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Part of UMass Boston’s Philosophy Department, the Applied Ethics Center promotes research, teaching, and awareness of ethics in public life. In this podcast, Applied Ethics Center Director Nir Eisikovits hosts conversations on the intersection of ethics, politics, and technology.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Applied ethics at intersections of politics and technology • brain-computer interfaces, neural decoding, neurorights, privacy • AI consciousness, governance, regulation • disability, agency, consent • work futures, UBI • war diplomacy • public memory, racism • institutional corruption in psychiatryThis podcast from UMass Boston’s Applied Ethics Center features interviews that explore how ethical questions arise in public life at the intersection of politics, technology, and social institutions. Across the conversations, a recurring focus is the ethical and political governance of emerging technologies—especially neurotechnology, brain–computer interfaces, and artificial intelligence. Guests examine what “brain data” is, how neural decoding differs from mind reading, and what privacy, consent, and autonomy should mean when technologies can monitor, predict, or modulate cognition and emotion. The show also returns to design and policy challenges, including user-centered approaches in disability contexts, the implications of implantable devices such as deep brain stimulation, and proposed frameworks such as neurorights and mental privacy.
Another major theme is how technology reshapes work, welfare, and economic life. Discussions consider alienation, burnout, the value of idleness, what makes work meaningful, technological unemployment, political action around technology, and the case for universal basic income. Related episodes broaden the lens to regulation and public policy, including debates about the metaverse and algorithmic governance.
The podcast also addresses contemporary political conflict and civic life. Conversations analyze geopolitical order and war—particularly Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—through diplomacy, historical narratives, and changing conceptions of great-power politics. Domestic political ethics appears through topics such as polarization and civic dialogue, racial justice in public memory (including monuments and place names), school integration, and institutional corruption in psychiatric research and drug development. Interwoven throughout are philosophical tools—from ancient texts to modern political theory—used to clarify concepts, assess tradeoffs, and connect moral questions to real-world decision-making.
