I’m a Professor of Philosophy at Rochester Institute of Technology. My research and teaching focus on the ethical and legal (mostly privacy) dimensions of technology. If you want to see a complete list of publications, please click on this link to my CV.
My latest book, co-authored with Albert Fox Cahn, is Move Slow and Upgrade: The Power of Incremental Innovation, and was published by Cambridge University Press in 2025.
My previous book is Re-Engineering Humanity (co-authored with Brett Frischmann, featuring a Foreword by Nicholas Carr, and also published by Cambridge University Press). John Naughton selected Re-Engineering Humanity as one of The Observer’s “Best Books of 2018” and one of “Thirty Books to Help Us Understand the World in 2020.” Zadie Smith told The Wall Street Journal that it was one of her favorite reads of 2019.
Since 2003, I’ve taught at a university with renowned engineering and science programs. Working with bright students preparing for careers in competitive technical fields enables me to focus on two professional goals: making philosophical insights accessible and applying philosophical ideas to pressing real-world problems.
I regularly write for newspapers, magazines, and blogs to foster critical conversations beyond the necessary yet narrow academic circles. I’m currently a contributing writer at The Boston Globe. My essays and op-eds also appear in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wired, The Atlantic, Slate, The Wall Street Journal, The Nation, The Guardian, Salon, CNN, One Zero, Bloomberg Opinion, The Daily News, The Daily Beast, MTV News, Motherboard, The Christian Science Monitor, BBC Future, New Scientist, Aeon, Project Syndicate, Forbes, and HuffPost. Relatedly, I’ve written several review essays for The LA Review of Books.
To improve military policy, I served for several years as a member of the Institute for Defense Analysis’s Ethical, Legal, and Social/Societal (ELSI) Working Group. We worked on DARPA-funded projects that used artificial intelligence to responsibly enhance the autonomy of non-lethal technological systems.
To enhance public policy, I have worked with legal and advocacy organizations, including the ACLU, Stop Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, The Justice Collaborative Institute, and Fight for the Future.
I believe it’s important to help governments improve ethics education. My sponsored research includes being a co-PI on a major (approx. $399,000) National Science Foundation project on sustainability ethics education. I also co-authored a New South Wales Department of Education report on AI ethics and privacy for their Education for a Changing World initiative.
I also advise companies and partner with think tanks and other civil society organizations. Over the years, this has included businesses such as OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, and IKEA, as well as organizations such as The Future of Privacy Forum and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD).
Contact
E-mail: eselinger@gmail.com
