Unequal Promises

Unequal Promises

This essay explores the nature and implications of a type of inequality that is widespread, but largely ignored. Promises deliver important ethical value, and commercial promises, because they are our most common experience of promise with strangers, are of special value; but not all commercial promises generate that value equally. This paper makes the following claims: (1) while some retail pr...

Promises, promises.

In the target article I argued that cognitive neuropsychologists have increasingly deviated from the original goals and methods of the subject. In this reply to the commentators, I argue that future progress using neuropsychological approaches to understanding behaviour is most likely to be made by the use of converging sources of evidence that are garnered by an interdisciplinary methodology. ...

Promises, promises.

It’s easy to think that there is no problem facing medicine that information technology can’t solve. Experience in the US gives little reason for optimism. Huge investments havemostly failed to solve old problems and have created new ones. US doctors report spending two hours on computer tasks for every hour with patients (doi:10.7326/M16-0961). Poor usability and limited interoperability of el...

Electronic medical records--promises, promises!

Promises, promises for neuroscience and law

Stunning technical advances in the ability to image the human brain have provoked excited speculation about the application of neuroscience to other fields. The 'promise' of neuroscience for law has been touted with particular enthusiasm. Here, we contend that this promise elides fundamental conceptual issues that limit the usefulness of neuroscience for law. Recommendations for overcoming thes...