Alexandre Erler

Alexandre Erler works on ethics of digital DIY at AC with Vincent C. Müller.

He graduated with a DPhil in philosophy from Oxford University in 2013 and held a position as post-doc researcher at the Université de Montreal prior to joining AC for the DiDIY project.

Links:
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[1] https://anatolia.academia.edu/AlexandreErler
[2] https://twitter.com/Alexandre_Erler
[3] Digitally Manufactured Weapons: can they be controlled?

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I'm a philosopher studying the ethical implications of new technologies with the potential to significantly transform society and the human condition (including for instance human enhancement technologies and machine intelligence).

I completed a doctorate in Philosophy at the University of Oxford in 2013. From 2013 to May 2015, I was a postdoctoral researcher at the CRE (Centre for Research in Ethics) at the University of Montreal. I am now a Research Fellow in the risks of Digital DYI at Anatolia College/ACT in Thessaloniki.

In my doctoral dissertation, I considered the question whether the use of enhancement technologies poses a threat to our authenticity, or to our identity. My answer, in short, was that concerns about authenticity and identity are justified in some specific cases, yet that such considerations still don't justify rejecting all enhancement use, even of a radical kind. Some chapters of my dissertation have already appeared as articles in peer-reviewed journals (see my "papers" section). Besides the issue of human enhancement and transhumanism, I am interested in political philosophy (particularly issues of distributive justice and desert), normative ethics, moral psychology, and philosophical pessimism.

I'm on the committee of NeoHumanitas (http://www.neohumanitas.org/), a think tank that aims to stimulate a public debate, in Switzerland and beyond, on the implications of new technologies.

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