Modeling Ethics & Technology Group

We take a constructive approach to ethics and technology. We build, explore and test out models of ethics (governance structures) and prototype technologies, trying to make the world better, bit by bit.  

Inspirational Quotation:

Our time calls for intelligent fads. Our time calls for a self-aware, highly temporary array of broad social experiments, whose effects are localized, non-lethal and reversible -- yet transparent, and visible to all parties who might be persuaded to look....The deepest resources of human creativity have a vital role there. It's where inspiration is most needed, it's the place to make a difference. Come out. Stand up. Shine. (Bruce Sterling, Manifesto January 3, 2000) (quoted in Jon Lebowsky, Hacking Environmental Awareness)

Meetings

We meeting this spring to present current work and read the current literature on evolutionary and agent-based social system modeling. Noon, brown-bag lunch, in the Centre conference room (Klinck 238).

Date Presenter/Topic/Reading
16 April 2003 Peter Danielson, Modeling Complex Moral Agents
29 April 2003 Hadi Dowlatabadi & Zosia Bornik, Exploring the Demographic and Economic Implications of Applied Genomics: A Working Model
13 May 2003 Xiaoming Zhou, Modeling Student Emotions from Cognitive Appraisal in Educational Games
20 May 2003 Peter Danielson, Report on the Cognitive Social Science Conference, Univ. of Washington
TBA Skyrm's The Stag Hunt

Current Projects

The Modeling team of the Genome Canada project, Democracy, Ethics, and Genomics: Consultation, Deliberation and Modeling

Modeling Ethical Mechanisms  SSHRC Project description [one-page] [full -- long]

Evolving Ethical Video Games (meeting as a graduate course, Fall 2003)

Probes

Here are some designs to provoke discussion.

Laser Phaser traffic control for pedestrians and bikers

Social Mobiles [cell phones]

Spod Winner of the Viridian  BioFuture Robot Dog Contest ARF! click click ARF! click click ARF!

David Friedman's Products I'd Like to See

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04/19/03