On 6th December, Pugwashite Professor John Finney (Physics, UCL) spoke to Physics students at University of Nottingham about some of the complex ethical and legal questions raised by emerging technologies, particularly remotely-controlled and autonomous vehicles (including weapons systems). John recently contributed to a UNESCO World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology study, focusing […]
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News from SYP UK – social media paper published, Nicolas in Russia
Over the next twelve months, Student/Young Pugwash UK will be publishing ideas and research from our members about the risks and opportunities of emerging technologies. Our first paper is a think piece by Dávid Almási, an undergraduate at University of Warwick, who considers whether changes in mass communication technologies will affect how governments justify but […]
Artificial Intelligence: An Existential Threat? (Warwick Pugwash, 28th November)
Warwick Pugwash and Warwick Philosophy Society are excited to be hosting a joint event discussing AI and its implications for the future of international security! They will be hosting a couple of speakers who will deliver a short presentation each, followed by lots of time for discussion and debate. Speakers: – Dr. Anders Sandberg (University […]
Report of COMEST on Robotics Ethics
A new report adopted by The World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST) in September 2017 addresses the ethical and legal issues of armed robotic systems and their implications for the changing nature of warfare.
British Pugwash Annual Report 2016
Key topics: developments on the international disarmament scene; Trident: emerging technologies; the NPT RevCon and the Disarmament Institute(BRINDI); science and ethics; energy policy and climate change
Physics students get political – University of Nottingham seminar
On 28th November, two members of the British Pugwash Executive Committee addressed an undergraduate Physics class at University of Nottingham. It was a lively two hours, in which students, their Professor and Pugwashites debated the ethics of autonomous robots weapons (‘Killer Robots’), the intergenerational fairness of nuclear waste storage policies and learnt about early attempts by physicists, […]