Call for Chapters
For a New Ethics International Press Book
Technology, Users and Uses: Ethics and Human Interaction Through Technology and AI
Call: http://smartlearn.uoc.edu/technology-users-and-uses-ethics-and-human-interaction-through-technology-and-ai/
Ethics Press: https://ethicspress.com/
IMPORTANT DATES
- 2-5 page chapter proposal deadline: June 5, 2022 (extended)
- Notification of proposal acceptance/rejection: June 1, 2022
- Full chapters submission deadline: July 15, 2022 (extended)
- Notification of final acceptance/rejection: August 31, 2022
- Camera-ready submission deadline: November 15, 2022
EDITORS
- Joan Casas-Roma, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.
- Jordi Conesa, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.
- Santi Caballe, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.
SCOPE
New technological advancements have always changed, in some way or another, the way society and human relationships worked. New affordances created by technological tools inevitable modify and affect the way people interact with such tools, as well as with one another and with the world within which this technology is embedded. Technology can already be considered (and it is becoming even further) the main medium through which we engage in most of our everyday activities –such as working, learning, socializing, or accessing public and private services. As such, technological tools become both enablers and mediators of those interactions, and therefore determine the way in which we carry them out –i.e.: they determine what we can do, the way we can do it, and how our interactions can potentially affect other users.
Because the use of technology does not happen in a vacuum, the kind of interactions that are either enabled and fostered, or disabled, or obscured by technological tools will inevitably affect the way people relate to other members of our society –be them other individuals, corporations, or public services, among others. Due to this, it is paramount to identify, understand and manage both the risks and challenges involved in the way technology reshapes human interactions, as well as the potential benefits and opportunities behind it.
The ethical dimension behind the design and deployment of new technological tools has been, and is currently being explored as part of the development cycle of such tools. Nevertheless, this exploration often takes a narrow inside-the-box stance with regards to how this new system works throughout its use cycle, or with regards to how it gathers and treats its users’ data, but without considering how the use of this technology modifies current interactions outside of it, as well as potentially shaping new ones. In other words, the ethical dimension is usually considered with regards to how the technology works, rather than how the technology is used by its users, and the way this might impact them on a wider scale. The exploration of ethical considerations during the development of technology is mostly done by treating technology as an isolated tool, but while disregarding the fact that technology has always, and will always have a huge potentiality to impact on the way personal, social and global interactions work.
This collection aims to provide a complementary view of technology ethics by exploring the ethical dimension around the way technology and AI affect individual, social and global interactions. In other words, it aims to focus not on the technology itself, but rather on its users and its uses. This spans across a wide range of fields and applications where technology already is (or is increasingly becoming) the main medium through which their users interact, and includes (but is not limited to) the following topics:
Technology, Users, and Uses invites contributions on topics including:
- Social interactions with and through technology and AI
- Social networks, public opinion, fake news and information warfare
- Public participation, democracy and digital political activism
- Fiction, AI and public perception of technological advances
- Metaverses, virtual reality and augmented reality systems
- Predictions, automated decisions and machine learning
- Digitalisation and datafication of society and individuals
- Security, privacy and surveillance systems
- Cyber-warfare and the use of lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS)
- Embodied AI systems (including healthcare and companion robots)
- Self-driving cars, delivery drones and transportation in smart cities
- Transhumanism, super-intelligent machines and the technological singularity
Exploring and understanding the individual and social effects that technology and AI, be it on a smaller, or a greater scale, could have on both individuals and different sectors of society is paramount not only to foresee, prevent and mitigate potential detrimental effects, but also to identify and exploit potential ethically-beneficial opportunities. This will provide theoretical and practical guidelines and recommendations for regulatores, developers, engineers and scientists, as well as for researchers, educators and scholars in the fields of technology and AI, philosophy and sociology.
SUBMISSION PROCEDURE & GUIDELINES
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on, or before June 5, 2022, a 2-5 page chapter proposal (Word or PDF) explaining the scope and the expected structure and content of the proposed chapter. All submitted chapter proposals will be reviewed by the editors of the book.
Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded by e-mail to:
Dr. Joan Casas-Roma (jcasasrom@uoc.edu)
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