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Category: ethics – Page 17

Opinion: Seeking Symmetry Among Physicists

Those looking to make their academic departments more diverse, equitable, and inclusive can learn from previous wins and setbacks.

Achieving equity, diversity, and inclusion is a popular mantra—but is it important for the future of physics? A resounding yes to that question appeared several years ago in a public letter from more than 2000 physicists. The letter was a response to US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who, in a high-profile affirmative action case, questioned whether minority students would bring a unique perspective to physics. But what are the arguments for increasing diversity and inclusion? Some are practical: The change would make more talent available to our profession. Diverse teams of people also perform better than homogeneous ones. Another argument is moral: to have bias, discriminate, or exclude African Americans and other people of color, women, people with disabilities, or sexual and gender minorities is incompatible with basic human rights.

How Long Should You Live? Star Trek, Dr. Emanuel, & The Ethics of Life Extension

I will try to live as long as possible.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel plans to reject life-extending medical care at the age of 75. The reason he does this is quite similar to why the Kaelons commit ritual suicide in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Does this make sense?

In this thought-provoking episode of Lifespan News, host Ryan O’Shea delves deep into the controversial topic of choosing when to die and the ethics surrounding medical interventions to prolong life. Using the lens of a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode and drawing parallels with Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel’s The Atlantic article, “Why I Hope to Die at 75″, Ryan confronts the moral and societal implications of setting an arbitrary age to stop seeking medical treatment. With advancements in rejuvenation biotechnologies, is it reasonable to maintain such views? As we push the boundaries of science and healthcare, when should we draw the line? Join Ryan as he navigates these complex questions, and remember to share your thoughts in the comments below. Don’t forget to subscribe for more!

Video Clips:
Leading US doctor says he won’t get treatment if he gets cancer after 75, CNN — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgrO4rrrFgQ

How Long Do You Want to Live?, The Atlantic — https://youtu.be/fQBzY-aorFQ

Continue reading “How Long Should You Live? Star Trek, Dr. Emanuel, & The Ethics of Life Extension” | >

The AI Conference 2023 — Shaping The Future Of AI

The AI Conference is a groundbreaking vendor-neutral event brought to you by the creators of MLconf and Ben Lorica, former Program Chair of The O’Reilly Artificial Intelligence Conference.

Whether you’re a researcher, engineer or entrepreneur, you’ll find opportunities to learn, collaborate, and network with some of the brightest minds in AI. Topics will span a wide range of AI fields, including AGI, Foundation Models and Large Language Models, Generative AI, Neural Architectures, AI Infrastructure, AI Use Cases, Ethics and Alignment, Data Management tools for AI, AI Startups and Investment and much more.

Synthetic biology and artificial intelligence are set to change all aspects of our lives

Reichman University’s new Innovation Institute, which is set to formally open this spring under the auspices of the new Graziella Drahi Innovation Building, aims to encourage interdisciplinary, innovative and applied research as a cooperation between the different academic schools. The establishment of the Innovation Institute comes along with a new vision for the University, which puts the emphasis on the fields of synthetic biology, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Advanced Reality (XR). Prof. Noam Lemelshtrich Latar, the Head of the Institute, identifies these as fields of the future, and the new Innovation Institute will focus on interdisciplinary applied research and the ramifications of these fields on the subjects that are researched and taught at the schools, for example, how law and ethics influence new medical practices and scientific research.

Synthetic biology is a new interdisciplinary field that integrates biology, chemistry, computer science, electrical and genetic engineering, enabling fast manipulation of biological systems to achieve a desired product.

Prof. Lemelshtrich Latar, with Dr. Jonathan Giron, who was the Institute’s Chief Operating Officer, has made a significant revolution at the University, when they raised a meaningful donation to establish the Scojen Institute for Synthetic Biology. The vision of the Scojen Institute is to conduct applied scientific research by employing top global scientists at Reichman University to become the leading synthetic biology research Institute in Israel. The donation will allow recruiting four world-leading scientists in various scopes of synthetic biology in life sciences. The first scientist and Head of the Scojen Institute has already been recruited – Prof. Yosi Shacham Diamand, a leading global scientist in bio-sensors and the integration of electronics and biology. The Scojen Institute labs will be located in the Graziella Drahi Innovation Building and will be one part of the future Dina Recanati School of Medicine, set to open in the academic year 2024–2025.

Scientists Connected Old Mice to Young Mice, And It Rejuvenated Them

In a bizarre experiment researchers from US and Russia connected the circulatory systems of young and old mice for a whole 12 weeks, slowing the older animals’ cellular aging and increasing their lifespan by as much as 10 percent.

The study expands on previous research showing there are components in young mammalian blood worth investigating for anti-aging health benefits.

As impressive as the results seem, they fall well short of supporting whole-blood transfusion treatments in humans. Putting aside the huge biological leap between mice and humans, there are numerous known and severe risks associated with such treatments for the receiver, not to mention questionable ethics of donation.

Scientists Put a Worm Brain in a Lego Robot Body — And It Worked

Year 2017 😗😁

The brain is really little more than a collection of electrical signals. If we can learn to catalogue those then, in theory, you could upload someone’s mind into a computer, allowing them to live forever as a digital form of consciousness, just like in the Johnny Depp film Transcendence.

But it’s not just science fiction. Sure, scientists aren’t anywhere near close to achieving such a feat with humans (and even if they could, the ethics would be pretty fraught), but there’s few better examples than the time an international team of researchers managed to do just that with the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans.

C. elegans is a little nematodes that have been extensively studied by scientists — we know all their genes and their nervous system has been analysed many times.

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