A little while back, I found myself diving into local philosophy, trying to figure out who in Perth was tackling the big questions. That’s when I came across Professor Rob Wilson — a name that kept showing up in conversations about the philosophy of science, disability ethics, and eugenics. Rob is currently the Professor of Philosophy at the University of Western Australia, but his work extends far beyond academia.
He’s not your average philosopher. Rob grew up in a working-class family, bouncing between Broken Hill and Perth. “I didn’t even know what a university was,” he told me. “Then one day, my teacher tricked me into walking into a lecture.” That lecture? It just so happened to be philosophy. That accidental moment shaped the rest of his life.
In this episode of Rational Grounds, Rob and I explored what it means to be human — not just biologically, but ethically, socially, politically. We covered everything from ancient philosophy to modern eugenics, from race science to AI, from kinship systems to transhumanism.
“We have to be very careful about what we think of as improvement — and who it’s actually for.”
— Rob Wilson, Rational Grounds
🎓 Who is Rob Wilson?
Rob Wilson is one of Australia’s most compelling and well-rounded philosophers. His work spans the philosophy of mind, biology, cognitive science, social science, and most recently, the ethics of disability and eugenics. He’s published books like Boundaries of the Mind and Genes and the Agents of Life, both of which challenge how we traditionally think about human identity and agency.
Rob’s new book Kin Matters is due out later this year through Oxford University Press. It’s a philosophical deep dive into anthropology, kinship, and the social fabric that shapes who we are. Beyond writing, Rob led a major anti-eugenics project in Alberta, Canada, where he worked directly with survivors of forced sterilisation — a period of his life that deeply informed this conversation.
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🧬 Eugenics: Not Just History
One of the moments that hit hardest for me was when Rob talked about discovering just how recent and close-to-home eugenics can be.
“I was teaching about Nazi Germany, and a student said, ‘My aunt was sterilised in Alberta.’ I was stunned. This wasn’t history — it was the same province I was teaching in.”
That kicked off a years-long research project and advocacy campaign, working with survivors of eugenic policies who had been institutionalised, misdiagnosed, and sterilised without consent — many of them as children.
Rob makes it clear that eugenics isn’t a historical footnote. It’s a mindset — one that still seeps into how we view race, disability, intelligence, and even reproductive rights today.
This is a documentary he lead in Canada along side other leaders, and victims, in the subject. This version of Surviving Eugenics Robert A. Wilson is available for free online, and published by MIT Press: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/eugenic-mind-project .
This really shows how much work Robert has put into this topic and why he was a fantastic person to have on the podcast.
🧠 The Science of Race Isn’t What You Think
Naturally, we talked about race — and how science has been used (and misused) to justify everything from immigration policy to genocide. When I asked Rob whether there’s any scientific legitimacy behind racial differences in intelligence or ability, he didn’t mince words:
“Just take skin colour. It’s very hard to divide people into neat racial groups. Once you actually look at human diversity, it doesn’t clump the way people assume.”
Even traits we think are obvious — like skin tone or physical build — break down under proper scientific scrutiny. The danger, Rob warns, is assuming that folk wisdom equals biological fact.
🤖 Transhumanism & The Politics of Progress
Toward the end of our conversation, we pivoted to the future. We explored the ethics of transhumanism — the movement to upgrade human beings using tech, AI, robotics, and gene editing. Rob raised a powerful and confronting question:
“These enhancements — robotic limbs, AI integrations — they’re sold as helping the most vulnerable. But in reality, it’s billionaires building Mars rockets and neural implants. It’s not the disabled kid in rural WA getting a bionic eye.”
He’s not anti-technology. He’s not even anti-AI. But he is sceptical of the narrative that “progress” automatically means improvement for everyone. Just like with eugenics, we have to ask who’s deciding what’s worth enhancing — and who gets left behind.
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⚖️ What Kind of Future Are We Building?
What struck me most about Rob was his insistence on nuance. He doesn’t give easy answers. He gives you the philosophical tools to ask better questions. Questions like:
Who benefits from the technologies we’re creating?
Who bears the cost?
And what assumptions are we carrying forward from our past into our future?
“Let’s get rid of phrases like ‘for the good of humanity.’ Because that’s never really how these systems work.”
This episode was a masterclass in ethics, history, and the messy reality of being human in the 21st century.
ᝰ Diogo
