Lecture 2: Philosophy

Behind Ethics
Theoretical Ethics vs Practical Ethics
 The term “applied ethics” is misleading.
 It makes “practical ethics” sound like applied
mathematics.
 Ethical theories sometimes give no clear-cut
answer to specific moral problems. The top-
down approach does not always work.
Examples: euthanasia and abortion.
Rapid Change by Computers

 Modern science and technology

 Computers Development

 Internet

 Information Era
 New Development with Ethics

Human-centric to natural-system ethics [Bynum 2006]

 Humans are ‘information objects’ whose personal identity is
tied to information processing and persistent patterns of
information.

 Ethics is focused on flourishing of human life, ecosystems

and just civilizations, even cyborgs and avatars.

 Luciano Floridi (2008) places at the center of the ethical

universe [Infosphere] not … human agents, but instead the
evil suffered by the recipients of the action.

Fall 2010 SI 410 Ethics and Information Technology 4

 Blog, Content & Sharing
 “As technological revolutions increase their social
impact, ethical problems increase.”
 Wikipedia [authority, expertise, accountability]
 Digital photo editing [truth, trust, meaning]

“This phenomenon happens … because

revolutionary technology will provide numerous
opportunities for actions, for which ethical
policies will not have been developed.”
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Social media Connections
Collaborative Efforts among Strangers

 Deadlines
 Misunderstanding
 Mistakes
 Disinterest
 Grade competition
 Team-based projects

Fall 2010 SI 410 Ethics and Information Technology 7

Collaborative Efforts

 Digitalization
 Automation
 Robotization
 Specialization
 Customization
 Globalization
 Mutation
 Electronic Commerce

 E-Commerce consists of the buying and

selling of products or services over electronic
systems such as the internet or other
electronic systems.

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An Example Shopping Cart from Amazon.com
Ethical ?