What+is+Computer+Ethics+?

> Can you think of examples of policy vacuums? Conceptual vacuums? > E.g. Intellectual Property Rights: computer program… (new categories of things) > How have values relative to technology changed in the last 20 years? > (Disposable income -> technology)
 * What is Computer Ethics** by James H. Moor
 * Computers are special technology & raise special technical issues
 * Computer ethics is the analysis of the nature and social impact of computer technology and the corresponding formulation and justification of policies for the ethical use of such technology.
 * There is not only a policy vacuum, but a conceptual vacuum as well. We need a conceptual framework to help us.
 * Evaluation forces us to make our value preferences explicit.
 * Computer ethics as a field is changing as the computer field changes.

>>> Dramatic improvement in performance >>> >>> [1952 Walter Cronkite & CBS news borrowed a UNIVAC to statistically predict result between Eisenhower & Stevenson] >> >> - One the flip side: computers can help make the invisible visible (pattern recognition)
 * //What is special// about computers
 * What makes them //revolutionary//?
 * Suggestions: Affordable, Abundant,
 * Logical malleability: a universal tool, a raw resource
 * //Social impact// of computers
 * Two stages of development
 * E.g. the Industrial revolution:
 * 1) Technological introduction, then
 * 2) Technological Permeation.
 * E.g. computer technology in voting: announce victor before polls close
 * Work may become instructing computers what to do
 * Question is no longer about how computers use money, but rather “What is money?” Question changes from how computers help in education, to “What is education?”
 * What is //operationally suspect// about computing technology
 * Invisibility factor: leads to abuse
 * bank rounding of cents, invasion of privacy, surveillance
 * Invisible programming values: programmer makes decisions
 * e.g. SABRE: how is airline info. listed, ordered?
 * 3 Mile island: testing is based on certain assumptions
 * Complex calculation: too complex for a human to evaluate: 4 color map problem. Also consider nuclear defense sensors & human response time

C. Dianne Martin and Hilary J. Holz put it: Our belief is that ethics cannot be taught; rather what can be taught is a framework for evaluating ethical dilemmas and making decisions. In accepting the premise that technology is value-laden, we stress the need to teach a methodology of explicit ethical analysis in all decision-making related to technology... The role of ethics education should be to provide students with at least a minimal theoretical background essential for their understanding of the role that values and ethics play in all decision-making, whether it be technical, economic, political, social, or personal.1 What is the best way to achieve this goal? The consensus among experienced instructors is that the best computer ethics classes are discussion-oriented. Students are more receptive to hearing ideas from peers than from you. They will come to realize that every complicated issue can be looked at from multiple points of view. They will also see that all opinions are not equally valid, and that the best arguments are those that use logic to reach conclusions from facts and commonly held values.

__ 1“Non-Apologetic Computer Ethics Education: A Strategy for Integrating Social Impact and Ethics into the Computer Science Curriculum,” C. Dianne Martin and Hillary J. Holz, The Research Center on Computing & Society (web site), www.southernct.edu/organizations/rccs.