20 September 2016 - Algocracy & Robophilosophy

I will be participating in the From Algorithmic States to Algorithmic Brains Workshop at the University of Galway in Galway, Ireland (22-23 September 2016) and providing the closing plenary address at Robophilosophy: What Social Robots Can and Should Do at Aarhus University in Aarhus, Denmark (21-24 October 2016)

1 January 2016 - Seminar in Warsaw

I will be using material from the book during a graduate seminar that I will be teaching at Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw, Poland. The course, AI, Robots & Ethics, will be offered during the winter semester and will culminate with two weeks of lectures in January 2016.

4 January 2015 - New Reviews

Two new reviews just published at the end of 2014--one from Blay Whitby in AISB Quarterly and another by Jeffrey Shaw published in Techn: Research in Philosophy and Technology. Whitby's review says it all and quite directly: "This book is essential reading for philosophers interested in AI, robot ethics, or animal ethics."

29 December 2014 - Comics Review

The Machine Question gets a nice shout out from Marcus Deehan in this review of the Alex & Ada comics series published at The Arcade.

3 July 2014 - PBS Idea Channel

PBS Idea Channel has created an entire webisode dedicated to The Machine Question. Titled When Will We Care About the Well Being of Robots?, the video presents the main problematic and concerns of the book in a way that is arguably more entertaining than the book itself. And at just under 100k views, it will clearly capture more eyeballs. An explicit shout-out for the book occurs at 5:20.

15 May 2014 - Another Book Trailer

Just produced and published another book trailer. The trailer was shot in the basement of Northern Illinois University's Reavis Hall, was produced by Dino Deperiso as part of a one-credit internship course, and features music from a 1928 recording of Carl Martin. Now available on YouTube.

5 February 2014 - New Year/New Review

Peter H. Denton, The Royal Military College of Canada/Red River College, has just published a review in the journal Essays in Philosophy. Full text is available online. Here's a taste: "From the opening pages, The Machine Question is a delightful mlange of graduate philosophy seminars, solemn debates at science fiction conventions, and weighty discussion over drinks in dimly-lit drinking establishments. It is delightful mainly because such diversity of approach, content and examples is too rarely found in an academic publication."

2 December 2013 - More Drones

Radio interview on KCBS San Francisco about Amazon CEO Jeff Bezo's recent announcement that the company plans to use autonomous aerial vehicles to deliver packages. Listen here.

November 2013 - Drones

Two STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) events addressing unmanned autonomous vehicles or drones: The Killer Ap: Technology, Drones and Ethics a presentation for STEM Cafe, Northern Illinois University STEM Outreach on 12 November 2013. And participation on the Ender's Game panel discussion for Ender's Day at NIU STEMfest Teen Read, Northern Illinois University STEM Outreach, 6 November 2013.

October 2013 - Responsible Machines

Two presentations both titled Reponsible Machines." One presented at the Third International Symposium on Digital Ethics held at Loyola University, Chicago on 4 October 2013. The other was presented to the faculty and students of the Instytut Sztuk Audiowizualnych, Uniwersytet Jagiellonski, Krakow, Poland on 18 October 2013.

May 2013 - Machines Rights

Two presentations this month. The first, "Can Machines Have Rights?," was presented at the First Annual Conference on Governance of Emerging Technologies: Law, Policy & Ethics. Arizona State University, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, 20-21 May 2013. The second, "Apocalypse Not, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Machine," was delivered at the Cultural Studies Association annual conference held at Columbia College, Chicago on 24 May 2013.

22 April 2013 - Book Review

Dominika Dzwonkowska of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw, Poland reviews The Machine Question in the journal International Philosophical Quarterly 53(1), pp. 91-93. The review is available online, but full access requires a subscription. Even if you do not have access to the entire document, you can at least read the first and last pages, which contain a number of nicely crafted critical insights.

5 March 2013 - Book Review

Jeffrey D. Gottlieb reviews The Machine Question in the journal Ethics and Behavior. The review is mainly descriptive, but it does a good job tracing the trajectory of the argument. It is available online from the publisher, but you will need a subscription to access it directly.

1 March 2013 - Code Version

The basic argument of The Machine Question presented in javascript code. This script reduces 256 pages of text to a mere 34 lines of executable code. It was created in conjunction with Billy Cripe, who was once an MA student at NIU and is currently running the show at BloomThink.

26 February 2013 - Book Review in NDPR

Colin Allen, co-author (with Wendell Wallach) of Moral Machines has just published a review in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. The review is available online and provides a probing analysis of the book's argument and outcomes.

14 February 2013 - Geeky Valentine's Date

Presentation to the Columbia College Cultural Studies Colloquium. The event begins at 4pm in Collins Hall (Rm 602), 624 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. The title of the presentation is "Citizen Robot: A Vindication of the Rights of Machines" and information, including an abstract, can be found on the Columbia College events page.

12 January 2013 - Lecture and Book Signing

Talked to In Print, a professional writers group in northern Illinois. The title of the talk was "Writing Otherwise: Philosophy, Communication, Technology." The event was held at the Cherry Valley Public Library and followed by a book signing at a Barnes & and Noble in Cherry Valley, Illinois.

27 December 2012 - When Robots Attack!

Radio interview on WNIJ as part of NPR's Morning Edition. You can listen to a recording of the interview online at the following: When Robots Attack. The interview was conducted by Dan Klefstad, and it features an audio clip from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

21 December 2012 - NPR Book Series

The Machine Question is one of four books selected by Northern Public Radio (WNIJ) for its winter book series. An interview, which I recorded in late November, will be broadcast during NPR's Morning Edition on Wednesday 26 December 2012. More information about the book series is available at NorthernPublicRadio.org.

7 December 2012 - Apocalypse Now

I wrote and published a short article in NIU Today concerning the recent General Electric "Brilliant Machines" television advertisement. The article connects the dots between the Mayan "end of the world," the robot invasion predicted by the GE commercial, and The Machine Question.

21-26 November 2012 - South American Road Show

I took The Machine Question show to Brazil over the Thanksgiving (US) holiday. I presented the inaugural address for the recently launched Programa de Ps-Graduao em Comunicao at the Universidade Federal do Piaui in Teresina and gave one of the plenary presentations at the I Encontro Nacional da Rede de Grupos de Pesquisa em Comunicao (First National Meeting of the Network of Communication Research Groups) convened by Ciro Marcondes Filho (University of So Paulo) in So Paulo.

25 September 2012 - NCA Book Award

I was informed yesterday that The Machine Question has been selected as the best single authored book of 2012 by the Communication Ethics Division of the National Communication Association (NCA). The award will be presented during the NCA convention in Orlando, FL on 16 November 2012.

7 September 2012 - Article in Slate.fr

The Machine Question was featured in a story addressing robots and the rights of persons. The article, Faudra-t-il considerer les robots comme des personnes? or "Is it Possible to Consider Robots as Persons," appears in French and was published at Slate.fr.

6 September 2012 - TV Interview

A short television interview with Bill Moller on Business First. The interview addresses moral aspects of robotics and automation and was carried by 100+ US stations and international affiliates in 46 countries.

5 September 2012 - Media Storm

The Machine Question has been making news on various websites and blogs. It appears, along with some rather interesting reader comments, on Kurzweilai.net, in a story published at 21st Century Tech and as the subject of a substantive review written by Peter Hankins and posted on his Conscious Entities blog. The NIU press release has been republished or excerpted for the news feed at ACM Tech News, Machines Like Us and EurekAlert.

27 August 2012 - Morality for Robots?

A story about The Machine Question appears in the begining-of-term edition of NIU Today. The story, titled "Morality for Robots?" was written by Tom Parisi of Northern Illinois University's office of public relations and can be read online at NIU Today.

18 July 2012 - Book Released!

I'm am told that copies of The Machine Question are now available and have shipped to retailers. Free copies can be made available to anyone interested in doing a book review for a journal, website, or magazine. If you are interested in this opportunity, contact me via email and I'll get you connected to the marketing department.

14 June 2012 - Website

The Machine Question website is up and running. Let the "shameless self-promotion" begin in earnest. The site provides access to the typical material--author bio, reviews, excerpts, and purchasing options. It also includes a great book trailer produced by Jennifer Howard of NIU Media Services.