CEPE 2001
Computer Ethics: Philosophical Enquiries
IT and the Body
December 14-16
Lancaster University
email: [log in to unmask]
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/depts/philosophy/conferences/
Aims etc.
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The aim of CEPE2001 is to establish an international multidisciplinary forum
for the development of innovative debate and dialogue between moral
philosophy and the emerging field of information and communication
technology (ICT). The conference aims to foster and promote philosophical
work, which is intended to make a constructive contribution to the ethical
questions associated with the adoption, use, and development of ICT. The
conference committee welcomes work of high quality regardless of school of
thought or philosophical tradition from which it derives.
The main topic of CEPE2001 is IT and the Body
Information and Communication Technology is becoming increasingly pervasive.
We use ICT in most human activities. McLuhan describes ICT as the world's
nervous system (others talks of it as an extension to the senses of human
beings). ICT is not just a metaphor of the body (and vice-versa) or a
metaphor for the empowerment of the human body. It can be viewed as a real
extension of the human body. Examples of this are Bionics (the science
studying the possibilities of partly or totally implanting artificial pieces
of human bodies as eyes, arms, legs, brain, etc.) and the advances in the
Human Genome Project (which is, to a large extent, a bio-informatics
research programme). Furthermore, in health care, many of the medical
procedures are computer assisted (for example NMR - Magnetic Nuclear
Resonance).
Important philosophical and ethical questions arise from examples such as
these. Are the inner connections between ICT devices and our nervous system
a loss for our privacy and human dignity? Is it fair to repair damaged
brains with computer-assisted interfaces? Are there limits to using computer
technologies as a support for artificial pieces in the human body? Should a
human be considered a cyborg if most of his body is artificial? Do they have
rights to citizenship? Is there an ethics of the post-human? Such questions
involve many philosophical and ethical concepts such as: personhood,
personal identity, the right to privacy, the right to health, the right to
personal data ownership. Other philosophical challenges about our body are
raised from Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence.
Papers on other topics that cross the fields of medicine, computing and
ethics are also welcome.
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