Nuclear Power and Justice between Generations. A Moral Analysis of Fuel Cycles

When we produce nuclear power we are depleting a non-renewable resource (uranium) that will eventually not be available to future generations. Furthermore the ensuing nuclear waste needs to be isolated from the biosphere for long periods of time to come. This gives rise to the problem of justice to posterity or intergenerational justice....

Designing for Moral Identity in Information Technology

Sopholab: Experimental computational philosophy

In this book, the extend to which we can equip artificial agents with moral reasoning capacity is investigated. Attempting to create artificial agents with moral reasoning capabilities challenges our understanding of morality and moral reasoning to its utmost. It also helps philosophers dealing with the inherent complexity of modern...

Bursting the Filter Bubble: Democracy, Design, and Ethics

Online web services such as Google and Facebook started using personalization algorithms. Because information is customized per user by the algorithms of these services, two users who use the same search query or have the same friend list may get different results. Online services argue that by using personalization algorithms, they may show the...

Taking a Capability Approach to Technology and Its Design: A Philosophical Exploration

What people are realistically able to do and be in their lives, their capabilities, are of central moral importance according to the capability approach (CA) of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. Examples are the capabilities to be healthy or to be part of a community. The CA has become an influential normative framework for reflecting on justice,...

Moral responsibility in R&D networks: A procedural approach to distributing responsibilities

The introduction of new technologies can be accompanied by risks and unforeseen side-effects, often with high impact. If no-one is responsible for addressing these risks and side-effects, the implementation of technologies might result in harmful consequences for society. It is therefore desirable that the prevention of these negative aspects of...

Respect for autonomy and technological risks

Technological developments can undermine the autonomy of the individual. Autonomy is one's ability to make and act upon decisions according to one's own moral framework. Respect for autonomy dictates that risks should not be imposed on the individual without her consent. Technological developments can bring about risks, which often confront the...

ICT for Development: Value Sensitive Design & Information Capabilities

Responsible Innovation in Data-Driven Biotechnology

Innovations in biotechnology increasingly shape our societies and our planet. The stream of innovations that could be witnessed in the past few decades opens up new ways to do agriculture, to provide healthcare and to produce compounds and materials, amongst many other things. Many of these innovations rely on biological data. The ability to...

Ethics of Trust­-Inviting Digital Systems: Blockchain, Reputation­-Based Platforms, and COVID­19 Tracing Technologies

In the past decade, rapid shifting and evolving technological systems that take trust as part of the design objective (call such systems “trust-inviting systems”) have incredibly transformed the way we interact with others. Think of reputation-based platforms mediating interactions between strangers and other digital services provided by...

Open Sourcing Normative Assumptions on Privacy and Other Moral Values in Blockchain Applications

The moral significance of blockchain technologies is a highly debated and polarised topic, ranging from accusations that cryptocurrencies are tools serving only nefarious purposes such as cybercrime and money laundering, to the assessment of blockchain technology as an enabler for revolutionary positive social transformations of all kinds. Such...

Reconceptualizing Autonomy in Elderly Care in the Robot Era: A Relational Perspective

In response to the pressing demand for elderly care, care robots, the robots used by care receivers and/or caregivers for care purposes in various settings, such as hospitals, nursing homes, and personal residences were introduced and have been gaining traction as a technological solution to improve care quality and to enhance the value of...

The birth of ethics from the spirit of tectonics

This book is about the morality of architecture. It is more precisely about moralizing buildings. People talk about architecture morally all the time – but it is not clear how and if architecture is moral. Nor is it clear what people mean most of the time when they talk about ‘the ethics’ or ‘the morality’ of architecture. Sometimes moral talk...

Safety in large-scale socio-technological systems: Insights gained from a series of systems studies

There is still much debate in the safety literature about how to deal with the complexi- ties and dynamics of large-scale socio-technological systems especially. How, for in- stance, comes safety about in ‘high-tech’ complex systems? Also, how should assess- ments of technological (or artefactual) safety be performed in these kinds of systems?...

Accounting for Values in Design

One of the more notable technologies to enter and affect everyday life is information and communication technology (ICT). Since the twentieth century, ICTs have had a considerable impact on many aspects of everyday life. This impact on individuals and society is rarely neutral; ICTs can have both desirable and undesirable consequences — ethical...

Designing for Darkness: Urban Nighttime Lighting and Environmental Values

Artificial illumination has had profound and far-reaching impacts on the development, use, and perceptions of urban nights, and has brought with it many benefits. However, in recent years its adverse costs and effects – commonly referred to as light pollution – have emerged as a topic of concern. Nighttime lighting uses enormous amounts of...

Machine Learning-Induced Epistemic Injustice in Medicine and Healthcare

The advancement of AI-based technologies, such as machine learning (ML) systems, for implementation in healthcare is progressing rapidly. Since these systems are used to support healthcare professionals in crucial medical practices, their role in medical decision-making needs to be epistemologically and ethically assessed. However, a central...

Silence that matters: Understanding conversations in interdisciplinary collaboration

In our focus on spoken conversation we tend to forget that there are also things not said. In failing to acknowledge these silences, much of what is significant may be overlooked. This book presents the findings of ethnographic fieldwork in intra- and inter-university collaboration, including that of Dutch and Chinese scientists. It also offers...