CHAPTER 9

Global
Issues
We have been seeing our Spaceship Earth as an
integrally designed machine which to be
persistently successful must be comprehended
and serviced in total.
Buckminster Fuller
 Multinational
Corporations
Multi national corporations conduct
extensive business in more than one
country.
The benefits to the participants in
developing countries are equally clear: new
jobs, jobs with higher pay and greater
challenge, transfer of advanced technology,
and an array of social benefits from sharing
wealth.
Technology Transfer and
Appropriate Technology

Technology transfer is the process

of moving technology to a novel if
setting and implementing it there.
Technology includes both hardware
(machines and installations) and
technique (technical, organizational, and
managerial skills and procedures.
Technology Transfer and
Appropriate Technology

The expression appropriate

technology is widely used, but with a
variety of meanings. We use it in a
generic sense to refer to identification,
or transfer or implementation of the
most suitable technology for a new set
of condition.
 International Rights

Donaldson suggest there are 10

such international rights.

1. The right to freedom of physical movement.

2. The right to ownership of property.
3. The right to freedom from torture.
4.The right to a fair trial.
5.The right to nondiscriminatory treatment.
 International Rights

6. The right to physical security.

7. The right to freedom of speech and
association.
8. The right to minimal education.
9. The right to political participation.
10. The right to subsistence.
Computer Ethics and the
Internet

Computer have become the

technological backbone of our society.
Their degree of sophistication, range of
applications, and sheer numbers continue
to increase.
Computer Ethics and the
Internet
Some of the issues in computer
ethics concern shifts in power
relationships resulting from the new
capacities of computers. Other issues
concern property, and still others are
about invasions of privacy. All this issues
may involve “computer abuse”; unethical
or illegal conduct in which computers
play a central role (whether an
instrument or objects).
 The Internet and Free
Speech
The internet magnified all issues in
computer ethics. The most powerful
communication technology ever
developed, and a technology used daily by
hundreds of millions of people, the
internet gained widespread use only
during the 1990’s.
 The Internet and Free
Speech
The internet provides a wellspring of
new ways to be in contact with other
people and with sources of information. It
has also created a greater convenience in
ordering consumer items, paying bills, and
trading stocks and bonds.
 The Internet and Free
Speech
Like other issues centers on free
speech, including control of obscene
forms of pornography, hate speech, spam
(unwanted commercial speech), and libel.
 Power Relationship

Computers are powerful tools that

do not by themselves generate power
shift. This is not to say computers are
entirely value neutral. It is to say that
moral issues about power relationships
tend to be nuanced and contextual. As
few examples follow.
 Power Relationship

1. Job elimination
2. Customer relations
3. Biased Software
4. Stock trading
5. Military Weapons
 Property
The most troublesome issues about
property and computers fall under two
general headings. The first is the use of
computers in embezzlement and other
forms of stealing money or financial assets.
It is the most widely publicized form of
computer crime and also the most morally
clear-cut. The second set of issue concerns
the theft of software and information. Here
the issues are more complex.
 Privacy

Storage, retrieval, and transmission

of information using computers as data
processors has revolutionized
communication. Yet this very benefit
poses moral threats to the right to
privacy.
 Privacy

Here we will discuss privacy and

confidentiality for individuals, but the
issues are similar for corporations.

1. Inappropriate access
2. Hackers
3. Legal Responses
 Additional Issues
Many of the issues in engineering
ethics arise within the context of
computer work. New variations or new
difficulties may be involved, often
owning to the high degree of job
complexity and required technical
proficiency introduced by computers. We
provide a some representative examples in
the paragraphs that follow.
 Additional Issues
1. Computer failures
2. Computer implementation
3. Health conditions