Engineering Existential Risks
- Conference
- Location
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Virtual Conference
- Publication Date
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July 26, 2021
- Start Date
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July 26, 2021
- End Date
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July 19, 2022
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Engineering Ethics
- Page Count
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8
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--37060
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/37060
- Download Count
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396
Paper Authors
Carl Mitcham
Colorado School of Mines
orcid.org/0000-0003-4199-5940
Carl Mitcham is International Distinguished Professor of Philosophy of Technology at Renmin University of China, Beijing, and Emeritus Professor of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado. His publications include Thinking through Technology: The Path between Engineering and Philosophy (1994), Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics (4 vols., 2005), Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity (2010, with Robert Frodeman and Julie Thompson Klein), Ethics and Science: An Introduction (2012, with Adam Briggle), and Steps toward a Philosophy of Engineering: Historico-Philosophical and Critical Essays (2020). Additionally he served as a member of the Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1994-2000) and on expert study groups for the European Commission (2009 and 2012). Awards include the International World Technology Network (WTN) award for Ethics (2006) and a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the Universitat Internacional Valenciana, Spain (2010). He holds the BA and MA in Philosophy from the University of Colorado and the PhD in Philosophy from Fordham University.
Abstract
A brief discussion of 50 years of philosophical effort to think about global existential risks places Toby Ord’s "The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity" (2020) in context. This followed with a review of Ord, especially chapters 4 and 5, on risks directly dependent on engineering activities. These “anthropocenic risks” or “anthropogenic threats,” include those dependent on nuclear engineering (weapons and power), climate change, environmental damage, geoengineering overreach, bioengineered pandemics, and artificial intelligence, but Ord fails to thematize the centrality of engineering. Threats involved can be either intended (from warfare, terrorism, and economic competition) or unintended consequences (side effects, secondary effects, dual-use, etc.). Engineers often present their work as solutions to these risks rather than as their causes. Balanced reflection nevertheless requires consideration of the risk-cost-benefits not just of particular engineering projects and processes but of engineering more generally. With regard to the analysis of threats, complementary analytic reflection can be found in recent work by philosopher of engineering Michael Davis’s argument that engineers can responsibly “plan only as far into the future as they can reasonably expect engineers to be present.”
Mitcham, C. (2021, July), Engineering Existential Risks Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37060
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