Dennis R. Cooley
Dennis R. Cooley, PhD, is Professor of Philosophy and Ethics and Director of the Northern Plains Ethics Institute at NDSU. His research areas include bioethics, environmental ethics, business ethics, and death and dying. Among his publications are five books, including Death’s Values and Obligations: A Pragmatic Framework in the International Library of Ethics, Law and New Medicine; and Technology, Transgenics, and a Practical Moral Code in the International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology series. Currently, Cooley serves as the editor of the International Library of Bioethics (Springer) and the Northern Plains Ethics Journal, which uniquely publishes scholar, community member and student writing, focusing on ethical and social issues affecting the Northern Plains and beyond.
Ghostbots: Harmful or A New Afterlife?
Ghostbots are AI representations using the deceased’s image, voice and other data to simulate the dead-person’s ante-mortem appearance. No one disagrees that the best AI ghostbots could eventually be sufficiently like the source person...
How AI is Stealing Our Autonomy And What to Begin Doing About It
As a technological tool, artificial intelligence (AI) can free us from trivial or overly complicated busywork to pursue endeavors worthy of what it is to be human. However, perhaps German philosopher Martin Heidegger’s claim—...
A Duty to Use Autonomous Vehicles?
When Safer Than Average Human Drivers
Public opinions on technology run the gamut from the best, most exciting, progressive thing humans create to improve their lives and the world around them, to posing a threat...
Not Naturally So: Digital Education’s Failures Exposed In Post-COVID World
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, we often hear. Considering the drive to online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, that old trope can be updated: Privileged thinking does a nice job...
