The challenges of the Digital Age creates a sea of opportunities for technologists. Developing software transforms the economic, political, cultural, and social reality of countries. On the one hand, a larger part of the population does not know the downside of IT, which does not decrease our great responsibility. On the other hand, technologists do not always know how to make ethical decisions in day-to-day systems development. There is also a long discussion about the role of technology in the sustainability of the planet: after all, when IT is good or bad? This lecture is an introduction to ethics and sustainability aimed at technologists who want to learn how to position themselves as professionals in the face of so many challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.

1. Campus Party,
Brasília
16/Jun/2017
ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY FOR TECHIES
Prof. Dr. Claudia Melo, UnB
@claudia_melo
www.claudiamelo.org

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I’m Claudia Melo
Curious Learner
Professor, University of Brasília
(UnB)
Technologist since 1997
I have worked as [CTO, Agile Coach,
Programmer, Coordinator, Project
Manager, Consultant]
Activist v0.1, Advisory Board Member
at Mulheres na Tecnologia
WHO AM I?

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www.paragkhanna.com/home/2016/4/19/7-maps-that-will-make-you-optimistic-about-the-future
THE DIGITAL ECONOMY

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COMPLEXITY + SCALE

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http://imgur.com/zXuVYA7

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Sustainable development is
development that meets
the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own
needs
UN Bruntland commission

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Ethics covers the following dilemmas:
how to live a good life; our rights and
responsibilities; the language of right
and wrong; moral decisions - what is
good and bad?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/intro_1.shtml

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https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld

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PreparingforAction.The2030AgendaforSustainableDevelopment
1 billion people hungry
2 billion people affected
by hidden hunger
but
World produces enough
food to feed everyone!

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PreparingforAction.The2030AgendaforSustainableDevelopment
>50% of the world’s
population lives in urban
areas
it concentrates 70-80% of
economic activity
Cities, particularly in
HIGH INCOME countries,
are high CONSUMERS of
energy, water and high
PRODUCERS of waste
and GHG emissions.

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DESAWorkingPaperNo.141March2015
Towardsintegrationatlast?Thesustainabledevelopmentgoalsasanetworkoftargets
DepartmentofEconomic&SocialAffairsDavidLeBlanc

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ROLE
TECHNOLOGIST

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TECHNOLOGICAL
SOLUTIONISM
Silicon Valley helping us to
tackle some of the world’s
biggest challenges by offering
us new apps for our
smartphones.

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Is
technology
neutral?

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Society shapes technology
Technology shapes society

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technology does not exist by chance,
therefore it must have a purpose,
a mission to humanity
[…]
the mission of technology is to give
freedom to the human being, ridding it of
internal or external forces restrictive of its
capabilities.
Setzer, W (2014)
https://www.ime.usp.br/~vwsetzer/technol-mission.html

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personal awareness, social and global
consciousness.
assessing the impact of technology (benefits or harms )
if it reduces the consciousness of other people.
https://www.ime.usp.br/~vwsetzer/technol-mission.html

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Consciousness implies awareness:
subjective, phenomenal experience
of internal and external worlds.
sense of self, feelings, choice, control of voluntary behaviour,
memory, thought, language, and (e.g., when we close our eyes,
or meditate) internally generated images
and geometric patterns.
Stuart Hameroff, Roger Penrose, Consciousness in the universe, Physics of Life Reviews, Volume 11, Issue 1, 2014, Pages 39-78, ISSN 1571-0645

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SOME DANGEROUS THINKING
•GAMIFICATION REGULATING INDIVIDUALS (THAT HOLD LESS
POWER).
•BIG DATA AND PATTERN MATCHING SOLVING OUR PROBLEMS
THROUGH INTRUSIVE MEASUREMENT OF OUR BEHAVIOUR,
RATHER THAN US UNDERSTANDING THE FORCES THAT SHAPE
OUR BEHAVIOURS.
•CROWDSOURCING MIGHT UNDERMINE OUR BELIEF IN THE
VALUE OF EXPERTISE.
Easterbrook, Steve (2014). From computational thinking to systems thinking: A conceptual toolkit for sustainability computing. The
2nd International Conference on ICT for Sustainability (ICT4S'14), Stockholm, Sweden, Aug 24-27, 2014

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the Web is biased:
Data, Algorithms,
Activity, Self-
selection.
Data and Algorithmic Bias in the Web
Ricardo Baeza-Yates California, Catalonia, Chile
Web Science 2016, Hannover, Germany, May 2016
http://www.websci16.org/sites/websci16/files/keynotes/keynote_baeza-yates.pdf

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• people from low-socioeconomic areas may have a hard time
participating in the sharing economy as consumers or producers;
• discrimination;
• evading taxes and regulations that help to maintain cities'
infrastructure;
• platform providers will become employers in effect, but without any of
the responsibilities to their workers (GIG economy).
• distribution of increased income and welfare are likely to be uneven.
JOHN BINDER
“Does the Sharing Economy Do Any Good?” Dillahunt, Tawanna, et al. Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer Supported
Cooperative Work and Social Computing Companion, Pages 197-200, 2016.
Koen Frenken, Juliet Schor, Putting the sharing economy into perspective, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, Volume 23, June
2017, Pages 3-10, ISSN 2210-4224

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Many societal issues are better
thought of as dilemmas:
we should respond intelligently, rather
than as problems that we can solve
“Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning”, Rittel and Webber, 1973

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www.paragkhanna.com/home/2016/4/19/7-maps-that-will-make-you-optimistic-about-the-future
Digital revolution
Software is a key component
of solutions for 21st Century
“wicked”, complex, and
unpredictable problems.
Wicked problems:
difficult to define; never
entirely solved (improvements
can always be made); solutions
generate unintended
consequences.

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www.paragkhanna.com/home/2016/4/19/7-maps-that-will-make-you-optimistic-about-the-future
Digital revolution
Software is a key component
of solutions for 21st Century
“wicked”, complex, and
unpredictable problems.
Wicked problems:
difficult to define; never
entirely solved (improvements
can always be made); solutions
generate unintended
consequences.
Challenge for technologists
i) understand the ethical choices and related unintended
consequences that the solutions for the 21st century might generate;
ii) investigate and co-design solutions with other stakeholders to
ensure better solutions for all.

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CYBERETHICS DEFINITION AND SOME INITIATIVES
https://on.acm.org/c/Code-2018
"Computers are essenZally a
malleable, universally applicable
tool, so the potenZal applicaZons
for human acEon and
consequent ethical issues are
novel and almost limitless”
“Study of moral, legal, and social
issues involving cybertechnology”
“[…] formulaEon and jusEficaEon
of policies for the ethical use of
such technology"

27. ClaudiaMeloandThiagoSousa.2017.Reflectionsoncyberethicseducationformillennial
softwareengineers.InProc.ofthe1stInternationalWorkshoponSoftwareEngineering
CurriculaforMillennials(SECM'17).IEEEPress,Piscataway,NJ,USA,40-46

28. 28https://ethics.acm.org/
Section 1 (overall) - General moral
principles
Principle 1.1 - Contribute to society
Principle 1.2 - Avoid harm
Principle 1.3 - Honesty
Principle 1.4 - Nondiscrimination
Principle 1.5 - Respect for creators
Principle 1.6 - Privacy
Principle 1.7 - Confidentiality
ACM Code 2018 Project
Section 2 (overall) - Professional
responsibilities
Principle 2.1 - Quality
Principle 2.2 - Competence
Principle 2.3 - Law
Principle 2.4 - Professional review
Principle 2.5 - Thoroughness
Principle 2.6 - Responsibility
Principle 2.7 - Public
understanding
Principle 2.8 - Avoid unauthorized
access

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https://ethics.acm.org/
ACM Code 2018 Project
Section 4 (overall) -
Compliance
Principle 4.1 - Uphold and
promote the Code
Principle 4.2 - Violation of
Code incompatible with
ACM membership
Misc - Proposals for new
principles, other changes
not included in other
categories
Section 3 (overall) - Professional leadership
principles
Principle 3.1 - Promote public good
Principle 3.2 - Promote social responsibility
Principle 3.3 - Promote quality of life
Principle 3.4 - Promote responsible use
Principle 3.5 - Respect dignity of users
Principle 3.6 - Promote learning and
development
Principle 3.7 - Responsibility for
infrastructure

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EXAMPLES OF CYBERTECH CONTROVERSIES
Innovation is a result of the combination and evolution of complementary
technologies.
CYBERTECHNOLOGIES CONTROVERSIAL PRACTICES/FEATURES, FROM A MORAL PERSPECTIVE
Data Science Discoveries in data mining, propensity and group privacy.
Cloud CompuPng Consumer privacy, reliability of services, data ownership, and technology neutrality.
Algorithms
Misguided evidence leading to bias; Unfair outcomes leading to discriminaPon,
transformaPon effects leading to challenges for autonomy, and traceability leading to
moral responsibility.
Digital Business Models Intellectual property rights, economic market impact and customer relaPonship.
Internet; IoT; Mobile;
Social
Individual privacy preferences, access controls, emergent social convenPons and
infrastructures for government surveillance.
SoSware and Society;
Cyberlaw
Cryptocurrency, net neutrality, proprietary code and content and freedom of speech.
Secure SoSware
Engineering
Purposeful human errors injecPon, soSware piracy and soSware development for
espionage, extorPon, vandalism and theS.
ArPficial Intelligence;
RoboPcs
Machine learning, bias in natural language processing and robots as sexual partners,
caregivers, and servants.
Claudia de O. Melo and Thiago C. de Sousa. 2017. Reflections on cyberethics education for millennial software engineers. In Proceedings of the 1st
International Workshop on Software Engineering Curricula for Millennials (SECM '17). IEEE Press, Piscataway, NJ, USA, 40-46

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CONCRETE
example:
logic of
abundance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSPNRu4ZPvE

33. 33Ernst Götsch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSPNRu4ZPvE

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Keywords
ICT4D: Information and Communication
Technology for Development
ICT4S: Information and Communication
Technology for Sustainability

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Do you want to join us
to think
ICT4Sustainability
and Ethics?

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QUESTIONS?
THANK YOU!
@claudia_melo
claudiamelo.org
claudiam@unb.br