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Artificial Life and Ethics

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Abstract

Reports of the successful creation of artificial life usually garner considerable interest from philosophers. This paper argues that the worries philosophers have about artificial life do not, for the most part, depend on the artificiality of a given organism. In particular advances in synthetic biology will make the distinction between artificial and natural life a difficult and fluid one. Philosophers should hence refrain from making their arguments depend on a distinction between artificial and natural life.

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Correspondence to Simon Huesken.

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Huesken, S. Artificial Life and Ethics. Nanoethics 8, 111–116 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11569-013-0186-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11569-013-0186-2

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