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A convergence of trends in assessing the future risk of reoffending could result in morally questionable inputs into the criminal process. Advances in the analysis of DNA and increases in the availability of information about people gleaned from social media might allow for new inferences to be drawn against offenders during the sentencing process. We explore how developments in forensic DNA analysis methods and law enforcement DNA databases in conjunction with information about an offender’s developmental environment could lead the prosecution to postulate a high risk of recidivism and thus argue for a longer sentence. We then consider some reasons why such a prosecution strategy might be troubling. In doing so, we focus on issues related to the inferential process, discrimination, privacy and constitutive luck. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent neurotechnological advancements have attracted the attention of human rights scholars, national legislatures and organisations such as the United Nations Human Rights Council. Debate is taking place about whether domestic and international frameworks require modification to address the emerging issues. However, in Australia there is little work focussing on such challenges. This paper outlines what neurotechnology is and draws attention to international developments before arguing that Australian scholars and human rights bodies should address neurotechnology. It concludes by identifying ways that this might be done. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yuval Noah Harari warns of a very pessimistic future for our species: essentially, that it may be superseded by non-conscious Artificial Intelligence that can do anything we can and more. This assumes that we are physically instantiated algorithms that can be improved on in all respects. On such an assumption, our labor will become economically worthless once AI reaches a certain level. This picture, however, changes markedly if we accept the views of David Hodgson in respect of consciousness, free will, what he calls plausible reasoning, and the relationship among these. On Hodgson's account, there will always be valuable skills requiring a particular kind of judgment that are possessed by humans, but not by nonconscious algorithmic machines, however advanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]