and ambiguous)—among many other topics. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did. For more info on the show, please visit ethicscircle.org [https://www.ethicscircle.org/].

Peter Hershock is Manager of the Asian Studies Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai'i. Most recently, he has helped launch the East-West Center’s initiative on Humane Artificial Intelligence, with a focus on the societal impacts and ethical issues raised by emerging technologies. Today we will be discussing his book Buddhism and Intelligent Technology: Toward A More Humane Future [https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/buddhism-and-intelligent-technology-9781350182288/], published in 2021. Some of the topics we discuss are the types of attention that humans have, the effect of the attention economy on our attention (through a Buddhist lens), the problems with digital hedonism as well as with digital asceticism, and how to reclaim our attention in our day and age—among many other topics. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did. For more info on the show, please visit ethicscircle.org [https://www.ethicscircle.org/].