2024
Hofbauer, Benjamin
2024.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Climate engineering, Engineering ethics, Geoengineering, Solar climate engineering, Solar geoengineering
@phdthesis{Hofbauer2024,
title = {Governing Prometheus: Ethical Reflections On Risk & Uncertainty In Solar Climate Engineering Research},
author = {Benjamin Hofbauer},
url = {https://doi.org/10.4233/uuid:77b63c4a-85f7-4734-83f5-dd355b737191
https://www.esdit.nl/dissertation_ben_hofbauer_governing_prometheus_final/},
doi = {10.4233/uuid:77b63c4a-85f7-4734-83f5-dd355b737191},
year = {2024},
date = {2024-06-19},
urldate = {2024-06-19},
abstract = {This thesis explores the ethical challenges that a potential research program for solar climate engineering via Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI) could incur. These ethical challenges are comprised of epistemic hurdles in relation to the research process, as well as societal questions of justice and the value of nature. The thesis proposes a variety of tools and approaches to assess and possibly govern the risks and uncertainties invoked by the research of SAI and its societal implications. The methodological approach is based mainly on ethical and philosophical analysis and reflection and the main findings take the form of discursive argumentation and normative reflection.
SAI is a form of climate engineering that seeks to reduce global warming by increasing the planet’s reflection levels through the injection of reflective agents (aerosols) into the stratosphere. The mere potential of researching a technology that would actively intervene in the global climate is highly contentious and has led to passionate debates throughout the expert community. Designing a research process for such a polarizing technology such as SAI inevitably raises fundamental moral questions, wherein issues of global justice, democracy, the value of and humanity’s relationship with nature, and the societal impacts of technological innovation all intersect. Given these far-reaching consequences, the thesis operates under the assumption that SAI is a highly disruptive idea and technology, that has the potential to challenge and undermine existing societal values and institutions. Accordingly, this work presents a range of philosophical modes of inquiry and assessments, in order to supply any proposed SAI research governance program with the necessary ethical considerations and frameworks.
The thesis is structured along four major inflection points, which form the individual chapters tied together through differing but interrelated research questions. What follows is an overview of the research questions, along with a brief description of how those questions were answered…},
keywords = {Climate engineering, Engineering ethics, Geoengineering, Solar climate engineering, Solar geoengineering},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {phdthesis}
}
This thesis explores the ethical challenges that a potential research program for solar climate engineering via Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI) could incur. These ethical challenges are comprised of epistemic hurdles in relation to the research process, as well as societal questions of justice and the value of nature. The thesis proposes a variety of tools and approaches to assess and possibly govern the risks and uncertainties invoked by the research of SAI and its societal implications. The methodological approach is based mainly on ethical and philosophical analysis and reflection and the main findings take the form of discursive argumentation and normative reflection.
SAI is a form of climate engineering that seeks to reduce global warming by increasing the planet’s reflection levels through the injection of reflective agents (aerosols) into the stratosphere. The mere potential of researching a technology that would actively intervene in the global climate is highly contentious and has led to passionate debates throughout the expert community. Designing a research process for such a polarizing technology such as SAI inevitably raises fundamental moral questions, wherein issues of global justice, democracy, the value of and humanity’s relationship with nature, and the societal impacts of technological innovation all intersect. Given these far-reaching consequences, the thesis operates under the assumption that SAI is a highly disruptive idea and technology, that has the potential to challenge and undermine existing societal values and institutions. Accordingly, this work presents a range of philosophical modes of inquiry and assessments, in order to supply any proposed SAI research governance program with the necessary ethical considerations and frameworks.
The thesis is structured along four major inflection points, which form the individual chapters tied together through differing but interrelated research questions. What follows is an overview of the research questions, along with a brief description of how those questions were answered…
SAI is a form of climate engineering that seeks to reduce global warming by increasing the planet’s reflection levels through the injection of reflective agents (aerosols) into the stratosphere. The mere potential of researching a technology that would actively intervene in the global climate is highly contentious and has led to passionate debates throughout the expert community. Designing a research process for such a polarizing technology such as SAI inevitably raises fundamental moral questions, wherein issues of global justice, democracy, the value of and humanity’s relationship with nature, and the societal impacts of technological innovation all intersect. Given these far-reaching consequences, the thesis operates under the assumption that SAI is a highly disruptive idea and technology, that has the potential to challenge and undermine existing societal values and institutions. Accordingly, this work presents a range of philosophical modes of inquiry and assessments, in order to supply any proposed SAI research governance program with the necessary ethical considerations and frameworks.
The thesis is structured along four major inflection points, which form the individual chapters tied together through differing but interrelated research questions. What follows is an overview of the research questions, along with a brief description of how those questions were answered…
2023
van de Poel, Ibo; Frank, Lily; Hermann, Julia; Hopster, Jeroen; Lenzi, Dominic; Nyholm, Sven; Taebi, Behnam; Ziliotti, Elena (Ed.)
Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies: An Introduction Book
Open Book Publishers, 2023.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Artificial intelligence, artificial wombs, Climate engineering, Social media, Social robots, Society, Technology
@book{vandePoel2023,
title = {Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies: An Introduction},
editor = {Ibo van de Poel and Lily Frank and Julia Hermann and Jeroen Hopster and Dominic Lenzi and Sven Nyholm and Behnam Taebi and Elena Ziliotti},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0366},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-09-05},
urldate = {2023-09-05},
publisher = {Open Book Publishers},
abstract = {Technologies shape who we are, how we organize our societies and how we relate to nature. For example, social media challenges democracy; artificial intelligence raises the question of what is unique to humans; and the possibility to create artificial wombs may affect notions of motherhood and birth. Some have suggested that we address global warming by engineering the climate, but how does this impact our responsibility to future generations and our relation to nature?
This book shows how technologies can be socially and conceptually disruptive and investigates how to come to terms with this disruptive potential.
Four technologies are studied: social media, social robots, climate engineering and artificial wombs. The authors highlight the disruptive potential of these technologies, and the new questions this raises. The book also discusses responses to conceptual disruption, like conceptual engineering, the deliberate revision of concepts.},
keywords = {Artificial intelligence, artificial wombs, Climate engineering, Social media, Social robots, Society, Technology},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {book}
}
Technologies shape who we are, how we organize our societies and how we relate to nature. For example, social media challenges democracy; artificial intelligence raises the question of what is unique to humans; and the possibility to create artificial wombs may affect notions of motherhood and birth. Some have suggested that we address global warming by engineering the climate, but how does this impact our responsibility to future generations and our relation to nature?
This book shows how technologies can be socially and conceptually disruptive and investigates how to come to terms with this disruptive potential.
Four technologies are studied: social media, social robots, climate engineering and artificial wombs. The authors highlight the disruptive potential of these technologies, and the new questions this raises. The book also discusses responses to conceptual disruption, like conceptual engineering, the deliberate revision of concepts.
This book shows how technologies can be socially and conceptually disruptive and investigates how to come to terms with this disruptive potential.
Four technologies are studied: social media, social robots, climate engineering and artificial wombs. The authors highlight the disruptive potential of these technologies, and the new questions this raises. The book also discusses responses to conceptual disruption, like conceptual engineering, the deliberate revision of concepts.