The Dolores Project
By Joshua K. Smith
The Dolores Project May 12, 2023
Robot Uprising? Keep Calm and Ask Kate Darling
#robots #podcasts #society #economics #AI #technology #MIT #science Should we be worried about our future with robots? Dr. Kate Darling provides some much-needed insight to help us navigate our present and future with machines. Dr. Kate Darling is a Research Scientist at the MIT Media Lab and author of THE NEW BREED. Her interest is in how technology intersects with society. Kate’s current work looks at the near-term effects of robotic technology, with a particular interest in law, social, and ethical issues. She has also explored economic issues in intellectual property systems. She runs experiments, holds workshops, writes, and speaks about some of the more interesting developments in the world of human-robot interaction, and where we might find ourselves in the future. Twitter: @grok_The New Breed: https://www.amazon.com/New-Breed-History-Animals-Reveals/dp/1250838428/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
AI, Self-Improvement, and Technologies of the Soul w/ Dr. Mark Coeckelbergh
#artificialintelligence #technology #soul #selfcare #selfimprovement #selfimage #selfie
In this episode of The Dolores Project, I sit down with Dr. Mark Coeckelbergh to discuss the self and AI. Mark is an expert on the philosophy of AI and philosophy.
Please make sure to check out his books on the topic:
AI and Self-Improvement: https://www.amazon.com/Self-Improvement-Technologies-Artificial-Intelligence-Limits/dp/0231206550/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=mark+coeckelbergh&qid=1683293604&sr=8-5
AI Ethics: https://www.amazon.com/Ethics-MIT-Press-Essential-Knowledge/dp/0262538199/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=mark+coeckelbergh&qid=1683293644&sr=8-4
Political Philosophy of AI: https://www.amazon.com/Political-Philosophy-AI-Introduction/dp/1509548548/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=mark+coeckelbergh&qid=1683293644&sr=8-3
Bio: Mark Coeckelbergh (Ph.D., University of Birmingham) is Professor of Philosophy of Media and Technology at the Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna since 2015 and was Vice Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Education until 2020. He is also ERA Chair at the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague and Guest Professor at WASP-HS and University of Uppsala. From 2014 to 2019 he was also (part-time) Professor of Technology and Social Responsibility at the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility, De Montfort University, UK.
Thanks again for your support of the show. Please leave a comment or like if this content was helpful!
Blessings,
Josh
Exploring the Intersection of Queer Theory, Disability, and Tech w/ Dr. Max Thornton
What is QueerCrip theory and how does it speak into theology and technology. Today's expert, Dr. Max Thornton, will help us think through these issues. Max is a theologian and philosopher specializing in disability, queerness, gender, and tech. These are really hard conversations to have in such polarizing times, but I'm grateful and hopeful about the dialogue. If you would like to know more about Max and his research, see maxthornton.me
Works:
Religion, Emotion, and Sensation: Religion, Emotion, Sensation (fordhampress.com)
“Trans/Criptions: Gender, Disability, and Liturgical Experience” in TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly (August 2019)
“Gender: A Public Feeling?” in Religion, Emotion, Sensation: Affect Theories and Theologies, edited by Stephen Moore and Karen Bray (2019)
“The Porcelain Throne” for Political Theology Network (2018)
Thanks for listening and your support!
Blessings,
Josh
AI, Theology, and Relationships w/ Dr. Noreen Herzfeld
#AI #theology #chatgpt #soicalmedia #family #computerscience #relationships
How does theology and AI impact our relationships with one another and with God? Dr. Noreen Herzfeld has much to say into these topics. Enjoy the show.
Noreen Herzfeld is the Nicholas and Bernice Reuter Professor of Science and Religion at St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict. She holds degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics from the Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in Theology from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. Herzfeld is a research associate at ZRS Koper and the Research Institute for Theology and Religion, University of South Africa.
Herzfeld teaches in both the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Theology at St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict, reflecting her two primary research interests—the intersection of religion and technology, and religion and conflict. Topics include computer theory, computer ethics, theology in the light of science, the spirituality and politics of Islam, and ministry in a technological age.
Herzfeld is the author of In Our Image: Artificial Intelligence and the Human Spirit (Fortress, 2002), Technology and Religion: Remaining Human in a Co-Created World (Templeton, 2009), The Limits of Perfection in Technology, Religion, and Science (Pandora, 2010), and editor of Religion and the New Technologies (MDPI, 2017). She has published numerous articles and book chapters and is a frequent speaker on the prospects for AI, ethical issues in technology, and Islam. She is the founder and a writer for the Avon Hills Salon.
Race, Tech, and The Sound of Culture w/ Louis Chude-Sokei
#race #robots #technology #creator #podcasts #philosophy #reggae #sound #alien #artificialintelligence #slavery #resistance How should we think about race and technology? As we learn from Dr. Chude-Sokei, race and tech have always been together. Found out how and what that means for society in this episode. Bio: Louis Chude-Sokei is a writer and scholar whose books includes The Last Darky: Bert Williams, Black on Black Minstrelsy and the African Diaspora (Duke University Press, 2006, finalist for both the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the George Freedley Award), The Sound of Culture: Diaspora and Black Technopoetics (Wesleyan University Press, 2016) and the acclaimed memoir, Floating in A Most Peculiar Way (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021). His public and literary writing has appeared in various national and international venues including, The LA Times, The New York Times, The Seattle Times, and The San Francisco Chronicle, to The Believer, The Chicago Quarterly, South Africa’s Chimurenga Chronic and The Daily Gleaner in Jamaica. His work has been translated into multiple languages, including Hungarian, German, Spanish, Italian and Korean. He is the Editor in Chief of The Black Scholar, one of the oldest and leading journals of Black Studies in the United States. Chude-Sokei has collaborated with numerous artists, performers, and programmers on projects focused on sound, music, race and technology. This includes legendary choreographer Bill T. Jones who is adapting sections of The Sound of Culture for performance, and iconic Berlin electronic artists, Mouse on Mars with whom he has produced sound installations and the celebrated album Anarchic Artificial Intelligence (Thrill Jockey Records 2021). Chude-Sokei is also founder of the international sonic art/archiving project, Echolocution, and is the lead artist/curator of “Sometimes You Just Have to Give it Your Attention,” a year-long sound art project in Nuremberg, Germany, focused on Nazi Party historical sites, for which he won the Kulturstiftun Des Bundes Award from the German Federal Cultural Foundation. He is also a curator of Carnegie Hall’s 2022 Afrofuturism Festival. Links: The Sound of Culture - https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Culture-Diaspora-Black-Technopoetics/dp/0819575771 Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6q8RxZc2hHWfjZ0yRaXG9o AI Project mentioned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8N-UNJh9Vc&embeds_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2F&embeds_origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com&feature=emb_logo If you liked this content, remember to support us by liking, sharing, and subscribing! Josh
How Should the Local Church Think About Digital Media? w/ Heidi A. Campbell
Are Robots Conscious? Does Sophia Have a Brain? w/Thomas Telving
What is the nature of consciousness? Can a robot or Alien or computer be conscious? Absurd as all of this sounds, in light of recent events with ChatGpt and LaMDA, the hard question of "what is like to be" a machine is back on the table. In this episode of The Dolores Project, I am joined by Thomas Telving. Thomas is a Copywriter and philosopher working in the area of Digital Content. His recent book, “Killing Sophia: Empathy, Consciousness, and Reason in the Age of Intelligent Robots” (published by University of Southern Denmark Studies) is available in Danish and English. Book: https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Sophia-Consciousness-Intelligent-Philosophy/dp/8740834220?ref_=ast_author_mpb
YouTube: @ThomasTelving
Twitter: @ThomasTelving
Thanks for listening!
How Should We Think About Porn & Tech? w/ Dr. Kathleen Richardson
#AI #technology #robots #love #ethics #philosophy
In this episode of the Dolores Project, I am joined by Dr. Kathleen Richardson, founder of the Campaign Against Porn Robots.
Kathleen Richardson is a Professor of Ethics and Culture of Robots and AI and part of the Europe-wide DREAM project (Development of Robot-Enhance Therapy for Children with Autism). Kathleen completed her PhD at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge. Her fieldwork was an investigation of the making of robots in labs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After her PhD Kathleen was a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow (BAPDF), a position she held at the University College London. Kathleen's postdoctoral work was an investigation into the therapeutic uses of robots for children with autism spectrum conditions. In 2013, she was part of the Digital Bridges Project, an innovative AHRC funded technology and arts collaboration between Watford Palace Theatre and the University of Cambridge. Kathleen is author of An Anthropology of Robots and AI: Annihilation Anxiety and Machines. Kathleen has completed her second book Challenging Sociality.
Follow her work at https://campaignagainstsexrobots.org/ and http://kathleenrichardson.org/
Make sure to check out her recent publication: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-19381-1#tocaboca
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed by my guests do not necessarily reflect my views. The nature of this project is to challenge our assumptions about tech, philosophy, and theology. Josh
Let's Talk About Sex Robots w/ Dr. Kate Ott
In this episode of the Dolores Project, I am joined by Dr. Kate Ott to discuss her most recent research on sex robots from a Christian perspective.
A feminist and Christian ethicist, Dr. Ott is an expert on the formation of moral communities with specializations in technology, children and youth, sexuality, pedagogy, and professional ethics. She lectures and leads workshops across North America on technology and sexuality issues that are related to faith formation for young adults, teens and parents, and religious educators and professionals.
Follow her work at kateott.org
Purchase her book here: https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/7846/sex-tech-and-faith.aspx
Twitter: @Kates_Take
Death by Drones w/ John R. Emery
John R. Emery is an Assistant Professor of International Security in the department ofInternational and Area Studies at the University of Oklahoma. His research focuses on issues of technology in international relations, ethics of war, security studies, nuclear wargaming, human-machine interaction, and political theory. He is a member of the 2021-2024 Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI) Mid-Career Cadre, which brings together nuclear experts from technical, policy, academic, and military backgrounds, Previously, Dr. Emery was a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Irvine where he was also a Tobis Fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics and Morality. In the 2017-2018 academic year he was a part of a National Science Foundation EAGER grant that brought together an interdisciplinary research group to assess the impact of technological innovations in AI, Big Data, and algorithms on law and the social sciences.
He has published widely in edited volumes and academic journals, including Ethics & International Affairs, Texas National Security Review, Critical Military Studies, Peace Review, and Law & Policy. His research during the 2020-2021 academic year at CISAC on ethics and 1950s nuclear wargaming at the RAND Corporation was the runner-up winner of the Janne Nolan Prize for the best article on national security and international affairs, presented by Johns Hopkins SAIS Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs, in collaboration with CSIS. As a Tobis Fellow at UC Irvine, he completed an article entitled “Probabilities Toward Death” that analyzed the rise of collateral damage estimation algorithms and the impact of human-machine interactions on ethics of due care in U.S. warfare.
Articles Mention: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23337486.2020.1809251?journalCode=rcms20
https://tnsr.org/2021/09/moral-choices-without-moral-language-1950s-political-military-wargaming-at-the-rand-corporation/
Follow: @EmeryJohnR on Twitter
Contact: john.emery@ou.edu
Artificial Life, Ethics, Mary Shelly's Political Vision, and Robots with Dr. Eileen Hunt
She is the author or editor of seven books, including Family Feuds: Wollstonecraft, Burke, and Rousseau on the Transformation of the Family (SUNY, 2006), Feminist Interpretations of Alexis de Tocqueville (Penn State, 2009, co-edited with Jill Locke), the first scholarly edition of Reminiscences and Traditions of Boston by Hannah Mather Crocker (NEHGS, 2011, co-edited with Sarah L. Houser), a scholarly edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft (Yale, 2014), Wollstonecraft, Mill, and Women’s Human Rights (Yale, 2016), Mary Shelley and the Rights of the Child: Political Philosophy in “Frankenstein” (Penn, 2017), and The Wollstonecraftian Mind (Routledge, forthcoming 2019, and co-edited with Sandrine Bergès and Alan Coffee). She has also authored over fifty articles, chapters, essays, and reviews, in venues such as Aeon Magazine, The Washington Post, Political Theory, History of European Ideas, The American Political Science Review, and Reproductive Ethics II.
She was a recipient of an American Council of Learned Societies fellowship in 2015-2016 and the New England Research Fellowship Consortium’s Colonial Society award in 2009-2010. She is currently a president-elect of the Women and Politics research section of the American Political Science Association. She was elected a fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society in 2014 and a non-resident member of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts in 2012. With Sarah L. Houser, she won the triennial Edition Award from the Society for the Study of American Women Writers in 2011. In 2014, she won the Okin-Young award from the American Political Science Association for the best article published in feminist political theory during the previous year. She is a member of the 1993 class of Marshall Scholars and an alumna of Bowdoin, Cambridge, and Yale.
Technology, Values, and Faith with Computer Scientist Derek Schuurman
Dr. Schuurman is a fellow of the American Scientific Affiliation, part of the leadership team for the West Michigan ASA chapter, an associate fellow of the The Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology in Cambridge, senior member of the IEEE, member of the ACM, CES, ACMS, a book review editor for Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, a regular contributor to the Christian Scholars Review blog, and a regular columnist for Christian Courier.
Books:
https://cs.calvin.edu/activities/books/fieldguide/
https://www.ivpress.com/shaping-a-digital-world
AI, Robots, and the Challenge of Policy Making w/ Jacob Turner
About Jacob:
Jacob joined chambers in October 2018. He is a former solicitor-advocate, having qualified in 2014. He has advised individuals, corporates and sovereigns in a variety of commercial matters involving both litigation and arbitration. Jacob accepts instructions in all areas of chambers’ practice and is happy working both as sole counsel and as part of a team.
Previously, Jacob worked in the Dispute Resolution department at Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton LLP and as a judicial assistant to Lord Mance at the UK Supreme Court. Jacob is the author of Robot Rules: Regulating Artificial Intelligence (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), which has been cited by Lord Hodge and Lord Sales in extrajudicial speeches on the legal impacts of AI. He is a contributing author to The Law of Artificial Intelligence (Sweet & Maxwell, 2020). Jacob is also the co-author, with Lord Mance, of Privy Council Practice (OUP, 2017).
Buy the Book: https://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319962344?token=sitewide40&utm_campaign=3_fjp8312_springer_us_dsa_sitewide40&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2bbrzOmw8wIVBRLnCh2PwgQSEAAYASAAEgJ7PPD_BwE
Follow Him on Twitter:
@RobotRules
@JacobTurner1
Family, Friendship, and Robot Philosophy w/ John Danaher
John Danaher is a lecturer in the Law School. He holds a BCL from University College Cork (2006); an LLM from Trinity College Dublin (2007); and a PhD from University College Cork (2011). He was lecturer in law at Keele University in the UK from 2011 until 2014. He joined NUI Galway in July 2014.
John's research focuses on the ethical, legal and social implications of new technologies. He maintains a blog called Philosophical Disquisitions, and produces a podcast with the same title. He also writes for the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.
Policy-Making, Fear, and Robot Regulation with Alan Winfield
Alan works at UWE spans Research and Public Engagement. He conducts research in Cognitive Robotics within the Bristol Robotics Lab. He is a member of the Science Communication Unit, and undertake public engagement work centred upon robotics. Robot ethics is a significant focus of his current work, including the development of new standards.
I also blog at: http://alanwinfield.blogspot.com/
Follow him @alan_winfield on Twitter
Robots, Ethics, and Jazz w/ Sven Nyholm
Sven Nyholm is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Ethics at the Eindhoven University of Technology. He received his PhD from the University of Michigan in 2012. His dissertation, on Kant’s ethics, was awarded the Pro-quest Distinguished Dissertation Award. Currently, Nyholm is working on the ethics of automated driving, human-robot collaboration, deep brain stimulation (including its effect on the self), the ordinary concept(s) of “true love”, and disability and the goods of life.
Book: Humans and Robots: Ethics, Agency, and Anthropomorphism https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781786612267/Humans-and-Robots-Ethics-Agency-and-Anthropomorphism
Follow Sven: @SvenNyholm
Robot Rights Doesn't Solve Anything w/ Dr. Burkhard Schafer
Burkhard Schafer is Professor of Computational Legal Theory at the University of Edinburgh. He is co-founder and co-director of the Joseph Bell Centre for Legal Reasoning and Forensic Statistics. In this episode we discuss the limitations of granting robots rights and the function of insurance in the face of liability claims. For any questions for Dr. Schafer please see: https://www.law.ed.ac.uk/people/professor-burkhard-schafer
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AI Chatbots and Ethics w/ Hendrik Kempt
Hendrik Kempt is a PostDoc working in the ethics of AI in medical diagnostics. He studied Philosophy and Sociology at HHU Düsseldorf (B.A.) and Humboldt University Berlin (M.A.). During his graduate studies, working on prescriptivism in metaethics at the University of Duisburg-Essen, he went on to be a visiting scholar at different universities in the United States (University of Missouri – Columbia, MO, University of Southern California, Los Angeles/CA, and Brown University, Providence/RI).
His area of specialization (AOS) is in applied ethics (mostly in AI ethics, energy ethics, medical ethics), metaethics and philosophy of language, with areas of competence (AOC) in social philosophy, as well as the philosophy of Hans Blumenberg, and philosophy of religion.
He is a member of the AISB, SPT, a fellow at FoKoS of the University of Siegen, and a fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Book Link:
Chatbots and the Domestication of AI
https://www.amazon.com/Chatbots-Domestication-AI-Relational-Approach/dp/3030562891/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=hendrik+kempt&qid=1626098911&sr=8-1
Moral Patiency, Westworld, and Privacy w/ Cindy Friedman
Join me for a brilliant discussion with emerging scholar Cindy Friedman as we talk about robot rights and the reasons for considering a robot morally. Cindy is a PhD student at Utrecht University and a member of the Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies Research Consortium. Follow her on Twitter at @Cindyy2303.
Animals, The Environment, and AI Ethics w/ Josh Gellers
In this episode I am joined by Joshua C. Gellers who is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of North Florida. We talk about the rights of animals, nature, and our concerns and hopes for our future with non-human entities. There is a lot to unpack in this episode so grab a pen and paper and get comfortable.
I highly encourage you to download his most recent book, "Rights for Robots" https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mono/10.4324/9780429288159/rights-robots-joshua-gellers
Follow him on Twitter @JoshGellers and at joshgellers.com
Limits, Power, and Robot Rights w/ Simon Chesterman
Robot Rights w/ David Gunkel
On the first episode of the Dolores Project I interview The Godfather of Robot Rights literature. He literally wrote the book on robot rights (MIT Press). Dr. Gunkel is a distinguished scholar and writer of philosophy, communication theory, and of course, AI and robots.
Make sure to checkout David's book and information at gunkelweb.com!
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/robot-rights
Twitter: @David_Gunkel
For more information about Josh you can follow him on Twitter @jksmith8806 and at joshuaksmith.org