Patrick Lin, Ph.D.
Patrick Lin, Ph.D., is the director of the Ethics + Emerging Sciences Group, based at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, where he’s a philosophy professor. His research focus is on technology ethics, broadly construed to include law and policy, especially the ethics of frontier development (esp. outer space and the Arctic), robotics (esp. military systems and autonomous driving), artificial intelligence, cyberwarfare, human enhancements, nanotechnology, military technologies (incl. nonlethal weapons), and other emerging technologies.
He currently holds other appointments at: Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society; Czech Academy of Sciences’ Karel Čapek Center for Values in Science and Technology; Center for a New American Security’s Task Force on AI and National Security; World Economic Forum; Foundation for Responsible Robotics; and the 100-Year Study on AI. His previous affiliations include Stanford’s School of Engineering; US Naval Academy’s VADM Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership; Dartmouth College’s Department of Philosophy; Australia’s Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE); University of Notre Dame’s Emerging Technologies of National Security and Intelligence (ETNSI) initiative; University of Iceland’s Center for Arctic Policy Studies; New America Foundation’s Cybersecurity Initiative; and the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR).
Dr. Lin has published extensively in technology ethics, from scholarly articles to popular media essays in The Atlantic, Wired, Slate, Forbes, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and other respected publications. His books include Robot Ethics (MIT Press, 2012), Robot Ethics 2.0 (Oxford University Press, 2017), What Is Nanotechnology and Why Does It Matter? (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), and others. His funded reports include: “Ethics of Hacking Back” (National Science Foundation, 2016), “Enhanced Warfighters: Ethics, Risk, and Policy” (Greenwall Foundation, 2013), “Ethics of Human Enhancement: 25 Questions and Answers” (National Science Foundation, 2009), “Autonomous Military Robotics: Risk, Ethics, and Design” (Office of Naval Research, 2008), and others. He has published in leading academic journals such as: Ethics & International Affairs, Artificial Intelligence, Journal of Military Ethics, Astropolitics, and others.
Dr. Lin has worked with or delivered briefings and invited talks to government, military, industry, and academic organizations, including United Nations, US Department of Defense, CIA, DARPA, US National Institutes of Health, US National Academies of Sciences, Cal-EPA, Google, Apple, Sony, IBM, Tesla, Nissan, Bosch, Daimler Benz, Stanford, Harvard, UCLA, US Naval Academy, US Air Force Academy, US Army War College, and many others.
Lin earned his B.A. from UC Berkeley and Ph.D. from UC Santa Barbara, with a background in biosciences.