Cultivating Values, Ethics, & Innovation for a more Just, Equitable, & Viable Future

UPCOMING EVENT

5-DAY VIRTUAL SUMMIT:
Innovation, Ethics & the Next Frontier in Healthcare
Oct 20–24 | 9–11AM PST

The world is moving faster than ever.

How do we ensure that human dignity, justice, critical thinking, and care are an integral part of our future?

At the intersection of planetary stewardship, humanity, ethics, and technology, CAVEAT seeks to answer this question through discussion, engagement, and action. At the heart of this rapid evolution, the Center for Applied Values and Ethics in Advancing Technologies (CAVEAT), housed at Crown College, UCSC. Technology holds profound potential, yet its positive impact is often undermined by unintended harmful consequences or worse, hidden, conflicting motives during its creation and spread. This swift pace of innovation calls for a conscious, ethical foundation

Our Mission

CAVEAT's Mission is to ensure that breakthroughs benefit the entire well-being of humanity and "the other beings with whom we share the planet," promoting social justice and equality amidst global challenges like inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, poverty, peace, and justice.

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Advancing Justice

A core tenet of CAVEAT's vision is to cultivate social and economic opportunities for equality and equity and to foster a truly just future. This includes defining ethical values such as affordability, accessibility, and inclusiveness, and establishing standards by which to measure actions within the technology industry.

Read

An Ethical primer

Download Report

Cultivating Critical Thinking

The challenges of "turbospeed" technological change demand more than just technical skills; they require a growth mindset, moral acumen, integrity, and ethical leadership. CAVEAT prepares students for this by inspiring and educating them with "toolboxes" that include contextual knowledge, critical thinking habits, and analytical skills for applying ethical values to scientific and technological innovation.

The Community Ethics Network at UC Santa Cruz, with its accompanying course, cultivates moral resilience in pre-medical and pre-health undergraduates, equipping them to navigate complex ethical issues and uphold high standards in their future careers. CAVEAT also aims to re-examine default ethical tools to ensure they align with global, inclusive values, fostering a continuous critical evaluation of our ethical frameworks.

Projects & Areas of Focus

Data Dignity

We are our data.

We at CAVEAT are taking action to enshrine data rights in our legal and commercial practices. Since 2021, working with our multiple partners, we act as Data Dignity Advocates, hosting discussion panels, speaking with state representatives, and researching data governance models.

BIO DATA

We are one of the lead organizations of the Global Biodata Trust (GBT), serving as one of the key guardians in GBT's Guardian Plan.

In partnership with

TERBo™

(The Tech Ethics Review Board)

TERBo transforms the traditional human-centric Institutional Review Board (IRB) process into one focused on long-term thinking and planetary sustainability. Our board of experts rigorously analyzes tech companies through a lens of ethical values, providing a comprehensive score to ensure alignment with our vision for a just and viable future. We partner with multiple organizations, including Consuli and the Data Dignity Alliance, on this crucial initiative.