Dale Carrico is an American critical theorist

Critical theory

Critical theory is an examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities. The term has two different meanings with different origins and histories: one originating in sociology and the other in literary criticism...

 and rhetoric

Rhetoric

Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...

ian. He is best known for proposing techno-progressivism

Techno-progressivism

Techno-progressivism, technoprogressivism, tech-progressivism or techprogressivism is a stance of active support for the convergence of technological change and social change...

 as a more rational and sophisticated alternative to both transhumanism

Transhumanism

Transhumanism, often abbreviated as H+ or h+, is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human...

 and bioconservatism.

Carrico is a lecturer in the Department of Rhetoric at the University of California at Berkeley, from which he received his PhD. in 2005, and is also a member of the visiting faculty at the San Francisco Art Institute

San Francisco Art Institute

San Francisco Art Institute is a school of higher education in contemporary art with the main campus in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California. Its graduate center is in the Dogpatch neighborhood. The private, non-profit institution is accredited by WASC and is a member of the...

. Carrico was the Human Rights Fellow at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies was founded in 2004 by philosopher Nick Bostrom and bioethicist James Hughes. Incorporated in the United States as a non-profit 501 organization, the IEET is a self-described "technoprogressive think tank" that seeks to contribute to understanding...

 from 2004 to 2008. He organized the 12th Annual Boundaries in Question Conference in March 2003, the 13th Annual Boundaries in Question Conference in March 2004, on the topic “New Feminist Perspectives on Biotechnology and Bioethics”, and was conference chair of the IEET conference on “Human Enhancement Technologies and Human Rights” held at Stanford Law School

Stanford Law School

Stanford Law School is a graduate school at Stanford University located in the area known as the Silicon Valley, near Palo Alto, California in the United States. The Law School was established in 1893 when former President Benjamin Harrison joined the faculty as the first professor of law...

 in May 2006.

The focus of Carrico’s work, both of his writing and teaching, has been the ongoing provocation of technological change

Technological change

Technological change is a term that is used to describe the overall process of invention, innovation and diffusion of technology or processes. The term is synonymous with technological development, technological achievement, and technological progress...

 on personal and public life. He writes and teaches technocritical theory

Technocriticism

Technocriticism is a branch of critical theory devoted to the study of technological change.Technocriticism treats technological transformation as historically specific changes in personal and social practices of research, invention, regulation, distribution, promotion, appropriation, use, and...

, both in its cultural and ethical aspects, including bioethics

Bioethics

Bioethics is the study of controversial ethics brought about by advances in biology and medicine. Bioethicists are concerned with the ethical questions that arise in the relationships among life sciences, biotechnology, medicine, politics, law, and philosophy....

, neuroethics

Neuroethics

Neuroethics is the ethics of neuroscience, and the neuroscience of ethics.The ethics of neuroscience deals with matters as a subclass of bioethics...

, roboethics

Roboethics

The term roboethics was coined by roboticist Gianmarco Veruggio in 2002, who also served as chair of an Atleier funded by the European Robotics Research Network to outline areas where research may be needed...

, existential risk

Existential risk

Existential risks are dangers that have the potential to destroy, or drastically restrict, human civilization. They are distinguished from other forms of risk both by their scope, affecting all of humanity, and severity; destroying or irreversibly crippling the target.Natural disasters, such as...

 assessment, and some elements of environmental ethics

Environmental ethics

Environmental ethics is the part of environmental philosophy which considers extending the traditional boundaries of ethics from solely including humans to including the non-human world...

 and design theory

Design theory

Design theory can refer to any theory relating to design in general.Design theory may also refer to:*Engineering and industrial design**C-K theory*Design science**C-K theory*Mathematics**Combinatorial design**Block design**Symmetric design...

. He is currently adapting his dissertation into a book, Pancryptics: Technological Transformations of the Subject of Privacy. He also discusses technoethics

Technoethics

Technoethics is an interdisciplinary research area concerned with all moral and ethical aspects of technology in society. It draws on theories and methods from multiple knowledge domains to provide insights on ethical dimensions of technological systems and practices for advancing a technological...

and the cultural politics of disruptive technological change in his personal blog, Amor Mundi.