Everyday Ethics

The American people have spoken but what have they said and what will it mean for their country's place in the world and for Europe, the Middle East and the rest of the planet. Are we, in the west, witnessing a new age of sometimes extreme, conservatism where the rich get richer, the poor poorer and the sick and oppressed find few to help them or, could it be that not a lot will change and life, for most, will continue as before? Presenter Claire Graham in conversation with the author, columnist and former Fox News correspondent Cal Thomas, Marion McKeone from the Sunday Business Post and conflict resolution specialist Sara Cook, who's from Indiana but lives in Belfast.

To what extent is Artificial Intelligence part of your life? It has been part of our lives for years, but we are currently witnessing the astonishing strides that it has been making in more recent times. From excelling in complicated tasks to groundbreaking scientific research AI is reshaping our world. (We talked on last week's programme about its developing role in predicting health prognoses and our mortality. That discussion is still available on BBC Sounds) What about its growth in the world of education, the literary world, and its impact on the human brain, particularly those of our younger generations? Will we ultimately have less appreciation and understanding of what's happening in the world around us and how we interact with each other? Will it turn our brains to mush or will it make us smarter? Audrey Carville has been in conversation with Katy Hayward, professor of political sociology at Queen’s University Belfast, theologian, author, and lecturer, Professor Stephen Williams who co-edited the boo

The ability to predict our prognoses is as old as medicine itself. But do the remarkable advances in Artificial Intelligence and machine learning mean that we are now being promised answers to one of life's ultimate questions - when will I die? Analysing our health information, various algorithms do now exist to predict mortality. It's an ethical minefield - both for medical practitioners and ourselves. Could care be curtailed based on predicted life expectancy? Would there be an onus on informing partners or employers about specific health conditions and our prognosis? Could these algorithms worsen health inequalities in our society? Audrey Carville was joined by Manu Thomas (an advanced clinical practitioner, now managing director of Pentafold, a software development company specialising in AI and Data Science), Dr Sara Lorimer (lecturer in Cognitive Psychology at Ulster University), Dr Nisha Sharma (consultant radiologist and director of the Breast Screening Programme for Leeds and Wakefield) and theologia

George Eliot famously wrote: 'our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them'. With that in mind, how do you want to be remembered when you die? Is it a better question than asking what do I want to do with my life? What do I want my life to look like in five years? How can I achieve the success that I crave? Are those questions too focused on self? Do they neglect to consider the potential impact we might have on those around us? Perhaps asking how you want to be remembered puts the focus on our values and how we would like to make others feel? Audrey Carville was joined by writer Deborah Sloan, academic Dr Leon Litvack, and political and communications consultant Quintin Oliver.