14 found
Order:
  1. AI Successors Worth Creating? Commentary on Lavazza & Vilaça.Alexandre Erler - 2024 - Philosophy and Technology 37 (1):1-5.
    This is a commentary on Andrea Lavazza and Murilo Vilaça's article "Human Extinction and AI: What We Can Learn from the Ultimate Threat" (Lavazza & Vilaça, 2024). I discuss the potential concern that their proposal to create artificial successors to "insure" against the tragedy of human extinction might mean being too quick to accept that catastrophic prospect as inevitable, rather than single-mindedly focusing on avoiding it. I also consider the question of the value that we might reasonably assign to such (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   2 citations  
  2. Publish with AUTOGEN or Perish? Some Pitfalls to Avoid in the Pursuit of Academic Enhancement via Personalized Large Language Models.Alexandre Erler - 2023 - American Journal of Bioethics 23 (10):94-96.
    The potential of using personalized Large Language Models (LLMs) or “generative AI” (GenAI) to enhance productivity in academic research, as highlighted by Porsdam Mann and colleagues (Porsdam Mann...
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  3. Optogenetic Memory Modification and the Many Facets of Authenticity.Alexandre Erler - 2021 - American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 12 (1):40-42.
    Open Peer Commentary on P. Zawadzki and A. K. Adamczyk's target article in AJOB Neuroscience on the potential of optogenetics for memory modification. I argue for a radically pluralistic understanding of the notion of authenticity, and highlight the need to further clarify the specific nature of the authors' concern about authenticity, as well as its policy implications.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  4. Neuroenhancement, Coercion, and Neo-Luddism.Alexandre Erler - 2020 - In Nicole A. Vincent, Thomas Nadelhoffer & Allan McCay (eds.), Neurointerventions and the Law: Regulating Human Mental Capacity. Oxford University Press, Usa. pp. 375-405.
    This chapter addresses the claim that, as new types of neurointervention get developed allowing us to enhance various aspects of our mental functioning, we should work to prevent the use of such interventions from ever becoming the “new normal,” that is, a practice expected—even if not directly required—by employers. The author’s response to that claim is that, unlike compulsion or most cases of direct coercion, indirect coercion to use such neurointerventions is, per se, no more problematic than the pressure people (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   2 citations  
  5. The ethics of biomedical military research: Therapy, prevention, enhancement, and risk.Alexandre Erler & Vincent C. Müller - 2021 - In Daniel Messelken & David Winkler (eds.), Health Care in Contexts of Risk, Uncertainty, and Hybridity. Springer. pp. 235-252.
    What proper role should considerations of risk, particularly to research subjects, play when it comes to conducting research on human enhancement in the military context? We introduce the currently visible military enhancement techniques (1) and the standard discussion of risk for these (2), in particular what we refer to as the ‘Assumption’, which states that the demands for risk-avoidance are higher for enhancement than for therapy. We challenge the Assumption through the introduction of three categories of enhancements (3): therapeutic, preventive, (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  6. AI as IA: The use and abuse of artificial intelligence (AI) for human enhancement through intellectual augmentation (IA).Alexandre Erler & Vincent C. Müller - 2023 - In Fabrice Jotterand & Marcello Ienca (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of the Ethics of Human Enhancement. Routledge. pp. 187-199.
    This paper offers an overview of the prospects and ethics of using AI to achieve human enhancement, and more broadly what we call intellectual augmentation (IA). After explaining the central notions of human enhancement, IA, and AI, we discuss the state of the art in terms of the main technologies for IA, with or without brain-computer interfaces. Given this picture, we discuss potential ethical problems, namely inadequate performance, safety, coercion and manipulation, privacy, cognitive liberty, authenticity, and fairness in more detail. (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  7. Neuroenhancement.Alexandre Erler & Cynthia Forlini - 2020 - Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Online.
    Entry on "Neuroenhancement" in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Online.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  8. Commentary on “Pandemic Ethics: Five Lessons”.Alexandre Erler - 2023 - In Hon-Lam Li (ed.), Lanson Lectures in Bioethics (2016–2022): Assisted Suicide, Responsibility, and Pandemic Ethics. Springer Nature Switzerland. pp. 201-208.
    This commentary further explores some of the ethical issues raised by Prof. Peter Singer in his Lanson Lecture “Pandemic Ethics: Five Lessons”. In the first part, I distinguish a prioritarian approach to the allocation of scarce medical resources, from the utilitarian one advocated by Singer. I suggest that the prioritarian view better matches common intuitions about fair distribution, even though it likely needs to be balanced with other principles if it is to have plausibility in contexts like vaccine allocation. In (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  9. Authenticity.Alexandre Erler - 2014 - In Bruce Jennings (ed.), Bioethics (4th edition).
    Entry on "Authenticity" for the fourth edition of the Encyclopedia of Bioethics, edited by Bruce Jennings. Discusses the concept in the context of end-of-life decision-making, human enhancement, and the treatment of mental disorder.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   2 citations  
  10. Dickie’s Institutional Theory And The “Openness” Of The Concept Of Art.Alexandre Erler - 2006 - Postgraduate Journal of Aesthetics 3 (3):110-117.
    In this paper, I will look at the relationship between Weitz’s claim that art is an “open” concept and Dickie’s institutional theory of art, in its most recent form. Dickie’s theory has been extensively discussed, and often criticized, in the literature on aesthetics, yet it has rarely been observed – to my knowledge at least – that the fact that his theory actually incorporates, at least to some extent, Weitz’s claim about the “openness” of the concept of art, precisely accounts (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  11. Neuro-Doping and the Value of Effort in Endurance Sports.Alexandre Erler - 2020 - Neuroethics (Suppl 2):1-13.
    The enhancement of athletic performance using procedures that increase physical ability, such as anabolic steroids, is a familiar phenomenon. Yet recent years have also witnessed the rise of direct interventions into the brain, referred to as “neuro-doping”, that promise to also enhance sports performance. This paper discusses one potential objection to neuro-doping, based on the contribution to athletic achievement, particularly within endurance sports, of effortfully overcoming inner challenges. After introducing the practice of neuro-doping, and the controversies surrounding it, I describe (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  12. L'authenticité.Alexandre Erler - 2018 - In Julien A. Deonna & Emma Tieffenbach (eds.), Petit Traité des Valeurs. [Genève, Switzerland]: Edition d’Ithaque. pp. 40-49.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  13.  58
    The Ethics of Biomedical Military Research: Therapy, Prevention, Enhancement, and Risk.Alexandre Erler & Vincent C. Müller - 2021 - In Daniel Messelken & David Winkler (eds.), Health Care in Contexts of Risk, Uncertainty, and Hybridity. Springer. pp. 235-252.
    What proper role should considerations of risk, particularly to research subjects, play when it comes to conducting research on human enhancement in the military context? We introduce the currently visible military enhancement techniques and the standard discussion of risk for these, in particular what we refer to as the ‘Assumption’, which states that the demands for risk-avoidance are higher for enhancement than for therapy. We challenge the Assumption through the introduction of three categories of enhancements : therapeutic, preventive, and pure (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  14. Ethical perspectives on advances in biogerontology.Jean Woo, David Archard, Derrick Au, Sara Bergstresser, Alexandre Erler, Timothy Kwok, John Newman, Raymond Tong & Tom Walker - 2019 - Aging Medicine 2 (2):99-103.
    Worldwide populations are aging with economic development as a result of public health initiatives and advances in therapeutic discoveries. Since 1850, life expectancy has advanced by 1 year for every four. Accompanying this change is the rapid development of anti‐aging science. There are three schools of thought in the field of aging science. One perspective is the life course approach, which considers that aging is a good and natural process to be embraced as a necessary and positive aspect of life, (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark