Synthetic Beings and Synthespian Ethics

Projections ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Stadler
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Digital Imaging ◽  
Scientific Discourse ◽  
Virtual Humans ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Screen Media ◽  
Blade Runner ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Virtual Actors

The screen is the material and imaginative interface where biology meets technology. It is the nexus between science and fiction, where technological and ethical concerns surrounding synthespians, representations of replicants, and manifestations of synthetic biology come into play. This analysis of digital imaging and cinematic imagining of virtual actors and synthetic humans in films such as Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, 2017) examines the ethical implications of digital embodiment technologies and cybernetics. I argue that it is necessary to bring together science and the arts to advance understandings of embodiment and technology. In doing so, I explore commonalities between ethical concerns about technobiological bodies in cultural and scientific discourse and developments such as the creation of virtual humans and “deepfake” digital doubles in screen media.

scholarly journals The story is that there is no story: media framing of synthetic biology and its ethical implications in the New York Times (2005–2015)

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (03) ◽  
pp. A02 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Giordano ◽  
Yi-Lin Chung
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
New York Times ◽  
Media Framing ◽  
Public Knowledge ◽  
Academic Ethics ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Ethical Implications

Despite low public knowledge of synthetic biology, it is the focus of prominent government and academic ethics debates. We examine the “NY Times” media coverage of synthetic biology. Our results suggest that the story about synthetic biology remains ambiguous. We found this in four areas — 1) on the question of whether the field raises ethical concerns, 2) on its relationship to genetic engineering, 3) on whether or not it threatens ‘nature’, and 4) on the temporality of these concerns. We suggest that this ambiguity creates conditions in which there becomes no reason for the public at large to become involved.

scholarly journals Big Data: Some Ethical Concerns for the Social Sciences

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Michael Weinhardt
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Online Behavior ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Behaviors ◽  
State Actors

While big data (BD) has been around for a while now, the social sciences have been comparatively cautious in its adoption for research purposes. This article briefly discusses the scope and variety of BD, and its research potential and ethical implications for the social sciences and sociology, which derive from these characteristics. For example, BD allows for the analysis of actual (online) behavior and the analysis of networks on a grand scale. The sheer volume and variety of data allow for the detection of rare patterns and behaviors that would otherwise go unnoticed. However, there are also a range of ethical issues of BD that need consideration. These entail, amongst others, the imperative for documentation and dissemination of methods, data, and results, the problems of anonymization and re-identification, and the questions surrounding the ability of stakeholders in big data research and institutionalized bodies to handle ethical issues. There are also grave risks involved in the (mis)use of BD, as it holds great value for companies, criminals, and state actors alike. The article concludes that BD holds great potential for the social sciences, but that there are still a range of practical and ethical issues that need addressing.

Cyberbiosecurity: An Emerging Field that has Ethical Implications for Clinical Neuroscience

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 662-668
Author(s):  
Dov Greenbaum
Keyword(s):  
Research Practice ◽  
Clinical Neuroscience ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Ethical Implications

AbstractCyberbiosecurity is an emerging field that relates to the intersection of cybersecurity and the clinical and research practice in the biosciences. Beyond the concerns that usually arise in the areas of genomics, this paper highlights ethical concerns raised by cyberbiosecurity in clinical neuroscience. These concerns relate not only to the privacy of the data collected by imaging devices, but also the concern that patients using various stimulatory devices can be harmed by a hacker who either obfuscates the outputs or who interferes with the stimulatory process. The paper offers some suggestions as to how to rectify these increasingly dire concerns.

Social Media to Social Media Analytics

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vikas Kumar ◽  
Pooja Nanda
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Media Analytics ◽  
Social Media Data ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Media Data

With the amplification of social media platforms, the importance of social media analytics has exponentially increased for many brands and organizations across the world. Tracking and analyzing the social media data has been contributing as a success parameter for such organizations, however, the data is being poorly harnessed. Therefore, the ethical implications of social media analytics need to be identified and explored for both the organizations and targeted users of social media data. The present work is an exploratory study to identify the various techno-ethical concerns of social media engagement, as well as social media analytics. The impact of these concerns on the individuals, organizations, and society as a whole are discussed. Ethical engagement for the most common social media platforms has been outlined with a number of specific examples to understand the prominent techno-ethical concerns. Both the individual and organizational perspectives have been taken into account to identify the implications of social media analytics.

Researching the Self

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 360-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashleigh Sanduliak
Keyword(s):  
Research Method ◽  
Research Tool ◽  
The Self ◽  
Multiple Generations ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Auto Ethnography

This paper considers the ethical implications of auto-ethnography as a research method by examining the process of reclaiming a Métis identity suppressed for multiple generations. This examination uses the three ethical concerns identified by Carolyn Ellis (2007) as its framework. The paper argues for the use of auto-ethnography as a research tool as it provides space for first-hand narratives and is more in line with an Aboriginal worldview than traditional scholarly methods.

scholarly journals The Impact Of Social Media On Fraternal Organizations: Ethical Concerns

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-54
Author(s):  
Craig A. Escamilla ◽  
Katharine A. Fraccastoro ◽  
Emily Ehrlich
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Governing Body ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Fraternal Organizations ◽  
Personal Behavior ◽  
The Impact

This case study concerns how the personal behavior of students involved in fraternal organizations is depicted in social media, and how that behavior impacts the organization and its image. The legal and ethical implications of individuals’ behaviors in social media has become a major issue for many organizations. This case follows an example of a fraternal organization and how the governing body must handle the information members post on social media. The mission of many fraternal organizations is to champion or contribute to specific causes. Members’ social media postings may reflect poorly on the organization and may not always align with the principles of the organization. This case examines how those postings impact the organization, and what it can do to mitigate the effects. The ethical issues that can affect the actions of both the governing body and the members are probed throughout the case.

scholarly journals Creativity, Labour, and the Politics of Profit in the Improvised Music Field

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter David Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Recent Trend ◽  
Business Strategies ◽  
Business Organization ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Economically Marginalized ◽  
Improvised Music ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
Cross Fertilization

Despite its ubiquity in everyday life and non-Eurocentric musics, improvisation is discursively constructed in Western culture as an edgy, radical, and subversive activity. Although there is no agreement on an ontology of improvisation in either the popular or scholarly domains, recent writings in music studies and the humanities propose that the improvisatory practices of jazz and related musics can be applied to contexts outside of the arts to address static, unethical, or otherwise outmoded ways of organizing society. A problematic example of this cross-fertilization of ideas is the recent trend in management studies of exploring the value in bringing improvisatory practices traditionally associated with the arts into the business field. Proponents of this idea suggest that applying the operational frame of improvisation to business organization can help companies develop new products and labour practices to respond to the shifting demands of the market. In this article I argue that much of the recent work in management studies fails to meaningfully address the real world material conditions under which artists work, nor the ethical implications of incorporating the practices of economically marginalized subjects into profit-based enterprises. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the improvised music fields in London, England, and Toronto, Canada, I will explore the issues raised by this trend in management studies by putting the ideas and experiences of improvisers in dialogue with those of theorists who are looking to the arts for new and innovative business strategies.

Thanatopolitics and colonial logics in Blade Runner 2049

Thesis Eleven ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 072551362110439
Author(s):  
Ali Rıza Taşkale
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Reproductive Capacity ◽  
Biological Engineering ◽  
Blade Runner ◽  
Post Colonialism ◽  
The Relationship

This article critically engages with Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, focusing on the relationship between colonial logics and biological engineering that understands the natural world as property. First, it discusses the connections between the film and the shifting status of biopolitics becoming thanatopolitics, prompted by advances in synthetic biology. It argues that the film’s preoccupation with the reproductive capacity of its replicants retraces a racialized (post) colonialism and reconfigured slavery, or the voluntary labour of the occupied – as normalized in synthetic biology and the ongoing processes of devaluing of some lives over others for socioeconomic reasons. Second, and relatedly, the film reveals how deeply the thanatopolitics of a biopolitical economy is rooted in an intensification of racialized and colonial logics. The film thus doubles as a medium in which to grasp the centrality of colonial and racial logics to the ongoing real subsumption of life by capital, and the ways in which it continues to shape the present.

Investigating Internet Relationships

2011 ◽  
pp. 2249-2253
Author(s):  
Monica T. Whitty
Keyword(s):  
Research Ethics ◽  
Online Relationships ◽  
Topic Area ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Sensitive Areas ◽  
Internet Relationships ◽  
Internet Infidelity

The focus on Internet relationships has escalated in recent times, with researchers investigating such areas as the development of online relationships (e.g., McCown, Fischer, Page, & Homant, 2001; Parks & Roberts, 1998; Whitty & Gavin, 2001), the formation of friends online (Parks & Floyd, 1996), representation (Bargh, McKenna, & Fitzsimons 2002), and misrepresentation of self online (Whitty, 2002). Researchers have also attempted to identify those addicted to accessing online sexual material (Cooper, Putnam, Planchon, & Boies, 1999). Moreover, others have been interested in Internet infidelity (Whitty, 2003a, 2005) and cybersex addiction (Griffiths, 2001, Young, Griffin-Shelley, Cooper, O’Mara, & Buchanan, 2000). Notwithstanding this continued growth of research in this field, few researchers have considered the new ethical implications of studying this topic area. While it is acknowledged here that some of the discussions in this article might be equally applied to the study of other Internet texts, such as religious or racial opinions, the focus in this article is on the concomitant ethical concerns of ongoing research into Internet relationships. Given that the development and maintenance of online relationships can be perceived as private and very personal (possibly more personal than other sensitive areas), there are potential ethical concerns that are unique to the study of such a topic area (Whitty, 2004; Whitty & Carr, 2006). For a broader discussion of virtual research ethics in general, refer to Ess and Jones (2004) and Whitty and Carr (2006).

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