Future Morality

by David Edmonds Narrated by Shaun Grindell, Gabrielle Baker

Overview

The world is changing so fast that it's hard to know how to think about what we ought to do. We barely have time to reflect on how scientific advances will affect our lives before they're upon us. New kinds of dilemma are springing up. Can robots be held responsible for their actions? Will artificial intelligence be able to predict criminal activity? Is the future gender-fluid? Should we strive to become post-human? Should we use drugs to improve our intimate relationships-or to reduce crime? Our intuitions about questions like these are often both weak and confused.



David Edmonds has put together a philosophical task force to get to grips with these challenges. Twenty-nine philosophers present provocative and engaging pieces about aspects of life today, and life tomorrow-birth and death, health and medicine, brain and body, personal relationships, wrongdoing and justice, the internet, animals, and the environment. The future won't look the same when you've finished this book.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

09/06/2021

In this wide-ranging anthology, philosopher Edmonds (The Murder of Professor Schlick) brings together some of the brightest minds in philosophy and ethics to discuss the future. Among the topics considered by the 29 contributors are predicted changes to health, communication, and humans’ relationship to machines. To that end, Jess Whittlestone weighs in on how artificial intelligence can remove bias from medical diagnoses and improve decision making, and Rebecca Roache examines how friendships have changed as a result of social media and automation. Ann Barnhill and Ruth R. Faden, meanwhile, explore how plant-based diets can help alleviate the climate crisis. Some topics are straightforward—such as Bridget Williams’s argument for using advanced tracking to plan for the health of future communities today. Others are less so: Brian D. Earp questions how, if gender abolitionists have their way, those who identify as trans will be able to adapt to the loss of gendered distinctions. Others highlight issues not yet on most readers’ radars, such as Seumas Miller on the morality of using predictive policing technologies to fight crime or David Edmonds on the safety and ethics of driverless cars. This comprehensive overview of looming ethical issues goes a long way toward equipping readers with the tools to work out their own answers to sticky questions. (Nov.)

From the Publisher

"Overall, contributors scrutinize the technology that has led to individual well-being and scientific/political progress while compromising privacy, highlighting the need for increased transparency and accountability. They persuasively argue that the future is about predictability and that the sooner emerging options are identified, the better. This book is a must read." — B. A. D'Anna, SUNY Delhi, CHOICE

"Edmunds persuasively argues that the future is about predictability and that the sooner emerging options are identified, the better. This book is a must read." — B. A. D'Anna, CHOICE

"Future Morality, edited by David Edmonds, brings together twenty-nine crack ethicists (the promotional materials refer to them as a "philosophical task-force") to tackle novel ethical challenges - the moral problems of the future. . . . Readers will be hard-pressed to find a better introduction to a range of contemporary moral problems." — Simone Gubler, Times Literary Supplement

"Overall, there is a lot to like in this book... The prose is readable and refreshingly jargon-free... and provides information one wouldn't necessarily come across in general-interest publications." — Antoinette LaFarge, Quest

"Overall, there is a lot to like in this book... The prose is readable and refreshingly jargon-free... and provides information one wouldn't necessarily come across in general-interest publications." — Antoinette LaFarge, Quest: Journal of the Theosophical Society in America

"In this wide-ranging anthology, philosopher Edmonds... brings together some of the brightest minds in philosophy and ethics to discuss the future... This comprehensive overview of looming ethical issues goes a long way toward equipping readers with the tools to work out their own answers to sticky questions." — Publisher's Weekly

"I would recommend this book to any academic library serving philosophy, medicine, or science departments. The individual essays would make excellent additions to a course pack for professors teaching in those areas, and the wide variety of those essays ensures that any patrons researching ethics in future studies would find something useful. Public libraries would also likely find this to be a worthwhile purchase, as the topics are eye-catching and thought-provoking, and the authors have done an excellent job of keeping their writing accessible throughout." — Michelle Terriss, Journal of Information Ethics

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175761758
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	08/02/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

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