Rapid Pace of Change

1940s - first electronic computers

1956 - first hard disk drive, made by IBM
1957 - Sputnik, launched the first man-made satellite,
1991 - space shuttle had a 1-megahertz computer onboard.
2006 - Pocket devices hold a terabyte (one trillion bytes) of data
2006 - Automobiles can have 100-megahertz computers

Communication and the Web

1980s - Email was first used mostly by computer scientists.
Blogs (a word made up from “Web log”) and videos are two examples of the many new forms of creativity

Artificial intelligence (AI)

- computers perform tasks we normally think of as requiring human intelligence.
Learning (learn) is a characteristic of many AI programs.

Robots
- mechanical devices that perform physical tasks traditionally done by humans.
MORALITY AND ETHICS
Ethics
- is the study of what it means to “do the right thing.”
- Definition by Michael Davis.
Morality
- set of standards everyone means having to do the same thing

MORAL THEORY
- way of defining morality.

RELIGIOUS ETHICS
- refers to a set of ethical standards for the followers of a particular religion.

DIVINE THEORY COMMAND

- moral theory that holds that X is good because God commands it

Cultural Relativism
- moral theory that holds that no valid rational criterion for determining the right thing to do exists.
- judged good or bad based only on the standards of one’s society

Virtue Theory
- focuses more on the nature of the person making a decision, rather than the
decision itself.

Utilitarianism
- main example of a consequentialist theory.
- Its guiding principle
Act Utilitarianism
- only way to judge an act is to examine the consequences of the act.
Rule Utilitarianism
- evaluation of an act much less prone to calculation errors

Deontological theories
- emphasize duty and absolute rules

Contractarianism
- individual’s best interest is served by acting for the common good.

Rawl’s Theory of Justice

- Encourages people to help the least fortunate.

Nodding’s Ethics of Caring

- capacity for caring for other, not for their abilities.
Natural rights
- way that respects a set of fundamental rights of others.

Negative and positive rights, or liberties and claim rights

Two different kinds of rights.
In philosophy books
- Positive rights
- Negative rights
Negative rights, or liberties,
- rights to act without interference.

Golden rules
- consider an ethical choice we are making from the perspective of the people it affects.
- treat others as we would want them to treat us.