**This talk is part of the Ethically Speaking: A UCF Interdisciplinary Series on Contemporary Moral Issues series.**
Earth's animal populations have declined by an average of 69% since 1970, partly due to unsustainable use of land, water, energy, and resulting climate change. Indeed, non-human animals have long been disregarded and devalued under the rationalist worldview at the foundation of engineering design and practice. By disconnecting our human identity from Earth’s non-human others, essentially treating them as technologies for our use, we humans have put ourselves at risk. The speaker will trace some of the ways in which animals have been relegated as fodder and as natural resources to be engineered for human purposes and suggest that a new engineering ethics is essential if we are to address the moral and material urgencies we are now facing.
Bio of the speaker:
Rosalyn W. Berne is the Anne Shirley Carter Olsson Professor of Applied Ethics; Chair of the Department of Engineering and Society in the UVA School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; and Director of the Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science (OEC). Dr. Berne explores the intersecting realms of emerging technologies, science, fiction and myth, and the links between the human and non-human worlds. She has published two academic books -- Nanotalk: Conversations with Scientists and Engineers about Ethics, Meaning, and Belief in the Development of Nanotechnology and Creating Life from Life: Biotechnology and Science Fiction; numerous conference papers and journal articles; Waiting in the Silence: A sci-fi novel with an ethics focus; and two award winning books in the genre of body-mind-spirit: When the Horses Whisper, and Waking to Beauty. Dr. Berne served for two years as Director of the Center for Engineering Ethics at National Academy of Engineering, and presently serves on the Ethics Committee of the ASEE.
More information:
Ethically Speaking is a campus-wide partnership that brings internationally renowned leaders to UCF to discuss cutting-edge topics in ethics. All members of UCF and the community we serve are encouraged to attend. More information on this speaker series and upcoming talks can be found at https://ethicscenter.research.ucf.edu/.
Sponsors of Ethically Speaking:
Center for Ethics, UCF
Colleges of Graduate Studies, UCF
College of Science, UCF
College of Community Innovation and Education, UCF
CREOL, The College of Optics and Photonics, UCF
College of Arts and Humanities, UCF
Office of Compliance, Ethics, and Risk, UCF
Department of Chemistry
Department of Physics
Department of Philosophy
Department of Psychology
Department of Biology
Department of Electrical Engineering
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Register for virtual portion of this event.