Transcriber: Paulina Kaniewska Reviewer: Rhonda Jacobs
Hello, everyone. Welcome.
Did you know
that your favorite streaming platform uses an artificially intelligent algorithm
to personalize those little thumbnail images of TV shows and movies
based on your past viewing history?
Did you know that your identity
can be verified not only, of course, by your fingerprint and your face,
but also your voice, your eye, the shape of your body, the way you walk,
the vein pattern on your palms, and even the contours of your knuckles?
Did you know the rights for the first mobile phone towers on the Moon
have already been granted?
And that a space hotel,
yes, a hotel in outer space, is set to open in 2027.
I think it’s obvious to everyone that we live in a society surrounded
by new technologies - in your pockets, in your cars,
in your homes, TVs, schools and universities, and outer space.
What’s not as obvious to everyone is that these technologies
are not value neutral.
So, for example, when we want to use an AI to collect information
because it’s more efficient,
we have valued efficiency.
When we use new technologies at the border for security
because they’re more accurate,
we have valued security and speed.
Moreover, when we pursue one value, we often do so at the cost of another.
So, for example, in our streaming platform,
we might choose or allow the choice of entertainment over privacy,
or at the border - security over inclusivity,
or in outer space - adventure and discovery over sustainability.
So if technologies are everywhere in society
and these technologies always include ethical values and ethical choices,
then ethical values are everywhere in society.
So thinking about them is extremely important
and affects everyone.
But when we want to think about ethical values,
we might not know where to begin.
So, for example, imagine playing a game,
and before we play any game, we have to know the rules, right?
So imagine I said: “Let’s go play one of my favorite games, American football.”
And you said: “Well, Zach, you know, I’ve seen this a few times on TV,
and it looks quite complicated, could you explain the rules to me?”
And I say: “No, but let’s play anyway.”
It wouldn’t be very much fun, would it?
And how long would it take for you to lose?
Now imagine I said:
“Let’s start thinking about the ethics of artificial intelligence,
facial recognition, new technologies at the border,
new technologies for exploring space.”
Without knowing the rules for thinking about these topics,
it wouldn’t be very much fun, would it?
And any one of us would lose.
So when we start thinking about the ethics of technology,
we have questions.
Which values are important? Which values have priority?
Where do we begin? What are the rules?
Let’s notice something - actually, we’ve already begun.
By asking these questions, we are already doing moral philosophy.
Moral philosophy sets the scope.
That’s the goals, but also the limits of our ethical inquiry.
Now you might ask: “What is philosophy exactly?”
Well, I like to think about it like this: whereas scientists tell us what is true,
philosophers ask what is truth.
Artists show us what is beautiful. Philosophers ask what is beauty.
Religious leaders tell people what to believe.
Philosophers ask what is belief.
So by asking these questions,
moral philosophy sets the goals and limits of our inquiry
into ethics and ethics of technology.
And it does this by giving us two rules - two main rules for thinking about ethics.
The first is intellectual humility, or knowing the limits of your knowledge.
The second is thinking for yourself.
Intellectual humility and thinking for yourself.
Now, how do we go about following these rules in practice?
I want you to remember three words.
Confusion,
complexity
and comprehension.
Confusion, complexity and comprehension.
So, first, confusion.
Where do our questions about technology and the ethics of technology come from?
They come from a place of confusion.
Moral philosophy embraces confusion.
Why?
Well, the word “philosophy” comes from two Greek words
“philo” plus “sophia,” which means love of wisdom.
Philosophy is the discipline that is the love of wisdom.
But where does wisdom begin?
It begins with wonder, with confusion.
So I want to take you back about 25 years.
It’s my first semester at the university, and my first philosophy course,
and I still remember going back to my dorm room,
opening the book to read our assignment, experiencing the beautiful way of writing,
subject matters of the utmost importance: the nature of existence;
the difference between the mind and the brain;
whether the universe has a beginning; the nature of justice and morality.
And my reaction? I don’t understand any of this.
I was confused.
Now, we've all met people who don't want to admit when they are confused,
and I think it’s probably fair to say
all of us in this room at one time or another
have not wanted to admit that they are confused.
But I learned from this early experience that confusion can be a good thing.
As long as we acknowledge it,
don’t hide it,
confusion can be a strength, not a weakness.
Why?
If I’m confused, I know one thing for certain.
Now I can learn something new. And now I’m on the path to wisdom.
Next, complexity.
Our confusion is often caused by complexity.
Now, complexity on its own is not necessarily good or bad.
But, again, recognizing complexity can be a strength, not a weakness.
How many of us have seen people experience friends, colleagues,
people on the news who tried to answer very complex questions and issues
with a simple and simplistic solution?
It’s almost as if some people would rather think they are right
than admitting that something is difficult.
But recognizing complexity shows us not only how to approach an issue,
but also what kind of response we ought to expect.
So, for example, in the ethics of technology,
we often think about how to balance privacy and security,
or individual freedom and societal well-being.
Recognizing complexity doesn’t just mean
realizing these are difficult questions or difficult topics.
Recognizing complexity sometimes means
there may not be a final answer to these questions and topics.
So we prepare ourselves for a certain kind of response.
We may not be able to answer finally these sorts of issues.
Next, comprehension.
Now really this is a desire for comprehension.
If I’m confused and I recognize complexity,
then I can desire to expand my knowledge, expand my comprehension,
and get rid of my confusion.
And I can do this by asking questions.
How do I decrease my confusion in the midst of complexity?
What information do I need to gather?
And if we’re talking about the ethics of technology, we can ask:
What are the design objectives of a specific tool?
Which people might be affected?
What is the context within which this tool is supposed to be used?
Confusion, complexity, comprehension
are key elements of moral philosophy.
They allow us to think about the ethics of technology
while staying within the rules of intellectual humility
and thinking for yourself.
Now, let's see how this works in practice.
Let’s take a technology
that I think many of you probably have in your pockets right now,
but one that also has raised serious ethical questions.
Facial recognition.
I've already used it several times today to open my phone.
And I have to admit
when I first purchased the phone with facial recognition as a feature,
I was confused about how it works.
How does the algorithm behind the feature work exactly?
Does it work in different kinds of light, darkness?
If I’m wearing my glasses, corona mask? If I make funny faces?
But I also started thinking about the ethical issues
connected to facial recognition.
Is it really more secure than my thumbprint,
which I had been using or my PIN number, which I used before that?
Does it work equally well for everyone, regardless of what they look like?
What would somebody from a different culture,
ethnic background, sex, gender, age think about this feature?
Could the police or a company scan my face and identify me without me knowing?
Who is responsible if something goes wrong?
Now, think about the ethical values we’ve just identified
by asking these questions.
Privacy.
Autonomy.
Equality.
Non-discrimination.
Responsibility.
Just by asking questions.
I started with my confusion,
I recognized the complexity of the context,
and I had a desire to learn more, to comprehend more.
I'm doing moral philosophy.
Now, this method works not only for everyday technologies
like facial recognition,
but also for radically new technologies
that will increasingly become part of our every day,
so, for example, the technologies used for the exploration of space,
and space tourism we’ve seen recently in the news.
So what are the questions that we need to ask?
Well, does space have any inherent value?
If we were to encounter life on another planet,
even plant life or bacterial life,
does it have moral value?
If so, why?
Are we ethically permitted to take resources
from the Moon, asteroids, other planets and bring them back for use on Earth?
If we had the capacity to drastically alter the landscape on Mars
so that we could live there, ought we do that?
How can we clean up the vast amount of space junk in orbit,
and how can we stop from contributing to that in future missions?
These questions are just the beginning, but now we have a beginning.
Moral philosophy shows us how to think about the ethics of technology,
not by telling us what to do, like a command,
but by giving us the rules of intellectual humility
and thinking for yourself.
Now, I want to encourage everyone today: if you feel confusion, embrace it.
Let’s recognize the complexity of some of the fascinating issues
we’re going to hear about,
and let’s desire to increase our comprehension by asking questions.
Now finally I’ll end on
what is a common misunderstanding about moral philosophy.
It is not moralism,
that is, it does not seek to make us better people.
It only seeks to make us better thinkers, better thinkers about ethics.
Now paradoxically, by becoming better thinkers about ethics,
maybe, just maybe, we might also become better people.
Thank you.
(Applause)