Recent News
Robots in the Kitchen: Philosophy Faculty Host Vatican Workshop on Emerging Tech
May 1, 2025
Written by Larry Peña | April 27, 2025
Picture this: You’re waiting excitedly for a table at your town’s hottest pop-up restaurant, eager to try a famous specialty created by a Michelin-starred celebrity chef. Only you don’t have to travel to her fine-dining restaurant in Europe. She’s licensed her recipe — in fact, every intricate step in her cooking process — to a service that has trained a fleet of robot cooks to flawlessly replicate her precise movements. You’re about to enjoy a dish made famous half a world away, in your own hometown, at a fraction of the price — but it’s prepared by a robot.
The technology in this imagined scenario is not far off. What will we have gained in this future? And just as importantly, what will we have lost?
Guest Speaker: "Credibility Excess as an Epistemic Injustice"
Apr 23, 2025
Keith Dyck (UCSB)
Friday, April 25th, 2025 (12:10–2:00 PM) | English (Building 22) Room 0314
Vatican to Host Cal Poly Philosophers in Exploring the Impact of Technology on Food and Culture
Apr 3, 2025
On May 6-7, 2025, Cal Poly is organizing an invitation-only workshop at the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life, to study the ethical and social impacts of AI kitchens and robot cooks. This is the third global workshop for the project, funded by the US National Science Foundation; the previous meetings were in Prague and San Luis Obispo.
Guest Speaker: "Addressing Intimate Partner Violence"
Feb 3, 2025
Elizabeth Brake (Rice)
Friday, March 7th, 2025 (12:10–2:00 PM) | Baker Science (Building 180) Room 0102
Co-Hosted Talk with NOYCE, Ari Edmunson (UC Berkeley), "What is Moral Philosophy Good for? Reflections on Teaching the “Human Contexts and Ethics of Data”"
Nov 13, 2024
The Philosophy Department is co-hosting a speaker from the NOYCE School of Applied Computing. Dr. Ari Edmundson (Department of History/School of Data Science, UC Berkeley) will be presenting "What is Moral Philosophy Good for? Reflections on Teaching the “Human Contexts and Ethics of Data”
Professor Eleanor Helms wins Distinguished Teaching Award!
Oct 28, 2024
Congratulations to Professor Eleanor Helms, who was awarded a Distinguished Teaching Award during AY 2023-2024 for her excellence in teaching at Cal Poly!
Research Workshop: "Do it Yourself Content and the Wisdom of the Crowds"
Apr 22, 2024
Dallas Amico-Korby (UCSD)
Friday, May 3rd, 2024 (12:10-2:00 PM) Business Building (3) Room 113
Research Workshop: "Medical Ethics: Fundamentals, Principles and Applications"
Apr 8, 2024
Irene Spinello (UCLA)
Friday, April 26th, 2024 (4:10-6:00 PM) Fisher Science (53) Room 286
Research Workshop: "The Shifting Sands of Belief: how what you believe depends on what you feel, and why it matters for understanding belief, emotion, radicalization, polarization, and believing badly"
Apr 3, 2024
David King (UC Santa Barbara)
Friday, April 12th, 2024 (12:10-2:00 PM) Science North (53) Room 213
Research Workshop: "Language and Personhood"
Mar 20, 2024