Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
{{Short description|US technoprogressive think tank}}
{{Infobox institute
| name = Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
| image = Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.png
| image_name =
| founder = Nick Bostrom,
James Hughes{{cite web|publisher=Harvard Law School|title=Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET)|url=http://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/resources/entry/institute-for-ethics-and-emerging-technologies-ieet|access-date=March 7, 2016|quote=Founded in 2004 by philosopher Nick Bostrom and bioethicist James Hughes, the IEET is an organization that seeks to understand the impact of emerging technologies on individuals and societies. One of the main topics that the organization covers is the debate over human enhancement.}}
| established = {{start date and age|2004}}[http://www.ieet.org/index.php/IEET/about About, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, (Retrieved Dec. 30, 2014).]
| mission = To promote ideas on how technology can be used to "increase freedom, happiness, and human flourishing in democratic societies."
| head_label = Executive
| head = James Hughes{{Cite web |url=http://www.ieet.org/index.php/IEET/staff |title=Staff, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, (Retrieved Jan. 9, 2015). |access-date=2015-01-10 |archive-date=2016-06-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160616195533/http://www.ieet.org/index.php/IEET/staff |url-status=dead }}
| faculty = 25 Fellows,
13 Affiliate Scholars
| staff = Steven Umbrello,
Marcelo Rinesi
| non-profit_slogan =
| location =
| coor =
| website = {{Official URL}}
| dissolved =
| footnotes =
}}
{{Transhumanism}}
The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET) is a technoprogressive think tank that seeks to "promote ideas about how technological progress can increase freedom, happiness, and human flourishing in democratic societies."{{Cite web|title=About the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies|url=https://ieet.org/index.php/IEET2/about|access-date=2020-09-25|website=ieet.org}}{{cite book |last1=Felsted |first1=Katarina | last2=Wright | first2=Scott D. | date=2014 |title=Toward Post Ageing: Technology in an Ageing Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R7deBAAAQBAJ&q=Institute+for+ethics+and+emerging+technologies&pg=PA107 |publisher=Springer |page=109 |isbn=9783319090511}}Joseph R. Herkert, "Ethical Challenges of Emerging Technologies", in Gary E. Marchant, Braden R. Allenby, Joseph R. Herkert, eds., The Growing Gap Between Emerging Technologies and Legal-Ethical Oversight (2011), p. 38. It was incorporated in the United States in 2004, as a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, by philosopher Nick Bostrom and bioethicist James Hughes.Tamar Sharon, Human Nature in an Age of Biotechnology: The Case for Mediated Posthumanism (2013), p. 26.
The think tank aims to influence the development of public policies that distribute the benefits and reduce the risks of technological change.{{cite web |last=Bailey |first=Ronald |title=The Right to Human Enhancement: And also uplifting animals and the rapture of the nerds |date=2006-06-02 |url=http://www.reason.com/news/show/116489.html |author-link=Ronald Bailey |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090903062926/https://reason.com/news/show/116489.html |archive-date=2009-09-03}} It has been described as "[a]mong the more important groups" in the transhumanist movement,Robert Geraci, Apocalyptic AI: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality (2010), p. 85. and as being among the transhumanist groups that "play a strong role in the academic arena".Max More, Natasha Vita-More, The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Human Future (2013), pt. II.
The IEET works with Humanity Plus (also founded and chaired by Bostrom and Hughes, and previously known as the World Transhumanist Association), an international non-governmental organization with a similar mission but with an activist rather than academic approach.{{Cite web|url=https://hplusmagazine.com/2014/07/29/ethics-and-policy-concerns-in-the-transhuman-transition/|title=Ethics and Policy Concerns in the Transhuman Transition|date=July 29, 2014|website=h+ Media|access-date=September 26, 2020|archive-date=April 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413194406/https://hplusmagazine.com/2014/07/29/ethics-and-policy-concerns-in-the-transhuman-transition/|url-status=dead}} A number of technoprogressive thinkers are offered positions as IEET Fellows.{{Cite web|title=Staff of the IEET|url=https://ieet.org/index.php/IEET2/staff|access-date=2020-09-25|website=ieet.org}} Individuals who have accepted such appointments with the IEET support the institute's mission, but they have expressed a wide range of views about emerging technologies and not all identify themselves as transhumanists. In early October 2012, Kris Notaro became the managing director of the IEET after the previous Managing Director Hank Pellissier stepped down. In April 2016, Steven Umbrello became the managing director of the IEET.{{Cite web|title=Steven Umbrello|url=https://ieet.org/index.php/IEET2/bio/umbrello|access-date=2020-09-25|website=ieet.org}} Marcelo Rinesi is the IEET's Chief Technology Officer.{{Cite web|title=Marcelo Rinesi|url=https://ieet.org/index.php/IEET2/bio/rinesi|access-date=2020-09-25|website=ieet.org}}
Activities
=Publications=
The Institute publishes, the Journal of Ethics and Emerging Technologies (JEET),{{Cite web|title=Journal of Ethics and Emerging Technologies|url=https://jeet.ieet.org/index.php/home|access-date=2021-05-07|website=jeet.ieet.org}} formerly the Journal of Evolution and Technology (JET), a peer-reviewed academic journal.{{Cite web|title=Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies: Publications|url=https://ieet.org/index.php/IEET2/publications|access-date=2020-09-25|website=ieet.org}} JET was established in 1998 as the Journal of Transhumanism and obtained its current title in 2004.{{cite web |url=http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/blackford20140928 |title=Transhumanism and The Journal of Evolution and Technology |last1=Blackford |first1=Russel |date=September 18, 2014 |publisher=Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies |access-date=February 27, 2015}} The editor-in-chief is Mark Walker. It covers futurological research into long-term developments in science, technology, and philosophy that "many mainstream journals shun as too speculative, radical, or interdisciplinary."{{Cite web |url=http://www.ieet.org/index.php/IEET/programs |title=Programs and Activities, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, (Retrieved Dec. 30, 2014). |access-date=2014-12-30 |archive-date=2017-02-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170228222022/http://www.ieet.org/index.php/IEET/programs |url-status=dead }} The institute also maintains a technology and ethics blog that is supported by various writers.{{Cite web|title=Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies – Medium|url=https://medium.com/institute-for-ethics-and-emerging-technologies|access-date=2020-12-23|website=Medium}}
=Programs=
In 2006, the IEET launched the following activities:{{cite web|title=Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies - Programs and Activities|url=http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/programs}}
- Securing the Future: Identification and advocacy for global solutions to threats to the future of civilization.
- Rights of the Person: Campaign to deepen and broaden the concept of human rights.
- Longer, Better Lives: Case for longer healthier lives, addressing objections to life extension, challenge ageist and ableist attitudes that discourage the full utilization of health technology.
- Envisioning the Future: Collection of images of posthumanity and non-human intelligence, positive, negative and neutral, e.g., in science fiction and popular culture; engagement with cultural critics, artists, writers, and filmmakers in exploring the lessons to be derived from these.
The institute has since shifted its research away from these programs and towards research on the policy implications of human enhancement and other emerging technologies.{{Cite web|last=Pearlman|first=Alex|title=Philosophy|url=https://ieet.org/philosophy/|access-date=2020-11-29|website=IEET|language=en-US}} It has since partnered with the Applied Ethics Center at the University of Massachusetts Boston to focus on two specific programs:
- Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work, Democracy, and Conflict
- Cyborgs and Human Enhancement
=Conferences=
In late May 2006, the IEET held the Human Enhancement Technologies and Human Rights conference at the Stanford University Law School in Stanford, California.{{cite web|title=Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies - Human Enhancement Technologies and Human Rights|url=http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/HETHR}}
The IEET along with other progressive organizations hosted a conference in December 2013 at Yale University on giving various species "personhood" rights.{{cite web |url=https://io9.gizmodo.com/experts-gather-at-yale-to-discuss-whether-animals-are-1480618670 |title=Experts Gather at Yale to Discuss Whether Animals Are People |last=Dvorsky |first=George |publisher=G/O Media |date=December 10, 2013 |website=Gizmodo |access-date=September 30, 2020}}[http://www.kurzweilai.net/personhood-beyond-the-human-conference Personhood Beyond the Human Conference, Kurzweil, (Retrieved Dec 30, 2014).][http://figureground.org/personhood-beyond-the-human/ Conference: Personhood Beyond the Human, Figure / Ground, (Retrieved Dec. 30, 2014).][http://nonhumanrights.net Personhood Beyond the Human, (Retrieved Dec. 30, 2014).]{{Cite web|url=http://www.nonhumanrightsproject.org/2013/04/16/personhood-beyond-the-human/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141231001104/http://www.nonhumanrightsproject.org/2013/04/16/personhood-beyond-the-human/|url-status=dead|title=Michael Mountain, Personhood Beyond the Human, Nonhuman Rights Project, (April 16, 2013).|archive-date=December 31, 2014}} Fellows of the Institute represent the Institute at various conferences and events, including the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.{{Cite web |url=http://www.ieet.org/index.php/IEET/calendar |title=Events, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, (Retrieved Dec. 30, 2014). |access-date=2014-12-31 |archive-date=2017-02-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170228222134/http://www.ieet.org/index.php/IEET/calendar |url-status=dead }} In 2014, the IEET lead and/or co-sponsored five conferences{{Cite web|title=Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies - Programs and Activities|url=https://ieet.org/index.php/IEET2/programs|access-date=2020-09-25|website=ieet.org}} including: Eros Evolving: The Future of Love, Sex, Marriage and Beauty conference{{Cite web|title=EROS EVOLVING - the future of love, sex, marriage and beauty|url=http://www.eventbrite.com/e/10729926499?aff=efbneb|access-date=2020-09-25|website=Eventbrite|language=en-us}}{{Dead link|date=September 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} in April in Piedmont, California, and the Global Existential Risks and Radical Futures conference in June in Piedmont, California.{{Cite web|title=Brin, Baum, Pellissier @ Global Existential Risks and Radical Futures|url=https://ieet.org/index.php/IEET2/eventinfo/baum20140614|access-date=2020-09-25|website=ieet.org}}
Reception
Wesley J. Smith, an American conservative lawyer and advocate of intelligent design, wrote that the institute has one of the most active transhumanist websites, and the writers write on the "nonsense of uploading minds into computers and fashioning a post humanity."{{cite magazine |url=http://www.nationalreview.com/human-exceptionalism/328021/transhumanism-religion-atheists-wesley-j-smith|title=Transhumanism is Religion for Atheists|last1=Smith |first1=Wesley |date=June 6, 2012 |magazine=National Review |access-date=February 27, 2015}} Smith also criticized the results of the institute's online poll that indicated the majority of Institute's readers are atheist or agnostic. According to Smith, this was evidence that transhumanism is a religion and a desperate attempt to find purpose in a nihilistic and materialistic world. The institute's advocacy project to raise the status of animals to the legal status of personhood also drew criticism from Smith because he claimed humans are exceptional and raising the status of animals may lower the status of humans.{{cite magazine |url=http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2011/02/transhumanists-launch-campaign-for-animal-personhood |title=Transhumanist Launch Campaign for Animal Personhood |last1=Smith |first1=Wesley |date=February 13, 2011 |magazine=National Review |access-date=February 27, 2015}}
Katarina Felsted and Scott D. Wright wrote that although the IEET considers itself technoprogressive some of its views can be described as strong transhumanism or a "radical version of post ageing", and one particular criticism of both moderate and strong transhumanism is that moral arbitrariness undermine both forms of transhumanism.
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- {{Official website}}
- {{ProPublicaNonprofitExplorer|510527636}}
- [https://www.jetpress.org/ Journal for Evolution and Technology]
{{Existential risk from artificial intelligence}}
{{Transhumanism footer}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Ethics of science and technology
Category:Charities based in Connecticut
Category:Think tanks based in the United States