Moral particularism vs. scientific morality

An OpenCulture.com blurb about Craig Ferguson, on the Late Late Show, interviewing Jonathan Dancy, prof of philosophy at UT-Austin, about moral particularism. In contrast to Sam Harris, at a TED conference, saying "Science can answer moral questions."

The Open Culture page heads a little tree of interesting pieces: the two videos, a written intro to moral particularism, and a rebuttal of Harris by Sean Carroll.

Boing Boing discovers Sinewave Speech

Meara O'Reilly is a sound designer, instrument builder, and singer who is guest blogging at Boing Boing. On March 16, 2010 she had a nice article called "Whistling Speech" that describes some of the work over the years at Haskins Laboratories and Columbia University by Philip Rubin, Robert Remez, Jennifer Pardo, and others, on sinewave speech.

IEEE Spectrum on Cyborg Life

An article by Antonio Espingardeiro, called "When Will We Become Cyborgs?", in IEEE Spectrum online ponders our cyborg future. Check it out.

Autistici . Detached Metal Voice

Autistici, a UK-based composer and sound designer, is releasing a new commercial CD on March 22, 2010, called Detached Metal Voice - Early Works (Vol. I). Modisti, an interactive virtual environment for new music, describes it as "A collection of tracks exploring the raw extrusion of the human condition. Bringing together early works, Detached Metal Voice is characterized by abstract narrative exploring the anxiety of disconnected elements striving to find connection in a world digital communication. ... There is an homage to voice synthesis including excerpts taken from many of the early laboratory attempts to produce the human voice through the mode of synthesis, including work pioneered by Philip Rubin from the Haskins Laboratories, Tom Baer, and Paul Mermelstein. This synthesizer, know as ASY, was based on vocal tract models developed at Bell Laboratories in the 1960s and 1970s by Paul Mermelstein, Cecil Coker, and colleagues. In tracks such as “Babyman” Autistici illustrates a fascination in hearing machines talking about emotive subjects, emulating emotive tonal changes and yet having no real connection to the subjective emotional experience."

The Limits of Bioethics

Sally Satel says that bioethicists should illuminate and not prescribe. Maybe biased, but this short article touches on where bioethics came from, places it's gone, and ways it's viewed from outside, inside and across one major internal fissure. Quick: who coined the term "bioethics?"

The Limits of Bioethics in Policy Review.

Wall Art: The Photography of Philip Rubin

Wall Art: The Photography of Philip Rubin

Reception: January 21, 6:30-8:00 pm

The next art exhibit at Atticus Bookstore/Café, 1082 Chapel St., New Haven, CT, will be Wall Art, a collection of photographs created by local artist Philip Rubin. The exhibit will run from January 11 until February 21, 2010, and is viewable in the cafe during business hours.

Come join us for the reception on January 21 at 6:30pm: meet the artist, discuss the works, and enjoy wine and appetizers.

All profits from sale of photographs in this exhibit will be donated to IRIS: Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services, in New Haven, Connecticut (www.irisct.org).

Cognitive Dissonance in Monkeys, revisited

As a follow-up to this post on cognitive dissonance research, Louisa Egan has graciously provided a link to some new research that addresses some of the criticism.