The Ethic of Life

This week, we continue our “22 Lessons on Ethics and Technology series” with a conversation with Dr. John Basl about how our relationship with tech is changing what he calls an “ethic of life, an ethical perspective on which all living things deserve some level of moral concern.

Professor Basl is an associate professor of philosophy in the department of philosophy & religion at Northeastern University and a faculty associate at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. He works primarily in moral philosophy and applied ethics, especially on issues related to emerging technologies. He is an editorial board member for the new journal AI and Ethics. His most recent book, The Death of the Ethic of Life, is available from Oxford University Press. 

And that’s all for this season! We are staying off our technologies for the winter break—we’ll be back with more episodes of the Technically Human podcast in 2023.

The “22 Lessons in Ethical Technology” series is co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Cal Poly Strategic Research Initiative Grant Award. The show is written, hosted, and produced by me, Deb Donig, with production support from Matthew Harsh and Elise St. John. Thanks to Jake Garner and Emma Zumbro for production coordination. Our head of research for this series is Sakina Nuruddin. Our editor is Carrie Caulfield Arick. Art by Desi Aleman.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the show to make sure you don’t miss an episode! You can find us on your favorite podcast app--Apple podcasts, Google Play, Spotify—or wherever you get your podcasts.  Enjoy the break, and we’ll see you in January.