Institutions for Research and Dialogue on Technoethics

EPSON Foundation and the Institute of Technoethics, Barcelona, Spain
The Foundation chases two basic finalities: On the one hand, the promotion of development and technological innovation, and, on the other, an ethical and social reflection upon the implications of such development

The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University
Center for Science, Technology, and Society in collaboration with The Tech Museum of Innovation
The center's program areas are: business, healthcare and biotechnology.

Foresight Institute
Foresight Institute's goal is to guide emerging technologies to improve the human condition. Foresight focuses its efforts upon nanotechnology, the coming ability to build materials and products with atomic precision, and upon systems that will enhance knowledge exchange and critical discussion, thus improving public and private policy decisions.

A.L.I.C.E. AI Foundation
The AI Ethics Committee seeks to discuss matters of social, commercial and other ethics with respect to emerging and potential artificial intelligence technologies. The intent is to focus mostly on issues that are "just over the horizon", such as privacy, trust, and the problems that ensue when an artificial entity represents human interests, but there will be room for more speculative discussions as well.

The Tech
"The Tech is a cosmopolitan museum singularly focused on technology-how it works and the way that it is changing every aspect of the way we work, live, play and learn. Its people-and-technology focus and the integration of advanced technologies into visitor experiences and infrastructure, distinguishes it from other science centers".

World Transhumanist Association
A non-profit membership organization "which works to promote discussion of the possibilities for radical improvement of human capacities using genetic, cybernetic and nano technologies". The WTA was founded in 1998 by Nick Bostrom Ph.D. (Nick Bostrom (2001), Department of Philosophy, Yale University), Ethics for Intelligent Machines: A Proposal
"Substrate is morally irrelevant, assuming it doesn't affect functionality or consciousness. It doesn't matter, from a moral point of view, whether somebody runs on silicon or biological neurons (just as it doesn't matter whether you have dark or pale skin). On the same grounds that we reject racism and speciesism, we should also reject carbon-chauvinism, or bioism".

Edited by Fiorella Operto

Draft 5th Jan '04