Archive for the ‘ethics’ Category

Ethical nano in Second Life

Monday, July 23rd, 2012

Isn’t Second Life dead? Apparently not.

While you won’t be able to attend the live event online, there will be free access to the nano and ethics discussion held on July 20, 2012, from 1 pm to 4 pm EDT at the Terasem Island Conference Center in Second Life. The question and speakers were (from the July 20, 2012 event posting on the Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence website,

What should be the ethical constraints on nanotechnology?

Speakers include:

  • Martine Rothblatt, Ph.D. — “Geoethical Rules for Nanotechnological Advances”
  • Peter Wicks — “Nanotechnology and the Environment: Enemies or Allies?”
  • Alex Wissner-Gross, Ph.D. — “Physically Programmable Surfaces”

The workshop is an exchange of scholarly views on uses of lifesaving nanotechnologies, including the impacts on people, accessibility, monitoring compliance with ethical norms.

I think if you check out the Terasem Island Conference Center in Second Life (SLURL), you will be able to access the archived discussion.

Nano events

Tuesday, January 6th, 2009

The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN) has a couple of events coming up later this month. The first one is this coming Thurs., Jan. 8, 2009 ‘Synthetic Biology: Is Ethics A Showstopper? from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm EST. The event features two speakers, Arthur Caplan, an ethicist from the University of Pennsylvania, and Andrew Maynard, the chief science advisor for PEN. They request an RSVP, if you are attending in person. Go here for more details and/or to RSVP. Or you can view the webcast live or later. Their other event is on Weds.,  Jan. 14, 2009 and is called ‘Nanotech and Your Daily Vitamins’. The time for this event is 9:30 am – 10:30 am EST. The featured speakers, William B. Schultz and Lisa Barclay, are the authors of a report for PEN about the FDA and how it can address issues surrounding dietary supplements that use nanomaterials. For more details about the event and/or to RSVP, go here. There is also the webcast option. There is a link to the report from the event page but you have to log in to view it (as of Jan.6.09).

Nanotech BC is cancelling its Jan. 15, 2009 breakfast speaker event. Meanwhile, Nanotech BC organizers are preparing for the second Cascadia Symposium on April 20 – 21, 2009 at the Bayshore. They’ve gone for a larger venue (250 people) than last year’s. No other details are available yet.