Argumentum in Absentia
Dpt. of Computer Applications in Science and Engineering (CASE)
Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) Plaça Eusebi Güell, 1-3 08034 Barcelona (Spain)
ORCID: 0000-0002-8817-7286
SCOPUS ID: 57222557221
Spotlight
20-21/05/2025 – I attended the 2025 General Counsel Roundtable titled “AI Governance and Law: Impacts on Critical Defence and Security Areas”, held at NATO Headquarters in Brussels.
This was an excellent opportunity to engage with emerging legal and ethical challenges in defence and security, with a special focus on dual-use technologies. These are precisely the issues we continue to address within the Dual-Use Technologies Group at the CASE Department of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center.
08-09/05/2025 – It was an honour to participate in the international interdisciplinary Advanced Research Workshop titled “Clicking the Pause: The role of Transatlantic cooperation in AI Supervision”, organized by the NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme, the University of Salamanca, and the Universidad de La Sabana.
I am sincerely grateful for the invitation, the warm welcome, and the opportunity to contribute to such an important discussion. I return with more questions than answers, which is, for a philosopher, a true gift.
The ethical challenges surrounding emerging and disruptive technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, are more urgent than ever. I will continue exploring these critical issues with the Dual-Use Technologies Group at the CASE Department of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center.
14/03/2025 – The first internal workshop of the Palgait Project took place at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (CASE Department), and I was delighted to take part in this exciting initiative.
During the session, I had the opportunity to contribute to discussions on VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) environments, simulation, and ethical analysis in the context of generative AI. The day was intellectually rich and energizing, thanks to the exchange of ideas with an exceptional group of researchers and colleagues.
Among the participants were Lorenzo Magnani (Università di Pavia), David Casacuberta and Anna Estany (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), Mario Gensollen (Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes), Vicent Costa (IIIA-CSIC), and Rafal Rzepka (Hokkaido University).
A special thanks to Jordi Vallverdú (ICREA-UAB) for organizing such a meaningful event and for creating the space to explore these urgent and fascinating challenges.
The Project
I am currently working as a Researcher in Digital Ethics for Dual-Use Technologies at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), with a specific focus on the defense sector. My project aims to develop solid and applicable ethical criteria to guide the development and integration of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and advanced computing in strategic and security-related contexts.
In an environment where the boundaries between civilian and military technologies are increasingly blurred and innovation often outpaces regulation, my work seeks to provide practical ethical tools to anticipate risks, support decision-making, and ensure that technological progress respects fundamental rights.
This project responds to a growing need in the defense field: integrating ethical considerations not as an external constraint but as a core element of the design, development, and deployment of technology. The goal is to support informed and responsible decisions, particularly in complex situations where information is limited but consequences are significant.
My approach combines philosophical insight with technical understanding to contribute to a model of defense that is innovative, effective, and aligned with democratic and humanitarian values.
Upcoming Works
Upcoming Works
– Guersenzvaig, A., Sans Pinillos, A. (2024). Beyond codes of ethics and dos and don’ts: regulative ideals as ethical scaffolding for design. In F. Secomandi and Verbeek, P-P (eds.), Design philosophy after the technology turn. Bloomsbury
– Sans Pinillos, A., Costa, V., Casacuberta. D. (2024). Integrating digital museums within traditional ones as a way to redress epistemic injustice in cultural heritage.
-Gensollen, M., Sans Pinillos, A. (2024). Why Does Evidence-Based Medicine Involve and Demand Abduction?
– Moyano, C., Sans Pinillos, A. (2024). Change your mind, and be green! Unraveling sustainable development based on unsustainable normative epistemologies.
– Sans Pinillos, A. (2024). The role of anticipations based on axiological information in the EC-Model of abduction.
– Casacuberta, D., Sans Pinillos, A. (2024). An abductive protocol to detect epistemic injustice in cultural centers.
* All the publications in this section are accepted texts that will come out soon. For this reason, not all the data are available yet.
The Method
My methodology is guided by the search for coherence between fascination, intuition and knowledge. These three dimensions shape not only what I research, but how I approach each problem. Unlike more conventional views that place knowledge at the center of research, I understand it as a regulative horizon, a necessary reference point that supports but does not constrain intuition.
By intuition, I refer to the preliminary and often imprecise sense I have of the structure and possibilities of a problem. This perspective allows me to perceive connections that are not immediately evident and to preserve elements that may initially seem out of place yet hold potential significance. Intuition helps me keep the field open without dissolving rigor.
Fascination is the driving force behind my research. It directs my attention toward questions that resonate deeply with me and allows me to explore their implications across domains, from epistemology to digital ethics. At times, this fascination becomes intense, which is why it must be balanced through dialogue with intuition and refined by knowledge, particularly by engaging with the current state of the field.
This personal triad —fascination, intuition and knowledge— sustains my commitment to research. It enables me not only to interpret what surrounds us, but also to imagine and ethically shape alternative futures. This balance is especially important in the context of dual-use technologies and defense, where uncertainty and moral responsibility are deeply intertwined.
