Human-centred Approach – Ideas in ALL

The Big Race: Artificial Intelligence and Healthy Ageing

Research stream: Social Structures

Author: Ilia Marcev, PhD Candidate at the Department of Psychology, Maynooth University, and a Research Assistant with the ALL Institute’s SHAPES Project

Unless your internet connection has been as unreliable as the weather forecast, or you were marooned on a desert island over the past few weeks, there is a strong chance you heard of the alleged “alien” bodies discovered in Mexico recently. While this strange discovery made international news, it drew very poor engagement and attention from the average UFO-enthusiast, let alone the average person like you and me. I believe it is fair to say that ten years ago this story would have exploded like a supernova across the internet, but today, the majority of people seem rather unconcerned with this novel development in humanity’s timeline. I can only speculate that the reason the world is unconcerned with potentially discovering our Martian neighbours is because, as exciting as alien intelligent life may sound, we are likely far closer to discovering new intelligent life here on Earth that would rival our own. This new intelligence is better known as – Artificial Intelligence (A.I.).

Oppenheimer on the Responsibilities of Psychologists

Social Lives

Author: Rachel Brown is a PhD candidate at the Department of Psychology, Maynooth University and a Research Assistant with the ALL Institute’s SHAPES project

Like many of you, I recently watched Christopher Nolan’s biographic film documenting theoretical psychist Robert Oppenheimer’s involvement in the Manhattan Project and the creation of the first nuclear weapons. Although I enjoyed the film, I was left with a strange sense of unease about scientific knowledge and the power that knowledge has to change the world, and not always for the better. As I drove home, I considered my own responsibilities regarding the knowledge my research will produce. Needless to say, the 20-minute car journey home from the cinema felt very long that day.

Shortly after seeing the film, I came across Oppenheimer’s 1956 address to the American Psychological Association (APA) entitled Analogy in Science. It was an engaging and eloquently written speech and I assure you it is well worth the read. Intriguingly, he gives a stern warning to the field of psychology, while given at the height of behaviourism with widespread fear of mind control over individuals and society, 68 years on Oppenheimer’s warning seems just as relevant now as it did then.

The European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles: a proposed Guide for the Digital Transformation

Social Structures

Authors: Léa Urzel, PhD Researcher ERC Project DANCING, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, Department of Law, Maynooth University and Matthew McKenna, PhD Researcher at Maynooth University’s ALL Institute, Research Funded through the Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) Centre for Research Training in Advanced Networks for Sustainable Societies (ADVANCE CRT)

Léa Urzel & Matthew McKenna

Last Wednesday, 26 January 2022, the European Commission (the Commission) released a draft Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade (the Declaration) for the European Parliament and Council to discuss and eventually endorse. With this initiative, the Commission aims to provide a reference point for all involved in the European Union’s (EU) digital transformation and to guide policy makers as well as private actors working with new technologies.

Last week’s Declaration responds to calls from the Parliament to ensure strong consumer protection and the respect of fundamental rights and principles (e.g. non-discrimination, data protection, net neutrality) in approaching the EU’s digital transformation. It further builds on previous Council initiatives, including the Tallinn Declaration on eGovernment, the Berlin Declaration on Digital Society and Value-Based Digital Government, and the Lisbon Declaration – Digital Democracy with a Purpose. The draft Declaration also follows various Commission initiatives introduced in 2021 such as the Commission’s Communication on the Digital Compass: the European way for the Digital Decade presented last March. It sets out its ‘vision, targets and avenues for a successful digital transformation of Europe in 2030’. In addition, the Commission proposed in September 2021, the Path to the Digital Decade, a governance framework to deliver the Digital Decade’s targets.

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