A Case for Machine Ethics in Modeling Human-Level Intelligent Agents

This paper focuses on the research field of machine ethics and how it relates to a technological singularity—a hypothesized, futuristic event where artificial machines will have greater-than-human-level intelligence. One problem related to the singularity centers on the issue of whether human values and norms would survive such an event. To somehow ensure this, a number of artificial intelligence researchers have opted to focus on the development of artificial moral agents, which refers to machines capable of moral reasoning, judgment, and decision-making. To date, different frameworks on how to arrive at these agents have been put forward. However, there seems to be no hard consensus as to which framework would likely yield a positive result. With the body of work that they have contributed in the study of moral agency, philosophers may contribute to the growing literature on artificial moral agency. While doing so, they could also think about how the said concept could affect other important philosophical concepts

Philosophical Signposts for Artificial Moral Agent Frameworks

This article focuses on a particular issue under machine ethics—that is, the nature of Artificial Moral Agents. Machine ethics is a branch of artificial intelligence that looks into the moral status of artificial agents. Artificial moral agents, on the other hand, are artificial autonomous agents that possess moral value, as well as certain rights and responsibilities. This paper demonstrates that attempts to fully develop a theory that could possibly account for the nature of Artificial Moral Agents may consider certain philosophical ideas, like the standard characterizations of agency, rational agency, moral agency, and artificial agency. At the very least, the said philosophical concepts may be treated as signposts for further research on how to truly account for the nature of Artificial Moral Agents

Information Privacy and Emerging Technologies in the U.A.E. Current State and Research Directions

The rapid developments in the front of emerging technologies, such as Big Data, Cloud Computing, and Internet of Things, pose certain challenges for societies that are trying to keep up with the changes these technologies introduce. As a consequence, significant concerns are being raised in relation to such developments. One of the most widely debated and discussed issue in relation to the latter, has to do with the potential threats to personal information privacy. This paper briefly introduces some of the related emerging technologies and explores some of the expressed concerns on information privacy and disclosure in the U.A.E. in this context. In addition, related research themes that could be interesting to explore in the future are being identified, with a focus on the local socioeconomic environment

Engaging Undergraduate Psychology Students with Research Methods and with the Process of Conducting Research

A strong understanding of quantitative research methods is a pre-requisite to psychological literacy and evidence-based practice in psychology. Quantitative research methods are also an area of weakness for many psychology students. Furthermore, many students have relatively little interest in reading and conducting research, hold negative attitudes toward research methods, struggle to see the relevance or utility of methods and statistics courses, and experience high levels of statistics anxiety. Consequently, efforts have been undertaken to reform traditional research methods and statistics pedagogy, with the objective of making these subjects more applied, relevant and engaging for students. Many of these reforms are based on active learning principles, and the idea that, as much as is practicable, students should be ‘doing’ research, rather than merely reading about it, or listening to instructors talking about it. In an undergraduate psychology degree, ‘doing research’ can manifest in multiple activities, of which the current thesis focuses on three: (1) participating in authentic research; (2) working with authentic data; and (3) conducing an original research project. The first two papers herein focus on understanding and quantifying undergraduate psychology students’ perspectives on the educational value of participating in authentic research, which is a ‘rite of passage’ in most research active schools of psychology. The third describes the development and evaluation of an active learning exercise in which students participated in a class experiment, then analysed the data it generated. Papers 4-7 address issues arising from the supervision of final year dissertations projects, including the quality of student collected data, and the ethics of surveying online. Finally, paper 8 explores the difficulties faced by students (but not ‘experts’) when required to identify statistical tests and procedures appropriate to their research questions and hypotheses, while paper 9 describes the development of a mobile application specifically developed to support this process. Combined with the exegesis that precedes them, the nine papers in this thesis offer a range of insights into, and strategies that promote the engagement of undergraduate psychology students with research methods, and with the process of conducting research

Technoethics and Human Rights: The Metaethical Implications of Crisismapping and the Right to Privacy in Post-Disaster, Post-Conflict Scenarios

Do invasive digital approaches to disaster response come at too high of a cost to privacy, such that we should seek alternative methods or regulations? This paper examines the tension between the right to privacy and crisismapping, a new technological advancement in emergency response. After mapping the critical international institutions and stakeholders, the paper grounds interests to effective triage and to digital privacy in international human rights law. A thought experiment is offered to show our conflicting intuitions when privacy is weighed against critical safety interests, and multiple procedures are evaluated as means to reconcile these interests and determine the extent of the right to privacy. Ultimately, the paper calls for an expanded inquiry by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy, who has the power to engage multiple stakeholders for a fair and inclusive new approach. Privacy costs are too fundamental for emergency response to proceed without proper scrutiny

Bioethical Quandaries during the Period of a Pandemic

The period of the pandemic gave rise to multiple and intractable bioethical quandaries arising In the context of the present study we will limit ourselves to the examination of the critical issues of mandatory vaccination to manage the pandemic compulsory medical testing including temperature screening of the population the use of experimental drugs making the wearing of face masks mandatory and the individual responsibility of each of us for the prevention of the pandemic Participation stresses the importance of education in bioethics Accordingly it supports the notion that once we win the fight for life and health constitutional lawyers ought to take the reins and determine that the character of restrictive measures and healthcare policies adopted in periods of crisis when a prime opportunity for their formulation presented itself because of the pandemic is one of extraordinarines

KARAKTER DAN PENGEMBANGANNYA DALAM SISTEM PENDIDIKAN JARAK JAUH

The study of the character and its development at distance education system is a new intensive effort since the 2000s period. Nevertheless, various studies show a clear trend to the development of four characters that were performance, relational, moral, and spiritual. The four character developments have reflected and integrated in the various contexts of using and designing of DE technologies, and it also became a main characteristic in the study and development of character at DE. This paper reviews the various studies about the characters and its developments in the DE context, and some of the efforts made by DE providers.   Studi tentang karakter dan pengembangannya dalam sistem pendidikan jarak jauh (SPJJ) masih merupakan ikhtiar yang baru intensif dilakukan sejak periode 2000an. Sekalipun demikian, berbagai studi memperlihatkan kecenderungan yang jelas pada 4 pengembangan karakter, yaitu karakter kinerja, relasional, moral, dan spiritual. Pengembangan keempat karakter tersebut direfleksikan dan terintegrasi di dalam berbagai konteks penggunaan desain dan medium teknologi PJJ, dan sekaligus menjadi karakteristik atau ciri khas dalam studi dan pengembangan karakter pada SPJJ. Tulisan ini akan meninjau berbagai studi tentang karakter dan pengembangannya dalam konteks SPJJ; dan beberapa ikhtiar yang telah dilakukan oleh institusi PJJ dalam pengembangan karakter

SINGULARIDADE TECNOLÓGICA, CONVERGÊNCIA NBIC E A INTELIGÊNCIA COLETIVA COMO BASES PARA UM SINCRETISMO TECNOÉTICO SOB O PARADIGMA JUSFILOSÓFICO DA TEORIA DA TEORIA DA INTEGRIDADE DE RONALD DWORKIN

O trabalho analisa as principais dificuldades na construção de parâmetros Tecnoéticos da atualidade. A hipótese aqui reside em determinar a constante que atravessa a Singularidade Tecnológica, a Convergência NBIC e a Inteligência Coletiva como variável integrativa e constitutiva da Tecnoética para fins de análise paradigmática sob a Teoria da Integridade de Dworkin. Assim, alicerçado no método lógico-dedutivo-dogmático, este artigo se baseia em incursões históricas e conceitos doutrinários para demonstrar a existência da constante em questão e, por fim, motivar sua adoção

Fundamentalism and the search for meaning in digital media among Gen Y and Gen Z

Religious fundamentalists have a common fear that modernity, digital mass media, and popular culture may corrupt young adults and undermine sacred values and moral codes. However, some young adults do not abandon their religion; conversely, they submit to fundamentalist religious authority and are willing to become martyrs. This paper seeks to provide a theoretical understanding of the relationship between religious fundamentalism and Gen Y and Gen Z’s search for meaning in the digital media ecology. The purpose of this article is to synthesize the theoretical perspectives of religious fundamentalism, imagined communities, sacred values, terror-management-theory and digital media theories to generate new insights on countering online radicalization. However rather than recommending more online counterpropaganda  dampening violent extremism targeting communities, this article builds on the view that an integrated approach on digital citizenship, off-line interfaith communication, and religious face-to-face encounters with ‘the other’ to share sacred and secular values in the pedagogical environment will help understand the social reality of ‘the other’ and can offer effective insights  to prevent home-grown extremism, social insularity and reduce in-group biases at an early age.   Clyde Anieldath Missier’s work on this article was made possible by contributing, as an external PhD candidate, to Rik Peels’ project EXTREME (Extreme Beliefs: The Epistemology and Ethics of Fundamentalism), which has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant agreement No. 851613) and from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

MARKETPLACE LARISUMKM.COM SEBAGAI ALAT PENINGKATAN PROMOSI UMKM DI KOTA SALATIGA

ABSTRAKIndustri Kecil Menengah atau Usaha Mikro Kecil dan Menengah (UMKM) di Kota Salatiga sebanyak 1.969 unit usaha dan menyerap 14.647 orang tenaga kerja. Akan tetapi terdapat beberapa hal yang masih perlu ditingkatkan pada UMKM di Kota Salatiga adalah metode promosi, efisiensi serta efektifitas proses bisnis penjualan serta distribusi. Oleh karena itu pada kegiatan Pengabdian Kepada Mayarakat (PKM) dilakukan pembangunan marketplace dengan mitra Dinas Koperasi, Usaha Kecil, dan Menengah (DinkopUKM) Kota Salatiga untuk memberdayakan para pelaku UMKM di Kota Salatiga. Selain itu pada PKM ini juga dilakukan pelatihan kepada para pelaku UMKM se-kota Salatiga terkait penggunaan marketplace yang dibangun. Dari evaluasi kegiatan yang dilakukan dengan metode observasi didapatkan bahwa kemauan para peserta untuk mempelajari dan beradaptasi menggunakan marketplace cukup besar meskipun kebanyakan dari para pelaku UMKM tersebut kurang dalam penguasaan teknologi informasi. Kata kunci: marketplace; UMKM; promosi. ABSTRACTSmall and Medium Industries or Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Salatiga City totaling 1,969 business units and absorbing 14,647 workers. However, there are several things that still need to be improved at MSMEs in Salatiga, namely promotion methods, efficiency and effectiveness of the sales and distribution business processes. Therefore, in the Community Service activity, a marketplace was built with partners from Dinas Koperasi, Usaha Kecil dan Menengah Kota Salatiga (DinkopUKM) to empower MSME subjects in the City of Salatiga. Besides that, this community service also conducted training for MSME subjects throughout the city of Salatiga regarding the use of the marketplace that was built. From the evaluation of activities carried out by the observational method, it was found that the participants' willingness to learn and adapt to using the marketplace was quite large, even though most of the MSME actors were less mastery of information technology. Keywords: marketplace; MSMEs; promotion