Quotes About Ethics

How can we act morally when we have no way of knowing all the relevant facts?

drivers and traffic police (since when rowdy humans are replaced by obedient algorithms, traffic police will be redundant). However, there might be some new openings for philosophers, because their skills—until now devoid of much market value—will suddenly be in very high demand. So if you want to study something that will guarantee a good job in the future, maybe philosophy is not such a bad gamble.

Biologists invent the contraceptive pill – and the Pope doesn't know what to do about it. Computer scientists develop the Internet – and rabbis argue whether orthodox Jews should be allowed to surf it. Feminist thinkers call upon women to take possession of their bodies – and learned muftis debate how to confront such incendiary ideas.

Religion can thus be defined as a system of human laws that is founded on a belief in superhuman laws.

What will be the fate of all these lawyers once sophisticated search algorithms can locate more precedents in a day than a human can in a lifetime, and once brain scans can reveal lies and deceptions at the press of a button?

There were pacifists in the past, such as the early Christians, but in the rare cases that they gained power, they tended to forget about their requirement to 'turn the other cheek'.)

los algoritmos pueden servir para la circulación de vehículos y la cura de enfermedades, pero cuando se trate de resolver problemas sociales, tendremos que seguir confiando en políticos y sacerdotes.

in the past people had to exert great effort and undergo years of hard moral training in order to overcome their anger, their hatred, and their dangerous passions. But now, if your anger or passion threatens to overwhelm you, all you need to do is swallow a few pills. "Anybody can be virtuous now," concludes Mustapha. "You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle.

Puesto que pronto podremos manipular también nuestros deseos, quizá la pregunta real a la que nos enfrentamos no sea «¿En qué deseamos convertirnos?», sino «¿Qué queremos desear?». Aquellos que no se espanten ante esta pregunta es que probablemente no han pensado lo suficiente en ella.

El capitalismo no derrotó al comunismo porque fuera más ético, porque las libertades individuales fueran sagradas o porque Dios estuviera enfadado con los paganos comunistas. Por el contrario, el capitalismo ganó la Guerra Fría porque el procesamiento de datos distribuido funciona mejor que el procesamiento de datos centralizado, al menos en períodos de cambios tecnológicos acelerados.

Hayvan-insan ili?kisi, gelecekte süperinsanlarla insanlar aras?nda kurulacak ili?kiye en yak?n model olma özelli?i ta??r. Süperzeki siborglar?n etten kemikten, s?radan insanlara nas?l davranaca??n? m? merak ediyorsunuz? ?nsanlar?n daha az zeki hayvan akrabalar?na nas?l davrand???yla ba?lamak sa?l?kl? olabilir.

El sistema económico me presiona para que expanda y diversifique mi cartera de valores, pero me da cero incentivos para expandir y diversificar mi compasión.

Según Harris, islamistas, liberales y nacionalistas no tienen ningún conflicto ético: tienen una discrepancia fáctica acerca de cómo alcanzar su objetivo común.

Homo sapiens has no natural rights, just as spiders, hyenas and chimpanzees have no natural rights. But

It is liberal politics that believes the voter knows best. Liberal art holds that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Liberal economics maintains that the customer is always right. Liberal ethics advises us that if it feels good, we should go ahead and do it. Liberal education teaches us to think for ourselves, because we will find all the answers within.

The new ethic promises paradise on condition that the rich remain greedy and spend their time making more money, and that the masses give free rein to their cravings and passions – and buy more and more. This

The only thing we can try to do is to influence the direction scientists are taking. But since we might soon be able to engineer our desires too, the real question facing us is not 'What do we want to become?', but 'What do we want to want?' Those who are not spooked by this question probably haven't given it enough thought.

the mind is never free of manipulation.

Does the data about my DNA, my brain, and my life belong to me, to the government, to a corporation, or to the human collective?

This is no kindergarten fairy tale, but an extremely powerful myth that continues to shape the lives of billions of humans and animals in the early twenty-first century. The belief that humans have eternal souls whereas animals are just evanescent bodies is a central pillar of our legal, political and economic system. It explains why, for example, it is perfectly okay for humans to kill animals for food, or even just for the fun of it.

Even plants and animals were mechanised. Around the time that Homo sapiens was elevated to divine status by humanist religions, farm animals stopped being viewed as living creatures that could feel pain and distress, and instead came to be treated as machines.

On 11 January 2013, Dataism got its first martyr when Aaron Swartz, a twenty-six-year-old American hacker, committed suicide in his apartment.

What I feel to be good – is good. What I feel to be bad – is bad.

Throughout the eighteenth century the yield on slave-trade investments was about 6 per cent a year – they were extremely profitable, as any modern consultant would be quick to admit.