Academic & Crossref DOI Search

Abstract: This chapter discusses future and present morality, differentiating between Presentists and Anticipators. Both Presentists and Anticipators reflect some truth about the future. However, there is a lot to be said for Presentists, and for the claim that this book — and the way ethicists have been allured by future visions — is a little bit morally bad. This is because questions of distributive justice — of justly allocating resources — are relevant to what ethicists focus on. And ethicists — especially the applied variety who appeal to the implications of moral theories or principles for specific situations — have been overly preoccupied by the promises and perils of emerging and future technologies. Specifically, while applied ethicists readily delve into the science behind artificial intelligence, gene editing, brain-machine interfaces, and nanotech, they have not bothered learning much about economic theories and the conflicting values and difficult trade-offs directly raised by economic policy. One reason for this is that applied ethicists largely relegate the ethics of economics to economists or political philosophers, where libertarians, socialists, and those in-between fight it out by appealing to large, abstract principles or assumptions about things like the proper role of the state.

Abstract: This chapter evaluates the prospects, promises, and perils of neurotechnology that aims to reveal our thoughts by recording brain activity. There are mind reading risks from the advance of neurotechnologies. This is especially centred upon how data processing works in technologies developed outside of clinical and scientific research. Neurotechnologies will begin amassing ever growing databases of brain recordings. Meanwhile, technology companies will continue developing algorithms capable of discerning patterns that no human data analyst could spot. In combination, these will amount to a great many opportunities for predicting things about brains, and inferring things about minds. We may be entering a world of neuroprofiling — judgements being made about persons, on the basis of data, beyond relationships and credit ratings. Thus, it is important to think now about whether this is something we want to undergo, or something over which we should demand control.

Abstract: Non-verbal communication, while never separate from verbal communication, has a distinct signifying value in the context of Lamu. Because the exchange of verbal greetings carries implications for an individual’s respectability, individuals frequently rely on non-verbal language to communicate while in public. Chapter Five therefore looks at how material practices and the moving body are implicated in the negotiation of social change and the emergence of new social positionings. It examines how young men and women in Lamu differently use material and bodily practices—e.g. stride, walking route, hand greetings, gaze, clothing—to gradually redefine norms of proper conduct and social status. A closer look at young women’s use of handshakes, the ethnographic vignette of a young female professional accused of immoral conduct, and the story of a beach boy who becomes a local politician illustrate the different means through which young people negotiate a respectful positions within the Lamu community. The theoretical discussion in this chapter focuses on gender, material practice, and the moving body in relation to ideologies of moral personhood and notions of modernity.