technological-EBOO

Monday, June 13, 2016

Financial Crimes: Psychological, Technological, and Ethical Issues

Editors: Dion, Michel, Weisstub, David, Richet, Jean-Loup (Eds.)

Draws on the psychological and psychiatric aspects of financial crime
Discusses ethical and legal issues involved in dealing with white collar criminality
Brings together a group of top scholars on the much debated issue of financial crime

This book on the psychology of white collar criminals discusses various cases of financial crime, while also attempting to delve into the minds of the criminals in question. The literature on this topic is growing as it gains momentum in the scientific field, as a result of the extremely negative impact white collar crime has on its victims. Because there is considerable damage and vulnerability from these crimes, it is important to begin to classify them, and to understand the minds of those that commit these offenses. While the current literature is not extensive, this work provides a closer look into the various ethical and legal facets of financial crime, and helps to uncover the social, psychological and neurobiological factors that intersect in the minds of those criminals.

Number of Illustrations and Tables

7 b/w illustrations

Topics

Ethics

Psychology and Law

Finance, general

Criminology & Criminal Justice

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Sunday, May 1, 2016

The Technological Singularity

The idea that human history is approaching a “singularity” – that ordinary humans will someday be overtaken by artificially intelligent machines or cognitively enhanced biological intelligence, or both – has moved from the realm of science fiction to serious debate. Some singularity theorists predict that if the field of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to develop at its current dizzying rate, the singularity could come about in the middle of the present century. Murray Shanahan offers an introduction to the idea of the singularity and considers the ramifications of such a potentially seismic event.

Shanahan’s aim is not to make predictions but rather to investigate a range of scenarios. Whether we believe that singularity is near or far, likely or impossible, apocalypse or utopia, the very idea raises crucial philosophical and pragmatic questions, forcing us to think seriously about what we want as a species.

Shanahan describes technological advances in AI, both biologically inspired and engineered from scratch. Once human-level AI – theoretically possible, but difficult to accomplish – has been achieved, he explains, the transition to superintelligent AI could be very rapid. Shanahan considers what the existence of superintelligent machines could mean for such matters as personhood, responsibility, rights, and identity. Some superhuman AI agents might be created to benefit humankind; some might go rogue. (Is Siri the template, or HAL?) The singularity presents both an existential threat to humanity and an existential opportunity for humanity to transcend its limitations. Shanahan makes it clear that we need to imagine both possibilities if we want to bring about the better outcome.