Space races: settling the universe fast
Future of Humanity Institute (2018)
Abstract:
This report examines the issue of the resource demands and constraints for very fast large-scale settlement by technologically mature civilizations. I derive various bounds due to the energy and matter requirements for relativistic probes, and compare with bounds due to the need to avoid collisions with interstellar dust. When two groups of the same species race for the universe, the group with the biggest resources completely preempts the other group under conditions of transparency. Expanding nearby at a lower speed in order to gain resources to expand far at a high speed is effective. If alien competitors are expected this sets a distance scale affecting the desired probe distribution.
Cyber Insurance
Chapter in Handbook of Cyber-Development, Cyber-Democracy, and Cyber-Defense, Springer Nature (2018) 809-836
Euthanasia and cryothanasia
Bioethics John Wiley & Sons Ltd 31:7 (2017) 526-533
Abstract:
In this paper, we discuss the moral and legal aspects of causing the death of a terminal patient in the hope of extending their life in the future. We call this theoretical procedure cryothanasia. We argue that administering cryothanasia is ethically different from administering euthanasia. Consequently, objections to euthanasia should not apply to cryothanasia, and cryothanasia could be considered a legal option also where euthanasia is illegal.Morphological freedom: what are the limits to transforming the body?
Chapter in L'humain et ses prothèses: Savoirs et pratiques du corps transformé, CNRS Editions (2017)
Modelling the social dynamics of moral enhancement: social strategies sold over-the-counter and the stability of society
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics Cambridge University Press 26:3 (2017) 431-445
Abstract:
How individuals tend to evaluate the combination of their own and other’s payoffs – Social Value Orientations – is likely to be a potential target of future moral enhancers. However, the stability of cooperation in human societies has been buttressed by evolved mildly prosocial orientations. If they could be changed, would this destabilize the cooperative structure of society?We simulate a model of moral enhancement where agents play games with each other and can enhance their orientations based on maximizing personal satisfaction. We find that given the assumption that very low payoffs lead agents to be removed from the population, there is a broadly stable prosocial attractor state. However, the balance between prosociality and individual payoff-maximization is affected by different factors. Agents maximizing their own satisfaction can produce emergent shifts in society that reduce everybody’s satisfaction. Moral enhancement considerations should take the issues of social emergence into account.