Ethics TV with Jonathan MacDonald (Jonathan MacDonald)

Is morality declining? Do we live in a post-ethical age? In this chat, Jonathan and Prashant Bhawalkar discuss these topics and go deep into the rabbit hole.

Prashant is a writer and novelist based in Montreal, Canada. His first novel Unruly Times was published in 2009. A satire on identity politics in literature, it went on to get longlisted for the Vodafone Crossword Book Award. He was born in Mumbai, India and has lived in Sydney, Toronto, New York, Singapore, San Francisco, and Montreal. Prashant has worked in journalism, advertising, and healthcare communications.

The Academy Of Advanced Thought as mentioned by Jonathan, can be explored here: https://academyofadvancedthought.com/

The paper mentioned by Jonathan entitled 'The illusion of moral decline' can be found here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06137-x

One of the books mentioned by Prashant entitled 'The Brothers Karamazov' by Fyodor Dostoevsky can be learned about here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brothers_Karamazov

Prashant also referenced Iliad (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliad) and, of course, The Life Of Brian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python%27s_Life_of_Brian)

Presented by Jonathan MacDonald, CEO & Founder of SELF, the System Effective Lifestyle Filter. Your personal, private and adaptive AI, delivering your web, your way. For more info on SELF and the sister project ENTIRETY, click here.

Prashant is back on the show, discussing morality, individuality, fairness, and subjectivity.

Links mentioned:

https://medium.com/the-mission/right-and-wrong-dont-exist-7045eefbdfec

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/baby-justice/

Presented by Jonathan MacDonald, CEO & Founder of SELF, the System Effective Lifestyle Filter. Your personal, private and adaptive AI, delivering your web, your way. For more info on SELF and the sister project ENTIRETY, click here.

Big tech is igniting big fires and burning human rights to make the fires brighter. This video discusses why we need to build alternatives and what history can teach us. Presented by Jonathan MacDonald, CEO & Founder of SELF, the System Effective Lifestyle Filter. Your personal, private and adaptive AI, delivering your web, your way. For more info on SELF and the sister project ENTIRETY, click here.

The current trend in connected technology is for the public to act as micro broadcasters. Being an influencer as a career, the volume of followers and likes on social posts is super important. Everyone is an armchair politician, and everyone is an expert. People can be as hateful as they like.

All this is causing damage that is increasingly visible - from increased cases of depression to suicidality rates.

It's also at an expense that's increasingly visible. That expense is your online identity being misused and information being biased by controlling forces that adjust what info you're exposed to and therefore influenced by.

In terms of cost benefit, the benefit of being socially connected and 'seen' outweighs the cost as our ego is the driving force.

For that to change, as a human race we'd need to forego the fiction of ego (and therefore greed and comparison) so it isn't a determining factor. Or, the damage of identity abuse and information bias would need to be way more visible/material/palpable.

I'd love for us to move further from the ego-driven state into a higher consciousness and understanding...and perhaps we're moving towards that...but what I suspect will happen sooner is proper negative outcomes that are unarguably linked to how we as a society are being coerced and manipulated by technologically controlling forces.

I imagine a time when we don't just enter our details randomly into 'free' services that are only free because we're the product.

I imagine a time when we know the value of our digital identity and won't sacrafice it without thought.

I imagine a time when the cost benefit of using social tools is explicitly known and not taken lightly.

I imagine a time when we view standard technology platforms with a significant degree of skepticism.

I imagine a time when we see and feel the absolute consequences of losing control of our identity and privacy - in a way that isn't covered up by the egotistical 'benefit' of popularity or gain.

When or if this time happens, what will be needed is self-sovereign tools and platofrms - self-sovereign meaning we, individually, are in control, we have the ultimate power over the tools and platforms.

We will need modern technology that serves us individually rather than large, faceless organisations making billions of our private information.

We will need operating systems that connect our lives digitally, whilst retaining our individual rights in the process.

We will need a digital connectivity tissue that interfaces with the online world whilst insulates us in the meantime.

I feel duty bound to build for the alternate future as it's my life's mission - I don't have an option - I can't tell my kids that I just sat and watched the world burn.

Success or failure in this isn't about whether what we're building is popular - it's based on whether it exists or not.

If our platforms exist then we've 'won' as we've presented an alternative to the current solutions that use humans as batteries.

If it turns out that more than 1 or 10% of people think what we're doing is relevant, then great...but the ambition isn't dominion, the ambition isn't market share. The ambition is humane alternatives. Options for the future.

Maybe bookmark this for the future - you may find the video becomes historically relevant as we march headlong into an exponentially changing future, hell bent on replacing humans with smarter machines, forgoing our privacy for convenience, and accepting the loss of ourself in exchange for slick platforms which are basically comparison machines where we can seek actualisation through egotistical popularity.

Let's see how it plays out and I'll see you there.

In Deborah's own words:

"For AI to be responsibly adopted at scale, it must be both trusted and trustworthy. I operate at the intersection of technology and humanity, ensuring innovation not only serves society but also positively transforms how we live and work. With a sharp eye for the 'human factor' in AI and a proven track record of spotting market disruptors early, I champion the development of ethical, responsible AI systems that enhance decision-making and bring out the best in people and organisations.

As the author of "Better Than Your Behaviour," I explore the critical need to upgrade leadership for the tech age. My experience includes scaling high-growth teams and collaborating with top-tier investors and companies to drive sustainable, responsible growth. I partner with visionary founders who are building transformative technology that not only accelerates progress but also earns trust through intelligence, integrity and an unwavering commitment to positive impact, creating long-term value and instilling confidence in the future of AI and technology.

Currently gathering and aligning founders and investors around ethical and responsible AI development, fostering relationships that drive positive change. Excited about the progress we're making in this space and always open to connecting with like-minded professionals, founders and investors passionate about and committed to responsible innovation."

You can find out more about Deborah at: https://deborahwebster.net/

Presented by Jonathan MacDonald, CEO & Founder of SELF, the System Effective Lifestyle Filter. Your personal, private and adaptive AI, delivering your web, your way. For more info on SELF and the sister project ENTIRETY, click here.

Ever wondered what the heck is going on? Why do things seem so weird nowadays? The answer may be more fundamental than you think. Presented by Jonathan MacDonald, CEO & Founder of SELF, the System Effective Lifestyle Filter. Your personal, private and adaptive AI, delivering your web, your way. For more info on SELF and the sister project ENTIRETY, click here.

David Van Bruwaene is a purpose-driven serial entrepreneur, philosopher, and educator; a leader in consumer and business strategy for ethical technologies. As CEO and lead data scientist at VISR (sold to SafeToNet), he developed mission critical cyber-bullying detection software and sits on the company's board. FAIRLY is an extension of his mandate; a timely and important toolkit to promote and protect human rights in the growing concern of AI model development. With academic roots in Cognitive Science and Philosophy at Cornell University, David has academic relationships at UC Berkeley, the University of Ottawa, the University of Waterloo and the University of Guelph.

David on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidvanbruwaene/
Fairly AI: https://www.fairly.ai/

Presented by Jonathan MacDonald, CEO & Founder of SELF, the System Effective Lifestyle Filter. Your personal, private and adaptive AI, delivering your web, your way. For more info on SELF and the sister project ENTIRETY, click here.

Dr Jane is a thought leader in the rapidly developing field of Metaverse, which is projected by Citi to be a $13 trillion industry by 2030. A well known author, she is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of “Metaverse”, and “Frontiers in Blockchain”

She has published over 40 peer reviewed articles, and multiple books including “Blockchain for Global Social Change,” and “Advancements in the New World of Web 3: A Look Toward the Decentralized Future”

She is frequently invited by the tech industry to deconstruct the Digital Future and explain how this growing industry will impact on their work.

She is one of the Thinkers 360 Top 20 Global Thought Leaders in Blockchain and named as One of 8 Metaverse Experts to Follow - and top 100 Women in Web 3 and Metaverse.

She was featured in CNN Documentary “DeCoded” and a CNN OpEd piece entitled “The metaverse could be transformative, but its a legal and ethical minefield.”

She also created a successful international development company that reached $250 million in revenue.

All her links can be found here: https://drjanethomason.net/

Presented by Jonathan MacDonald, CEO & Founder of SELF, the System Effective Lifestyle Filter. Your personal, private and adaptive AI, delivering your web, your way. For more info on SELF and the sister project ENTIRETY, click here.

Johnathan Lightfoot (https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnathanlightfoot/) is an epitome of diligent leadership and innovative thinking, bringing a wealth of experience from a diverse background. As a U.S. Navy veteran, Johnathan's tenure in service instilled in him an indelible ethos of integrity, discipline, and a relentless pursuit of excellence. These traits seamlessly transitioned into his professional and ministerial endeavors.

As the Founding Minister of Faith In Motion Ministries, he invigorates the community in Jacksonville, Florida, with a dynamic fusion of faith and actionable outreach. His visionary leadership at Symbiont, Inc., as its President, drives the nexus of technology, faith, and wealth creation. With over two decades of seasoned expertise in IT and technology, Johnathan spearheads critical dialogues on cybersecurity and strategic planning, echoing his grandfather, James "Bud" Ward’s legacy of breaking barriers and fostering innovation.

Johnathan’s passion doesn’t stop at the boardroom or the pulpit; he is a fervent advocate for generational wealth, imparting invaluable insights to individuals and families, guiding them towards sustainable financial empowerment. His speaking engagements are a testament to his thought leadership, where he explores the synergies of technology, faith, and wealth, engaging audiences with a blend of profound wisdom and practical solutions.

His commitment to ethical practices, fairness, and values-driven leadership not only cultivates a culture of inclusivity and growth within Symbiont, Inc., but also resonates through his endeavors at CLN Publishing, where he serves as the Founder. Through a holistic approach, Johnathan models leadership behaviors that transcend conventional boundaries, nurturing relationships that drive success akin to the legacy of his grandfather. His journey is a compelling narrative of service, faith, and innovative leadership, marking a path of significant impact in both the technological and spiritual realms.

Presented by Jonathan MacDonald, CEO & Founder of SELF, the System Effective Lifestyle Filter. Your personal, private and adaptive AI, delivering your web, your way. For more info on SELF and the sister project ENTIRETY, click here.

A recent article about virtual assistants (https://headtopics.com/au/ai-companions-the-rise-of-virtual-relationships-and-60541201) raises questions about who will set boundaries on what's acceptable regarding modern technology and its impact on society.

In this episode, Jonathan MacDonald discusses what options are available and how realistic they are.

Presented by Jonathan MacDonald, CEO & Founder of SELF, the System Effective Lifestyle Filter. Your personal, private and adaptive AI, delivering your web, your way. For more info on SELF and the sister project ENTIRETY, click here.

Adam Mastroianni studies how people perceive and misperceive their social worlds, from the person sitting across the table to the whole country buzzing around them. He also writes a blog called Experimental History: https://www.experimental-history.com/ and his personal website is here: https://www.adammastroianni.com/

In his words:

"One stream of my work focuses on the misperceptions that arise when people talk face-to-face. For instance, every conversation has to end sometime––do people know when it should? Not really, it seems. Most conversations end when nobody wants them to, both because people want to talk for different amounts of time, and because they have no idea when the other person wants to go. That work has been covered by media outlets including Science, Nature, and Jimmy Kimmel.

Recently, I’ve been interested in people’s theories and misperception of change in the world around them. People think that morality has declined––could they be right, and if not, why do they think that? People think they’re pretty different from their grandparents––do they attribute that difference to being different ages or members of different generations? When people pick sides on an issue, they care not only what other people think, but how those opinions are changing––so do they know how opinions have actually changed?"

Presented by Jonathan MacDonald, CEO & Founder of SELF, the System Effective Lifestyle Filter. Your personal, private and adaptive AI, delivering your web, your way. For more info on SELF and the sister project ENTIRETY, click here.

I tend to avoid mentioning what I'm building on Ethics TV; however, I thought it would be worthwhile to briefly introduce System Effective Lifestyle Filers - a new technology I'm building. You can check it out here: https://self.app

Xiaochen Zhang is the founder and CEO of FinTech4Good. This global network collaborates with startups, industry leaders, nonprofits, and investors to harness blockchain, AI, metaverse, and cloud computing for social good. He is an Investor at Gaingels, a leading venture capital network that supports diverse and underrepresented founders in FinTech and artificial intelligence.

With over 20 years of experience in financial markets and international development, he is passionate about leveraging emerging technologies to create a better world. As the Global Head of Innovation & GTM at Amazon Web Services (AWS), he led a team of technical and operational staff in developing and delivering cutting-edge solutions for our public sector customers in areas such as digital assets, central bank digital currency, green finance, and regulatory and supervisory technologies. Xiaochen has also been a venture partner, mentor, advisor, and speaker for various innovation, incubation, and acceleration programs worldwide. He holds an MA in Global Studies from Leipzig University.

Find out more at: https://AI2030.org
Connect on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmyidea/

Presented by Jonathan MacDonald, CEO & Founder of SELF, the System Effective Lifestyle Filter. Your personal, private and adaptive AI, delivering your web, your way. For more info on SELF and the sister project ENTIRETY, click here.

Kirk G. Mensch is Professor of Ethics & Organizational Psychology and Director of Graduate Programs in the Catherine T. MacArthur School at Palm Beach Atlantic University. He is an ethicist and theoretical psychologist whose research is focused in moral psychology and applied ethics. Dr. Mensch started teaching at the university level in 2004 at the College of William & Mary and, since then, has continued to teach and lecture at various institutions in the U.S. and the U.K.

Dr. Mensch is published in several peer-reviewed academic journals on topics related to moral psychology, leadership development and theory, ethics, the philosophy of science, and is a member of several academic societies including the Society for Business Ethics and the International Society for MacIntyrean Ethics. He has more recently vetted his research at universities such as Oxford, Imperial College London, Notre Dame, and Durham University, and is a regular presenter and speaker at various universities and conferences around the world. His more recent research is focused on the problem of inconsistent moral assumptions within the social sciences. He has previously argued (various papers can be located on academia.edu) that incommensurate moral assumptions within many theories, that are later turned into practice, must be considered at the outset because these theories may be unwittingly presented as morally generalizable, which can cause confusion at all levels of society and allow politicians, lawyers, and clever people to create misleading and misguided arguments as they use the results of research based in morally problematic theories as the basis of arguments presented in the public arena. Dr. Mensch has also connected this problem to the disengagement of moral self-sanctions, cognitive distress, and self-harm, including suicide.

Dr. Mensch also has over 25 years of trusted advisor and consulting experience in both the public and private sectors. He is a former U.S. Intelligence Community Officer, combat veteran, and government contractor who served as a leader (and Jumpmaster) at various levels with the famed 82nd Airborne Division and he has a long history of working with U.S. agencies and foreign governments to solve challenging problems. Dr. Mensch also dedicates time to advocate for Disabled Veterans and is involved in volunteer activities with several organizations.

Degrees:
- PhD Ethics & Organizational Psychology, University of Exeter
- PhD Human Resource Development & Org. Leadership, Regent University
- MBA Webster University
- BS Economics, West Virginia University

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirkmensch/

https://www.pba.edu/directory/kirk-mensch/

Presented by Jonathan MacDonald, CEO & Founder of SELF, the System Effective Lifestyle Filter. Your personal, private and adaptive AI, delivering your web, your way. For more info on SELF and the sister project ENTIRETY, click here.

This is the lowdown on what's happening around data privacy, AI, big tech, and ethics. In this episode, I refer to the below links. If you have time, take a look:

The Deloitte piece:

https://action.deloitte.com/insight/3050/journey-to-2030:-data-privacy-a-very-public-concern

The Privacy Dilemma:

https://www.jonathanmacdonald.com/post/the-privacy-dilemma

28 Thoughts:

https://www.jonathanmacdonald.com/project/28

The Disney situation:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/disney-says-man-cant-sue-wifes-death-agreed-disney-terms-service-rcna166594

The NVIDIA situation:

https://futurism.com/the-byte/nvidia-caught-scraping-youtube-ai

Presented by Jonathan MacDonald, CEO & Founder of SELF, the System Effective Lifestyle Filter. Your personal, private and adaptive AI, delivering your web, your way. For more info on SELF and the sister project ENTIRETY, click here.

The talks by Donald Trump and Edward Snowden at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville 2024 highlighted the ethical challenges of corporations, big tech and politics, in the face of human rights and the original purpose of blockchain technology. Presented by Jonathan MacDonald, CEO & Founder of SELF, the System Effective Lifestyle Filter. Your personal, private and adaptive AI, delivering your web, your way. For more info on SELF and the sister project ENTIRETY, click here.

Sarah is a:

- Chief AI & Data Consultant and Global Responsible AI Learning & Development (L&D) Transformation Leader driving AI, data activation, and Responsible AI strategies vital for successful enterprise, partner, team and individual transformation, growth, and performance.

- Facilitator and champion of business process optimization via GenAI and new IT solutions through needs analysis, use case review from employees & customers, business process reengineering (BPR), training, dissemination, communication strategy, user performance support methods, documentation plus knowledge and content management.

- People leader and advisor of teams creating customized L&D solutions incorporating performance and cause analysis, business requirements, tailored training plans, change management, and implementation strategy in support of major organizational transformations including digital, intelligence, and automation.

For more information on Sarah please visit:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/selloyd/
Learnbold: https://learnbold.com/

Presented by Jonathan MacDonald, CEO & Founder of SELF, the System Effective Lifestyle Filter. Your personal, private and adaptive AI, delivering your web, your way. For more info on SELF and the sister project ENTIRETY, click here.

Mois Navon teaches Ethics in Artificial Intelligence at Ben Gurion University.

He wrote his doctoral dissertation at Bar Ilan University entitled, “The Moral Status of AI,” which seeks to understand how humans should interact, morally, with AI humanoids - be they mind-less or mind-ful.

His research combines his rabbinic background in moral philosophy as well as his technical experience of 35 years as a computer design engineer.

Mois received his Master’s degree in Jewish Philosophy from Bar Ilan University and his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.

He has rabbinic ordination through the Mercaz Harav Kook Yeshiva in Jerusalem, Israel.

His teachings can be found at www.divreinavon.com (I'd personally suggest checking out the ethics & AI section which is a great read and useful resource: https://divreinavon.com/ethics-ai/)

Presented by Jonathan MacDonald, CEO & Founder of SELF, the System Effective Lifestyle Filter. Your personal, private and adaptive AI, delivering your web, your way. For more info on SELF and the sister project ENTIRETY, click here.