Emerging Technologies and Moral Boundaries:

Psychological, Philosophical and Neuroscientific

Perspectives

Understanding Ethical cognition

• Not ethical decision making• Not (directly) guiding ethical decision making– e.g. seven horizons– e.g. case studies

• What guides/motivates/generates ethical sentiments & related emotions (e.g. anger, abhorrence, disgust, forgiveness, beneficence, sacrifice)

Why care?

• Understand basis of own decisions– E.g. May reveal and shed light on disconnects

between ‘in principle’ ethical decisions, and ‘hot’ ethical responses to actual situations

• Ethical sentiments are very powerful, perhaps most powerful social force– Shapes public opinion / response– Motivates life and death decisions– Dictates ease and ability to treat others in different

ways (e.g. to kill, to treat inhumanely, to treat appropriately to a peacekeeping operation)

Why military might care

• Effectiveness of troops in war situation• Effectiveness of troops in peacekeeping• Moral of troops and effective use of technology• Reintegration of troops after tour• National / International public opinion• How to present or ‘package’ use of

enhancements, control perception, win ‘hearts and minds’

Slight change of focus• Not about reaching consensus – about understanding multiple

perspectives, what is common, what is different• Not about dismissing ‘hysterical’ responses or putting aside ‘bad

arguments’. • Cultural differences (by nation, by sub-culture)• Dependency on exposure (live it vs. hear about it) and on how

communicated (propaganda)• Interesting and important in its own right• Encourage thinking ‘outside the box’ – stronger guide to how to build

consensus (as opposed to ‘look, we reached a consensus, now that should dictate policy’).

• Better understand what guides our own ethical intuitions (rather than appeal to religion, rationality, ‘authority of educated philosopher’)

• Inform laws / how principles should be applied.• Not replacement for activities outlined, but complement to them.

Stuart J. Youngner, MDChair, Department of Bioethics, CWRUSusan E. Watson Professor of BioethicsProfessor of Psychiatry

Sara WallerAssociate Professor of Philosophy, Montana StatePhilosophy of animal minds, neuroscience, ethics

Social vs physical/logical/scientific• Push – pull relationship• > sharp boundary• Research under way• New project

FFA and animate/inanimate1997

2009

A Nonvisual Look at the Functional

Organization of Visual Cortex

Animals vs tools

/inanimate objects

Faces - houses

Kids (e.g. 3-7yrs) - houses

Babies (0-2yrs) - houses

‘cute’ mammal - houses

Robot - houses

Babies (0-2yrs) - houses

Uncanny valley

When does emotional response turn into moral sentiment?