2 from the nytimes

The first one
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/science/telling-the-story-of-the-brains-cacophony-of-competing-voices.html?sq=neuroscience&st=cse&scp=1&pagewanted=print

discusses some of the findings of research into how the brain works.  It is interesting, but challenges popular ideas about free will and agency.  From the course perspective, how does this affect morality?  Can you have morality without freewill?  Does this affect which frameworks we should choose to use?

The second one is:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/business/at-the-sec-questions-about-its-own-privacy-controls.html?tntemail1=y&emc=tnt&pagewanted=print

This is an example of the danger of data collection, even for valid/legitimate/noble purposes.

Singularity Summit

Here are some videos of the singularity summit?  Some are fairly interesting, are there any that you would like to discuss in class?

http://www.kurzweilai.net/singularity-summit-2011-videos

Ethical or not?

Is it ethical to take down child porn websites via "hacking"?

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/10/22/1325238/anonymous-hackers-take-down-child-porn-websites

GPS tracking and the constitution

This is the first of three articles looking at a case before the supreme court concerning gps tracking.

http://volokh.com/2011/10/21/my-view-of-the-first-question-presented-in-united-states-v-jones-the-fourth-amendment-gps-case/

Surveillance technology

Here is a link to the story about seeing through walls
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/10/19/0333215/seeing-through-walls

Here is the van based one
http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2004/02/16/daily42.html?jst=b_ln_hl

There was some controversy about these being used in the US, but I didn't see those stories in my initial searches.

Telepresence medicine

I didn't realize that telemedicine, in this case video-chatting with a doctor was starting to become widespread.  I'm surprised that the quality of care is just as good.  If something like this takes off it would really change how we view healthcare.

http://singularityhub.com/2011/10/16/welcome-to-rite-aid-the-virtual-doctors-will-see-you-now/

What are the ethical issues involved in a change like this?

Privacy

Slashdot has a discussion/article on privacy today.

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/10/16/1247207/a-day-in-the-life-of-privacy

Often times the comments are more interesting than the original article.