The specter of corporate necromancy: who controls the dead in the age of digital doppelgängers?

The development of digital doppelgängers (DDs)—AI systems trained to replicate individual personalities— raises questions about corporate control over digital representations of the deceased. As language models become better at mimicking human interaction patterns, companies are developing platforms that aim to preserve and commercialize digital personas after death.1 In their recent, thought-provoking paper, Iglesias and colleagues argue that DDs could provide a form of persistence that can maintain certain aspects of relationships and legacy (Iglesias et al. 2025). However, they overlook a fundamental risk: the ongoing vulnerability of these digital selves to exploitation, and how this may fundamentally alter our intuitions in some of the thought experiments they pose. This essay will explore how the creation of DDs opens the door to a range of indefinite potential abuses which may undermine the value they might otherwise offer

Does attitude importance moderate the effects of person-first language? A registered report

Previous research has demonstrated that exposure to outgroup descriptions that use person-first, as compared to identity-first, language can attenuate negative stereotypes or prejudice and enhance support for policies that seek to advance outgroup rights. However, those benefits of person-first language may not apply to all social groups equally. The present study examines a boundary condition of the effects of person-first language. Specifically, we postulate that person-first language reduces the stigmatization of outgroups to a lesser degree if individuals hold more important negative attitudes towards the respective communities. We will test this hypothesis in a two-factorial 2 (target group) x 2 (descriptor) online experiment that includes a control group and for which we will recruit a general-population sample (N = 681). Stereotyping, dehumanization, as well as negative affect and behavioral intentions towards two outgroups will be compared: people with a physical disability/the physically disabled (i.e., negative attitudes are expected to be less important) and people who have committed a violent crime/violent criminals (i.e., negative attitudes are expected to be more important). Our findings will bear implications for understanding when language use could influence public opinion of different social groups. Additionally, the research can inform the development of more effective communication policies to promote inclusion and reduce stigma

Moral enhancement and the good life

One approach to defining enhancement is in the form of bodily or mental changes that tend to improve a person’s well-being. Such a “welfarist account”, however, seems to conflict with moral enhancement: consider an intervention that improves someone’s moral motives but which ultimately diminishes their well-being. According to the welfarist account, this would not be an instance of enhancement—in fact, as I argue, it would count as a disability. This seems to pose a serious limitation for the account. Here, I elaborate on this limitation and argue that, despite it, there is a crucial role for such a welfarist account to play in our practical deliberations about moral enhancement. I do this by exploring four scenarios where a person’s motives are improved at the cost of their well-being. A framework emerges from these scenarios which can clarify disagreements about moral enhancement and help sharpen arguments for and against it

When two become one: singular duos and the neuroethical frontiers of brain-to-brain interfaces

Advances in brain–brain interface technologies raise the possibility that two or more individuals could directly link their minds, sharing thoughts, emotions, and sensory experiences. This paper explores conceptual and ethical issues posed by such mind-merging technologies in the context of clinical neuroethics. Using hypothetical examples along a spectrum from loosely connected pairs to fully merged minds, the authors sketch out a range of factors relevant to identifying the degree of a merger. They then consider potential new harms like loss of identity, psychological domination, loss of mental privacy, and challenges for notions of autonomy and patient benefit when applied to merged minds. While radical technologies may seem to necessitate new ethical paradigms, the authors suggest the individual-focus underpinning clinical ethics can largely accommodate varying degrees of mind mergers so long as individual patient interests remain identifiable. However, advanced decisionmaking and directives may have limitations in addressing the dilemmas posed. Overall, mind-merging possibilities amplify existing challenges around loss of identity, relating to others, autonomy, privacy, and the delineation of patient interests. This paper lays the groundwork for developing resources to address the novel issues raised, while suggesting the technologies reveal continuity with current healthcare ethics tensions

How to Think About Enhancement: A Welfarist Approach

This thesis sets out to answer two questions: What are the implications of the welfarist account of enhancement, and on what basis should enhancements be developed and distributed? The welfarist account defines enhancement as any change in the biology or psychology of a person which increases their chances of leading a good life in the relevant set of circumstances. Herein, I systematically break down the account, interrogating each component of its definition, and explore its scope and limitations. My goal is to show how, despite some of its counter-intuitive implications, the account can help us think more clearly about enhancement, allowing opponents and proponents of enhancement to articulate their arguments in ways that offer a constructive way forward in debating this topic. It does so by avoiding what I will argue are contestable terminologies, boundaries and controversial values, instead re-orienting our attention to what is of central value to questions of enhancement: how bodily and mental states tend to impact well-being. On this account, for something to be an enhancement, it must tend to improve people’s well-being. In that way, the account compels us to first be clear about what we mean by a good life and what sorts of bodily and mental changes contribute to it, before we consider an intervention to be enhancing. However, this by no means resolves all ethical concerns: some interventions could be good for users – that is, they may be enhancements – but their development or distribution may nevertheless be unjust. This relates to the second question driving this thesis, and here I argue that the welfare-maximizing approach of utilitarianism can act to adjudicate between different moral stances on the development and distribution of enhancements. Tying it all together, I propose and defend a mechanism, the Well-Being Impact Fund, that links the welfarist account with a utilitarian approach in a way that reduces the chances of emerging enhancements leading to a neglect of vital disease treatments, or an exacerbation of existing inequalities within and between societies. Altogether, I argue this thesis provides a framework for thinking about enhancement in a way that can largely overcome theoretical disagreements, and that offers actionable conclusions and strategies for responding to challenges raised by enhancement

Does attitude importance moderate the effects of person-first language? A registered report

Previous research has demonstrated that exposure to outgroup descriptions that use person-first, as compared to identity-first, language can attenuate negative stereotypes or prejudice and enhance support for policies that seek to advance outgroup rights. However, those benefits of person-first language may not apply to all social groups equally. The present study examines a boundary condition of the effects of person-first language. Specifically, we postulate that person-first language reduces the stigmatization of outgroups to a lesser degree if individuals hold more important negative attitudes towards the respective communities. We will test this hypothesis in a two-factorial 2 (target group) x 2 (descriptor) online experiment that includes a control group and for which we will recruit a general-population sample (N = 681). Stereotyping, dehumanization, as well as negative affect and behavioral intentions towards two outgroups will be compared: people with a physical disability/the physically disabled (i.e., negative attitudes are expected to be less important) and people who have committed a violent crime/violent criminals (i.e., negative attitudes are expected to be more important). Our findings will bear implications for understanding when language use could influence public opinion of different social groups. Additionally, the research can inform the development of more effective communication policies to promote inclusion and reduce stigma

Robust variational Bayesian clustering for underdetermined speech separation

The main focus of this thesis is the enhancement of the statistical framework employed for underdetermined T-F masking blind separation of speech. While humans are capable of extracting a speech signal of interest in the presence of other interference and noise; actual speech recognition systems and hearing aids cannot match this psychoacoustic ability. They perform well in noise and reverberant free environments but suffer in realistic environments. Time-frequency masking algorithms based on computational auditory scene analysis attempt to separate multiple sound sources from only two reverberant stereo mixtures. They essentially rely on the sparsity that binaural cues exhibit in the time-frequency domain to generate masks which extract individual sources from their corresponding spectrogram points to solve the problem of underdetermined convolutive speech separation. Statistically, this can be interpreted as a classical clustering problem. Due to analytical simplicity, a finite mixture of Gaussian distributions is commonly used in T-F masking algorithms for modelling interaural cues. Such a model is however sensitive to outliers, therefore, a robust probabilistic model based on the Student's t-distribution is first proposed to improve the robustness of the statistical framework. This heavy tailed distribution, as compared to the Gaussian distribution, can potentially better capture outlier values and thereby lead to more accurate probabilistic masks for source separation. This non-Gaussian approach is applied to the state-of the-art MESSL algorithm and comparative studies are undertaken to confirm the improved separation quality. A Bayesian clustering framework that can better model uncertainties in reverberant environments is then exploited to replace the conventional expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm within a maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) framework. A variational Bayesian (VB) approach is then applied to the MESSL algorithm to cluster interaural phase differences thereby avoiding the drawbacks of MLE; specifically the probable presence of singularities and experimental results confirm an improvement in the separation performance. Finally, the joint modelling of the interaural phase and level differences and the integration of their non-Gaussian modelling within a variational Bayesian framework, is proposed. This approach combines the advantages of the robust estimation provided by the Student's t-distribution and the robust clustering inherent in the Bayesian approach. In other words, this general framework avoids the difficulties associated with MLE and makes use of the heavy tailed Student's t-distribution to improve the estimation of the soft probabilistic masks at various reverberation times particularly for sources in close proximity. Through an extensive set of simulation studies which compares the proposed approach with other T-F masking algorithms under different scenarios, a significant improvement in terms of objective and subjective performance measures is achieved

"Realistic applicable projects as a motivation to stimulate design students' creativity" Towards an effective design teaching

design is transforming ideas and dreams into reality, but to achieve these dreams we must follow several steps to set the goals and draw the procedure to achieve them. There are many ways of design teaching which may vary in their methodology, but they all share the aim of achieving a successful design product that satisfies the teacher, student and the recipient or the user of the designed product. But without enhancing the students ' motivation for learning and creativity these goal cannot be achieved. This paper discusses several axes: First: factors affecting students' motivation. Second: to any extent choosing the academic content affects creativity motivation of students. Third: An applied sample for selecting a real applicable project within a teaching curriculum in design field. Research methodology: This research follows an applied approach as it presents an applied model for the effect of content on stimulating the creative aspects and students' interaction with the educational process. Problem: There is a kind of spacing between design study in academic institutions and actual practice fields, resulting in lack of academic students to realistic experiences and therefore suffering weak educational and creativity motivation. Importance: This paper focuses on the role of realistic project selection in design teaching, binding the educational process with concrete community needs to enhance creativity motivation among design students'. Goal: To stimulate students ' creativity motivation in the field of design and supporting the educational process in order to be more efficient

Enhancement, disability and the riddle of the relevant circumstances

The welfarist account of enhancement and disability holds enhanced and disabled states on a spectrum: the former are biological or psychological states that increase the chances of a person leading a good life in the relevant set of circumstances, while the latter decrease those chances. Here, I focus on a particular issue raised by this account: what should we count as part of an individual's relevant set of circumstances when thinking about enhanced and disabled states? Specifically, is social prejudice relevant to an individual's circumstances in regards to how disabled or enhanced they are? For instance, if an individual is discriminated against on the basis of their skin colour, and this leads to a reduction in their well-being, the welfarist account suggests that their skin colour is a disability. To avoid such a seeming mislabel, Savulescu and Kahane have argued for excluding social prejudice from counting as a relevant circumstance to their welfarist definition of disability. I argue, however, that this exclusion of social prejudice is unsatisfactory and incompatible with the goals of this account.Peer Reviewe