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

The Enemy: A Thought Experiment on Patriarchies, Feminisms and Memes

This article examines who or what should be the target of feminist criticism. Throughout the discussion, the concept of memes is applied in analyzing systems such as patriarchy and feminism itself. Adapting Dawkins' theory on genes, this research puts forward the possibility that patriarchies and feminisms are memeplexes competing for the limited energy and memory space of humanity

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

Journalism and the Problem of Progress

The book submitted in support of my application for a PhD by published work — Everything Explained That Is Explainable1 — is a definitive study of the creation of the 29-volume Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1910-11), a reference work that gave shape and authority to a publishing model instrumental in developing new, interesting, occasionally profitable ways of designing, manufacturing, distributing and marketing books. The Eleventh’s most significant innovation: It was edited not by an esteemed academic, like Thomas Spencer Baynes, who was the principal editor of the Ninth edition (1875-1889), but by a journalist. For the Eleventh was not just a “collection of detached monographs”, to use the description of the Ninth by the Britannica’s new editor, Hugh Chisholm. The Eleventh was a “book”, one “planned on uniform lines as a single organism”. The book was about Progress. It was very long and very successful. Its story contains lessons useful in examining the topic of this essay. First, it was a project of journalism published in an era of dramatic transition. Where previous reference works were, as Chisholm remarked, simply serial compilations of entries arranged alphabetically, the Eleventh was a complex multifaceted examination of the topic that fascinated its editor, the Oxford-educated former editor of The St James’s Gazette, and his employer, an energetic American huckster named Horace Everett Hooper. All encyclopedias before the Eleventh had been compiled by scholars, each of whom had assiduously avoided a narrow focus or even a discernable point of view (with the possible exception of the first encyclopedia of the modern age, that created by Denis Diderot in 1751, which had a controversial focus on revolution and other similar expressions of Enlightenment understanding). But the Eleventh was radically different. Its focus on an “ideology of transition” mirrored a contemporary set of assumptions so pervasive that even though Progress was indeed the story it told in its 29 volumes, and 44 million words, not a single entry was devoted to “Progress” per se, just as none was given over to “Truth” or to “Beauty”. Some things defied simple explanation; besides, there was widespread belief in an unexamined virtue of Progress. Nobody was sure what it meant, but Chisholm meant to explain it by making sure every possible entry made reference, however indirect, to Progress. In an age of revolutionary scientific and philosophical assertions, an appetite for Progress and self-improvement that rivals our own gave rise to social and educational institutions that supported individual effort and received widespread cultural and commercial reinforcement. The Eleventh edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica was an important element in constructing a worldview that reflected the optimistic assumptions of the age. And that produced its own problems, as this paper explains

Ambivalent Sexism, Religiosity, and Perceptions of College Majors as Masculine or Feminine.

This study sought to determine if college students view certain majors as masculine or feminine and if gender perceptions influence their choice of major and subsequent vocation. The methodology included analysis of predictive relationship between scores on the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI), the Ambivalence toward Men Inventory (AMI), the Revised Religious Fundamentalism Scale (RRFS), and a scale measuring perceptions of majors as masculine or feminine. A total of 492 college students from a large east coast Christian university participated in this study by completing an online survey. Based on the university’s degree offerings, 24 college majors were selected, and students were asked to rate them as masculine or feminine. The three that were rated the most masculine by the study participants and the three that were rated the most feminine were analyzed, using linear regression to determine if statistical relationships exist between scores on the ASI and AMI and rating the majors as gendered. Nursing, Family and Consumer Sciences, and Education were found to be the top three feminine majors and Pastoral Leadership, Engineering, and Sport Management were named as the top three masculine majors. There was a significant association between the top three feminine majors and scores on the AMI. There was a significant association between the top three masculine majors and scores on the ASI. Religious fundamentalism was significantly correlated with scores on the ASI. An academic major is an important stepping stone to a career so it is important to how people stereotype majors

The Livestock Emergency Response Program for First Responders

IMPACT. 1: 2012: There were 136 emergency responders trained. Steve Boyles was invited to speak at the National Beef Quality Assurance state coordinators meeting and several states used the training module. 2013: Seventy first responders were trained to handle livestock. The training was done at two locations in the state. Training materials were placed at OSU Cow College website. 2013: Team members rewrote The Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy (OPOTA) manual section for animal management. 2014: Steve Boyles will be a speaker at a national first responder meeting. 2014: A first response training program is planned for June in another state.OSU PARTNERS: College of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences; Department of Animal Sciences; OSU ExtensionCOMMUNITY PARTNERS: Ohio Farm Bureau Federation; The Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy; Animals for Life Coalition; National Cattlemen's Beef AssociationPRIMARY CONTACT: Steve Boyles ([email protected])Approximately 400,000 head of livestock are being hauled at any time of the day in the United States. In a seven-year period more than 400 livestock transport accidents were reported in the U.S. and Canada. The Livestock Emergency Response Program for first responders involves training in understanding animal behavior and animal welfare in emergency situations related to motor vehicle incidents

Increased Physician Literacy as an Intervention to Improve Value-Based Care and Reduce Cost in the Surgical Setting

The primary goal of this scoping review was to identify studies where an intervention of education and awareness of surgical supply costs with surgeons was employed as a possible stimulus for healthcare organization cost reduction in the surgical/procedural service space. Surgical procedures are performed on approximately 25 percent of all inpatient hospital admissions. In 2018 that equated to 14.4 million surgical procedures and $210.3 billion dollars in health system costs. Surgical Procedures are a substantial portion of healthcare system expenditure and are one of the highest revenue producing services provided to patients. Additionally, there exists high variability in costs based on surgeon preference and choice. Healthcare expenditures associated with surgery are expected to grow to$912 billion dollars annually by the year 2025. Research aims were; is there an existing gap in knowledge of the cost of medical supplies for surgeons, does educating surgeons who make decisions regarding the selection of medical supplies/devices using the primary data points of price per procedure result in cost control and lead to lower costs of care and is there enough evidence to support a specific clinician education program for cost reduction? 100% of the ten studies included in this review articulate the foundational problem of surgeons not having knowledge of the cost of the supplies that they utilize every day in the operating room and an objective to educate or increase cost awareness for these decision makers. Interventions savings generated by procedure range from 4.1% to 54%. When savings were averaged for each study across all case types; the study’s average cost saving ranged from 5.9% to 40%. Averaging identified cost savings across the two primary classifications of intervention yielded a 20% cost savings associated with education being provided through meetings and/or cost sharing. Surgical Receipt and Report programs leveraged a 9.6% savings. Meetings and Cost Sharing education are documented as easier to launch then other initiatives. Surgical Receipt and Report programs are often difficult to operationalize depending on a health system’s clinical documentation method and platform employed in the surgical setting

Cattle Corral Design- Learning by Doing

Quality Assurance training for adults has placed little emphasis on human injury and carcass defects such as bruising. To reduce the incidence of human injury and carcass defects, people need to understand corral design and animal behavior. An interactive curricula was developed using fence panels big enough to be placed on a tabletop. Participants were able to use the panels to make corral designs. There have been 2,304 people who have participated in the corral design and animal handling programs offered by the author. Evaluations averaged a 9.2 ± 0.58 on a 10-point scale (1=terrible idea, 10=great idea)