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Julian Savulescu - Governmen, Surveillance & Moral Enhancement

873 views · Published 30 January 2014 · 3:15 · Indexed 24 October 2026

Channel: Science, Technology & the Future · 2014 · Science & Technology

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If you increase the altruistic motivation of people, you decrease the risk that they will negligently fail to consider the possible harmful effects of their behaviour on their fellow-beings. Being concerned about avoiding such risks is part of what having altruistic concern for these beings consists in. Moreover, the advance of technology will in all probability bring along more effective mechanisms of surveillance, and it is easier for these to pick up people who are negligent rather than evil-doers who are intent on beating them. 

"The nutshell: Human societies have grown larger, more diverse, and more technologically complex, and as a result, our moral compasses are no longer up to the task of guiding us, argue Oxford University’s Persson (a philosopher) and Savulescu (an ethicist)—and we’re in danger of destroying ourselves. The severity of the problem demands an equally severe solution: biomedical moral enhancement and increased government surveillance of citizens." - Slate.com - http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/09/05/unfit_for_the_future_automate_this_and_this_machine_kills_secrets_reviewed_.html

Julian Savulescu (born December 22, 1963) is an Australian philosopher and bioethicist. He is Uehiro Professor of Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford, Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford, Director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, Sir Louis Matheson Distinguished Visiting Professor at Monash University, and Head of the Melbourne–Oxford Stem Cell Collaboration, which is devoted to examining the ethical implications of cloning and embryonic stem cell research. He is the editor of the Journal of Medical Ethics, which is ranked as the #1 journal in bioethics worldwide by Google Scholar Metrics as of 2013. In addition to his background in applied ethics and philosophy, he also has a background in medicine and completed his MBBS (Hons) at Monash University. He completed his PhD at Monash University, under the supervision of renowned bioethicist Peter Singer. Published Jan 30, 2014.

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