It’s a psychological quirk that when something becomes rarer, people may spot it in more places than ever. What is the ‘concept creep’ that lets context change how we categorize the world around us?
It is just as much for our own sake, as for the sake of robots, that we should begin recognising the rights of intelligent machines.
Malian migrant Mamoudou Gassama met French president Emmanuel Macron on May 22, 2018. He was officially given French citizenship soon after.
Thibault Camus/AFP
Nelson Mandela’s centenary celebrations provide a chance to debunk the lie that he sold out black South Africans.
European Commission vice-presidents Valdis Dombrovskis and Jyrki Katainen present new EC initiatives on sustainable finance in 2018.
Thierry Monasse/EC
Once a niche market, sustainable finance is now expanding and accelerating, yet too few universities have committed their finance programmes to these issues. The time has come for change.
The courts are, or can be, theatres of remorse.
Shutterstock
In many legal jurisdictions of the world, including Australia, an offender’s remorse is a mitigating factor at sentencing. And yet how judges evaluate such expressions is unclear.
Barnaby Joyce blames his latest troubles on the absence of a general right to sue for breach of privacy.
AAP/Lukas Coch
In democratic political systems, public officials are accountable through the media to the people. That responsibility to be accountable comes with public office. It is not a marketable commodity.
A protester holds a placard at an Adelaide rally against live export.
Kelly Barnes/AAP
In choosing not to ban the live export trade even in the hottest northern months, the federal government is allowing animals to be put in conditions where they cannot possibly escape suffering.
Recent controversies associated with the impact, privacy and security of new technologies signal that we need better governance. The government alone can’t fix this. This is a job for everyone.
For financial advisers, we are already moving away from the payment of commissions in favour of fee for service. We still need a further shift in mindset.
STEFAN POSTLES/AAP
While codes of conduct in banking may help, the tsunami of financial regulation over the past few decades has swept aside much of the sense of personal accountability.
‘Mini brains’ can be grown in the lab, and brains of decapitated pigs were recently ‘kept alive’ for a day and a half. But what makes a conscious brain?
The Real Bodies exhibition in Sydney has come under fire for uncertainty over the origins of its remains.
MICK TSIKAS/AAP Image
Protesters have urged a boycott of Sydney’s current Real Bodies exhibition, over claims that it could display remains of executed Chinese political prisoners.
Ben Quilty, Life vest, Lesbos. 2016, oil on polyester, 60 x 50cm.
Australian War Memorial
Essays on Air: can art really make a difference?
The Conversation26,8 MB(download)
Art has always depicted the crimes of our times throughout centuries of wars and humanitarian crises. Can we really expect it to truly make a difference in the real world?
Visiting Professor in Biomedical Ethics, Murdoch Children's Research Institute; Distinguished Visiting Professor in Law, University of Melbourne; Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics, University of Oxford
Professor of Bioethics & Medicine, Sydney Health Ethics, Haematologist/BMT Physician, Royal North Shore Hospital and Director, Praxis Australia, University of Sydney