The primary aim of this workshop was to consider what rights and obligations, if any, novel beings should be granted under the law; and the characteristics or criteria which must exist in order to grant a being moral value.

The event encouraged active participation in breakout groups which aligned to our experts’ specific topics and disciplinary interest areas. The day also included cross-cutting talks and wider group sessions, in which we posed a series of topics for discussion and peer analysis in order to establish how the idea of novel beings is perceived in different disciplines.

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Emerging technologies including genomics, synthetic biology, advanced pharmaceuticals, neurotechnologies, and breakthroughs in computer science promise to create new forms of sentient, even sapient intelligent life- which we term novel beings- in the not-too-distant future; and perhaps change our understanding of life itself. This project approaches new global challenges for society and for the law regarding the status of these beings, their protections, obligations, and our own towards them. Existing regulations are insufficient to manage these developments or prevent the problems they may cause.

Discussion topics included:

• How does your area of expertise intersect with ‘novel beings’

• Why might it matter?

• What role might your area have in shaping perceptions?

• What does moral patiency mean to you?

• What are the problems with how the concept of personhood is deployed in your area?

• What is one non-negotiable criteria for personhood for regulatory purposes?

Outcome of discussion:

The discussions established a need for a hierarchy of moral value and resultant moral status, and consequent responsibilities and obligations for both corporations and the novel being itself. It has become clear that it will be necessary to develop universalisable ‘cornerstones’ to enshrine in law. The possible concepts that will inform these cornerstones are likely to include: choice, agency, reason, knowledge representation, self conception, narrative Identity, language, imagination, and subjectivity. We have subsequently established useful grounds for what we are referring to as a ‘spectrum’ of consciousness, resultant moral status, and consequent responsibilities and obligations which we hope to develop further.

This workshop built upon the convenor’s new interdisciplinary field of academic research centred around the various societal impacts that new intelligent lifeforms, as well as other morally significant technologies, will have. The foundation of this field will be to bring together life and computer sciences with the humanities in a new way which focuses on redefining, and providing a holistic alternative to, the piecemeal approach that is currently used in the study of emerging technologies.

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