Related papers: Space ethics to test directed panspermia
It is unclear how frequently life and intelligence arise on planets. I consider a Bayesian prior for the probability P(ETI) that intelligence evolves at a suitable site, with weight distributed evenly over ln(1 - ln P(ETI)). This log log…
The search for extraterrestrial (alien) life is one of the greatest scientific quests yet raises fundamental questions about just what we should be looking for and how. We approach alien hunting from the perspective of an experimenter…
The ethics of Machine Learning has become an unavoidable topic in the AI Community. The deployment of machine learning systems in multiple social contexts has resulted in a closer ethical scrutiny of the design, development, and application…
The 4th Industrial Revolution is the culmination of the digital age. Nowadays, technologies such as robotics, nanotechnology, genetics, and artificial intelligence promise to transform our world and the way we live. Artificial Intelligence…
Any search for present or past life beyond Earth should consider the initial processes and related environmental controls that might have led to its start. As on Earth, such an understanding lies well beyond how simple organic molecules…
In a multiverse setting, we expect to be situated in a universe that is exceptionally good at producing life. Though the conditions for what life needs to arise and thrive are currently unknown, many will be tested in the coming decades.…
The existence of multiple regions of space beyond the observable Universe (within the so-called "multiverse") where the vacuum energy density takes different values, has been postulated as an explanation for the low non-zero value observed…
We revisit our 2013 claim [arXiv:1303.7476] that the Universe is the result of a conspiratorial plot, and find that it cannot be trusted, because even the belief in this conspiracy likely results from a conspiracy. On the basis of…
NASA should design missions to Mars for the purpose of generating "Aha!" discoveries to jolt scientists contemplating the molecular origins of life. These missions should be designed with an understanding of the privileged chemistry that…
Imagining what life on other planets, and intelligent life in particular, may be like is a long-running theme in human culture. It is a manifestation of the innate human curiosity about the Cosmos, and it has inspired numerous works of art…
In this paper we, an epistemologist and a machine learning scientist, argue that we need to pursue a novel area of philosophical research in AI - the ethics of belief for AI. Here we take the ethics of belief to refer to a field at the…
The study of origins of life on Earth and the search for life on other planets are closely linked. Prebiotic chemical scenarios can help prioritize planets as targets for the search for life as we know it and can provide informative priors…
The METI risk problem refers to the uncertain outcome of sending transmissions into space with the intention of messaging to extraterrestrial intelligence (METI). Here, I demonstrate that this uncertainty is undecidable by proving that that…
Astrobiology is the field of science devoted to searching for life elsewhere in the Universe. It is inherently interdisciplinary, integrating results from multiple fields of science, and in this respect has strong synergies with 'big…
Although artificial intelligence (AI) is solving real-world challenges and transforming industries, there are serious concerns about its ability to behave and make decisions in a responsible way. Many AI ethics principles and guidelines for…
Human space exploration and settlement of other planets is becoming increasingly technologically feasible, while mission concepts for remote and crewed missions to nearby star systems continue to be developed. But the long-term success of…
In recent years, much research has been dedicated to uncovering the environmental impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI), showing that training and deploying AI systems require large amounts of energy and resources, and the outcomes of AI…
The deployment of capable AI agents raises fresh questions about safety, human-machine relationships and social coordination. We argue for greater engagement by scientists, scholars, engineers and policymakers with the implications of a…
We consider two fundamental and related issues currently faced by Artificial Intelligence (AI) development: the lack of ethics and interpretability of AI decisions. Can interpretable AI decisions help to address ethics in AI? Using a…
The ongoing debate on the ethics of self-driving cars typically focuses on two approaches to answering ethical questions: moral philosophy and social science. I argue that these two approaches are both lacking. We should neither deduce…