Search results

1 – 10 of 49
Article
Publication date: 29 April 2020

Alexander Thomas

While transhumanists and posthumanists understand the human condition as mutable, for transhumanists, this represents the possibility for enhancement, opening up a teleological…

Abstract

Purpose

While transhumanists and posthumanists understand the human condition as mutable, for transhumanists, this represents the possibility for enhancement, opening up a teleological narrative of evolution toward. For posthumanists, it represents a fracturing of the liberal human subject, undermining its hegemonic principles. The former advocates the potentiality of instrumental rationality, the latter engages with values, demanding ethical consideration of the implications of the unmooring. This paper aims to conceive of a way to underpin posthumanist thought to enable to serve a more effective critique of transhumanist aims.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a theoretical paper that outlines a history of transhumanist thought and the roots of posthumanism. It provides a partially reconstructed enlightenment humanist framework to bolster the effectiveness of posthumanism as a critique of transhumanist thought.

Findings

The paper recognizes Theodor Adorno's conception that the central contradiction inherent to enlightenment thinking is the entanglement of knowledge and power. Hence, the metanarrative of progress as historical fact is fundamentally imbued with an imperial, colonizing force. For reason to achieve its promise as the organ of progress, it must become self-aware of its own limitations and its own potential destructiveness. Humility is, thus, vital in the task of preventing instrumental reason leading to inhuman ends.

Originality/value

Whilst developments such as “metahumanism” attempt to bring “posthumanism” and “transhumanism” into direct conversation, it is done from the perspective of uniting their positions. Here, the author endeavors instead to consider their antithetical nature and in particular whether posthumanism can provide an effective critique of transhumanism. Drawing on Adorno and Feenberg in particular, the author attempts to justify the posthuamanist theory but also to employ a partially reconstructed enlightenment humanism to bolster its fruitfulness as a critique of transhumanism.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 41 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 2 March 2022

Vitor Lima and Russell Belk

The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework that highlights transhumanism’s ideals of achieving superintelligence, super longevity and super well-being through…

2345

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework that highlights transhumanism’s ideals of achieving superintelligence, super longevity and super well-being through human enhancement technologies (HET) and their relations with services marketing principles.

Design/methodology/approach

Framed by the transformative service research (TSR), this conceptual work articulates the 7Ps of the marketing mix with four macro-factors that create tensions at both the marketplace and consumer levels.

Findings

HET has potential for doing good but also tremendous bad; greater attention is needed from services marketing researchers especially in one proprietary research area: bioethics.

Research limitations/implications

The authors contribute to the growing work on TSR investigating how the interplay between service providers and consumers affects the well-being of both. Additionally, the authors call for novel interdisciplinary work in transhuman services research.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first papers in services marketing research to explore the promises and perils of transhumanism ideals and human enhancement technologies.

Details

Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 36 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0887-6045

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 19 May 2020

Magdalena Wójcik

The subject of the article is the concept of augmented intelligence, which constitutes a further stage in the development of research on artificial intelligence. This is a new…

7071

Abstract

Purpose

The subject of the article is the concept of augmented intelligence, which constitutes a further stage in the development of research on artificial intelligence. This is a new phenomenon that has rarely been considered in the subject literature so far, which may be interesting for the fields of social sciences and humanities. The aim is to describe the features of this technology and determine the practical and ethical problems associated with its implementation in libraries.

Design/methodology/approach

The method of literature review was used. Systematic searches according to specific questions were carried out using the Scopus and Web of Science scientific databases, as well as Google Scholar and the LISTA abstract database.

Findings

The results established that the issue of augmented intelligence has barely been discussed in the field of librarianship. Although this technology may be interesting as a new area of librarian research and as a new framework for designing innovative services, deep ethical consideration is necessary before this technology is introduced in libraries.

Research limitations/implications

The article deals with some of the newest technologies available, and this topic is generally very rarely discussed in scientific publications in either the social sciences or humanities. Therefore, due to the limited availability of materials, the findings presented in the article are primarily of a conceptual nature. The aim is to present this topic from the perspective of librarianship and to create a starting point for further discussion on the ethical aspects of introducing new technologies in libraries.

Practical implications

The results can be widely used in practice as a framework for the implementation of augmented intelligence in libraries.

Social implications

The article can help to facilitate the debate on the role of implementing new technologies in libraries.

Originality/value

The problem of augmented intelligence is very rarely addressed in the subject literature in the field of library and information science.

Details

Library Hi Tech, vol. 39 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0737-8831

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 July 2023

Haseeb Shabbir, Michael R. Hyman and Alena Kostyk

This special issue explores how marketing thought and practice have contributed to systemic racism but could alleviate racially insensitive and biased practices. An introductory…

Abstract

Purpose

This special issue explores how marketing thought and practice have contributed to systemic racism but could alleviate racially insensitive and biased practices. An introductory historical overview briefly discusses coloniality, capitalism, eugenics, modernism, transhumanism, neo-liberalism, and liquid racism. Then, the special issue articles on colonial-based commodity racism, racial beauty imagery, implicit racial bias, linguistic racism and racial imagery in ads are introduced.

Design/methodology/approach

The historical introduction is grounded in a review of relevant literature.

Findings

Anti-racism efforts must tackle the intersection between neo-liberalism and racial injustice, the “raceless state” myth should be re-addressed, and cultural pedagogy’s role in normalizing racism should be investigated.

Practical implications

To stop perpetuating raced markets, educators should mainstream anti-racism and marketing. Commodity racism provides a historical and contemporary window into university-taught marketing skills.

Social implications

Anti-racism efforts must recognize neo-liberalism’s pervasive role in normalizing raced markets and reject conventional wisdom about a raceless cultural pedagogy, especially with the emergence of platform economies.

Originality/value

Little previous research has tackled the history of commodity racism, white privilege, white ideology, and instituting teaching practices sensitive to minority group experiences.

Details

Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 40 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0736-3761

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 5 October 2022

Daniel William Mackenzie Wright and Santa Zascerinska

Is humanity heading to immortal living? If so, what areas of society are playing an active role in achieving this? In order to understand this, the study explores the relationship…

2931

Abstract

Purpose

Is humanity heading to immortal living? If so, what areas of society are playing an active role in achieving this? In order to understand this, the study explores the relationship between immortality and the wellness and medical tourism industry to seek potential relationships between them and ultimately, asks difficult questions about the growth of these tourism sectors and the potential need for greater regulation of them.

Design/methodology/approach

Taking a pragmatic philosophical approach and through the examination of refined information from secondary sources and published material and reports, the study presents original theoretical knowledge and a model exploring tourism and human immortality.

Findings

This paper argues that continued growth in the wellness and medical markets today could lead to a world where transhumanists and cyborgs are present in our world, even taking over from Homo sapiens. The study presents a model highlighting the potential role of wellness and medical tourism markets, illustrating the potential for future consumer services that could further fuel the search for immortality. Thus, how such markets and consumer desires are (in)directly supporting humanities desire for (non-human) immortal existence.

Originality/value

Today, individuals are driven by wellness practices and medical and cosmetic desires and are willing to travel the globe in search of companies who are either capable of carrying out the desired procedures or seeking prices more affordable to them. This research offers novel insights into these complex relationships and maps the affiliation between wellness and medical practices and the concept of immortality.

Details

Journal of Tourism Futures, vol. 9 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2055-5911

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 December 2022

Dorine Eva van Norren

This paper aims to demonstrate the relevance of worldviews of the global south to debates of artificial intelligence, enhancing the human rights debate on artificial intelligence…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to demonstrate the relevance of worldviews of the global south to debates of artificial intelligence, enhancing the human rights debate on artificial intelligence (AI) and critically reviewing the paper of UNESCO Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST) that preceded the drafting of the UNESCO guidelines on AI. Different value systems may lead to different choices in programming and application of AI. Programming languages may acerbate existing biases as a people’s worldview is captured in its language. What are the implications for AI when seen from a collective ontology? Ubuntu (I am a person through other persons) starts from collective morals rather than individual ethics.

Design/methodology/approach

Literature overview on the African philosophy of Ubuntu as applied to artificial intelligence. Application of it to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) debates on establishing guidelines to the ethics of artificial intelligence.

Findings

Metaphysically, Ubuntu and its conception of social personhood (attained during one’s life) largely rejects transhumanism. When confronted with economic choices, Ubuntu favors sharing above competition and thus an anticapitalist logic of equitable distribution of AI benefits, humaneness and nonexploitation. When confronted with issues of privacy, Ubuntu emphasizes transparency to group members, rather than individual privacy, yet it calls for stronger (group privacy) protection. In democratic terms, it promotes consensus decision-making over representative democracy. Certain applications of AI may be more controversial in Africa than in other parts of the world, like care for the elderly, that deserve the utmost respect and attention, and which builds moral personhood. At the same time, AI may be helpful, as care from the home and community is encouraged from an Ubuntu perspective. The report on AI and ethics of the UNESCO World COMEST formulated principles as input, which are analyzed from the African ontological point of view. COMEST departs from “universal” concepts of individual human rights, sustainability and good governance which are not necessarily fully compatible with relatedness, including future and past generations. Next to rules based approaches, which may hamper diversity, bottom-up approaches are needed with intercultural deep learning algorithms.

Research limitations/implications

There is very few existing literature on AI and Ubuntu. Therefore, this paper is of an explorative nature.

Practical implications

The ethics of Ubuntu offers unique vantage points in looking at the organization of society and economics today, which are also relevant for development of AI, especially in its tenet of relatedness rather than individuality (and practical use of AI for individuals), taking responsibility for society as a whole (such as analyzing the benefit of AI for all strata of society), and embodying true inclusiveness. Whether looking at top-down guidelines for the development and implementation of AI or the bottom-up ethical learning process of AI (deep learning), ethics of the Global South can have an important role to play to combat global individualist tendencies and inequity, likely reinforced by AI. This warrants far more research.

Social implications

Applications of AI in Africa are not contextualized, do not address the most pressing needs of the African continent, lead to cybersecurity issues and also do not incorporate African ethics. UNESCO’s work in this regard is important but expert inputs are largely centered around Western “universal” principles and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and EU precedence. African ethics have, so far, a small role to play in global ethics and philosophy and therefore risk to be overlooked in the discussion on AI and ethics. This is why the consultation process of UNESCO on ethics of AI was of paramount importance. However, it does not automatically lead to consultation of African philosophers or sages, as many are educated in Western (ized) education systems. See further details under practical implications.

Originality/value

This is a new area of research in which little work has been done so far. This paper offers the opportunity to widen the debate on AI and ethics beyond the conventional discourse, involving multiple worldviews, of which Ubuntu is just one.

Details

Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, vol. 21 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-996X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 August 2022

Sertan Kabadayi and Rodoula H. Tsiotsou

This paper aims to propose a conceptual framework for service research and introduces the first ServCollab special issue on the topic “Broadening and reinvigorating the service…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to propose a conceptual framework for service research and introduces the first ServCollab special issue on the topic “Broadening and reinvigorating the service discipline to reduce human suffering and improve well-being.”

Design/methodology/approach

Building on previous knowledge and personal reflections, the authors developed the “Triple-A framework for serving humanity with service research,” which identifies three crucial features of conducting ethical service research: authentic, advancing and applicable.

Findings

In terms of the research scope, the Triple-A framework proposes that service research should be authentic in its approach, topics of investigation, research questions and theories/frameworks used. Service scholars should close current research gaps using theories, methods, a team of investigators and data that advance service research. Moreover, service research should be applicable by positively impacting society/planet earth, policymakers, organizations and people. Finally, ethical standards should be met in the application of all three features of service research.

Practical implications

Practical guidelines are provided to service researchers for conducting research useful for theory development and practical application.

Social implications

The proposed framework pushes service research to be original, insightful, imaginative, responsible and relevant by seeking to improve individual and society’s well-being.

Originality/value

The authors propose a novel perspective, the “Triple-A framework for serving humanity with service research,” to guide service scholars in conducting state-of-the-art and methodologically rigorous research.

Details

Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 36 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0887-6045

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 August 2009

Dennis Ray Morgan

This paper aims to expand on the findings of the SOPIFF project by identifying eight futures schools of thought, and then analyze and critique these through the integral futures

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to expand on the findings of the SOPIFF project by identifying eight futures schools of thought, and then analyze and critique these through the integral futures (IF) framework. This paper, Part I, also aims to focus on the upper quadrants of the IF framework.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper adapts Wilber's integral theory to clarify various philosophical orientations towards the future. It also adapts Polak's approach to futures as a matter of “social critique and reconstruction”; however, here the approach is global, civilizational, and integral, so it proposes civilizational critique and integral reconstruction as a method for evaluating futures schools of thought.

Findings

The IF framework has proved to be a valuable theoretical and analytical tool since it clarifies not only orientations to the future but also demonstrates the dynamic lines of development and interactions throughout all four quadrants, illustrating how the four‐quadrant approach is an effective framework for understanding the crisis of civilization and the response needed at this time in history to bring about a preferred future.

Research implications/limitations

The paper draws and expands upon the findings of the SOPIFF project as a way to better understand the “global problematique.” Thus, this paper suggests some implications of that research and proposes the integral futures framework as a way to interpret research findings. Future research should attempt to develop and apply the IF framework similarly in order to realize a sustainable, integrally‐informed image of the future of human civilization.

Practical implications

An integrally‐informed approach to futures and foresight studies should help develop and improve futures methodology/practices in general. The IF framework helps to understand philosophical orientations underlying practices and applications.

Originality/value

This application of the IF framework to various mainstream futures schools of thought is original. It should help futurists to see and interpret the bigger picture regarding images of the future in a civilizational context by revealing the “crack” in the modern image of the future, how it relates to the current world crisis, and what is needed to heal the crack so that a new, more integrally‐informed, sustainable image of the future can emerge.

Details

Foresight, vol. 11 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-6689

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 1 October 2002

Henrik S. Kristensen

267

Abstract

Details

Foresight, vol. 4 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-6689

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 October 2010

Hope Leman

Purpose – This paper aims to discuss the importance and value to librarians of keeping up with new trends and terms occurring in the scholarly literature before they become…

247

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to discuss the importance and value to librarians of keeping up with new trends and terms occurring in the scholarly literature before they become commonplace. The paper makes several arguments as to why doing so helps librarians remain relevant to patrons in an increasingly challenging library environment. Also suggested are ways that librarians can create web services that leverage the knowledge they gain about the new terms with which they have gained some expertise. Design/methodology/approach – This paper contains a discussion of the author's own experience in developing the free online web service ResearchRaven, and notes the rise of certain new terms (e.g. epigenetics) in the health sciences. The new terms' appearance in calls for papers for meetings, in calls for papers for publication and in grant funding announcements signaled that the increasing use of single words or short phrases in such venues offers opportunities for librarians to develop expertise in the subject area – and to develop web applications growing out of such expertise. Findings – This paper provides empirical insights into reasons why librarians need to keep to keep up with the rise and incidence of new scholarly terms and coinages, long before they appear in the scholarly literature and in such databases as PubMed. The paper also details how librarians can use the e‐mail alerts and RSS feeds of ResearchRaven to keep informed, and suggests avenues for developing comparable web services to showcase their own libraries and existing services (e.g. institutional repositories). Originality/value – This paper fulfills a need to encourage librarians to track the use of new terms in the health sciences and in scholarship generally, to gain familiarity with such terms, to follow with erudition and acumen the rise of nascent fields and the interactions among many disciplines, to spot opportunities to develop web services and applications to serve those new communities, and to convey to existing disciplines news of developments that might be of interest to them, thereby rendering their libraries ever more innovative in practice while at the same time adding value for patrons.

Details

Library Hi Tech News, vol. 27 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0741-9058

Keywords

1 – 10 of 49