5. In most countries of the world, the ―information revolution‖ has altered many aspects of
life
significantly:
commerce, employment, medicine, security, transportation, entertainment, and so on.
Consequently, information and communication technology (ICT) has affected —
7. An
innovative
developments in science
and philosophy led to the
creation of a new branch
of ethics that would later
be
called
―computer
ethics‖ or ―information
ethics‖.
Norbert Wiener
a
professor
of
mathematics
and
engineering at MIT.
8. Together
with
colleagues
in
The world would undergo
―a second industrial revolution‖
— an ―automatic age‖ with
―enormous potential for good
and for evil‖ that would
generate a staggering number
of new ethical challenges and
opportunities.
While engaged in
this war effort, Wiener
and colleagues created
a new branch of applied
science that Wiener
named ―cybernetics‖
(from the Greek word
for the pilot of a ship).
Even while the War
was raging, Wiener
foresaw
enormous
social
and
ethical
implications
of
cybernetics combined
with
electronic
computers.
9. Cybernetics (1948)
In
which
he
described his new branch
of applied science and
identified some social
and ethical implications
of electronic computers.
―It has long been clear to me that the
modern ultra rapid computing machine was
in principle an ideal central nervous system
to an apparatus for automatic control; and
that its input and output need not be in the
form of numbers or diagrams. It might very
well be, respectively, the readings of
artificial‖
10. Wiener‘s book included, for example:
The Human Use of
Human Beings (1950)
A book in which he
explored a number of
ethical issues that computer
and information technology
would likely generate.
1. An account of the purpose of a
human life
2. Four principles of justice
3. A powerful method for doing applied
ethics
4. Discussions of the fundamental
questions of computer ethics
5. Examples of key computer ethics
topics
11. ―It seemed,‖
Parker said, ―that
when people entered
the
computer
center, they left their
ethics at the door‖.
Donn Parker
- Computer scientist
In 1968 he published
―Rules of Ethics in
Information Processing‖
Headed the development of
the first Code of Professional
Conduct of the Association
for Computing Machinery
(eventually adopted by the
ACM in 1973).
12. Joseph Weizenbaum
created a computer
program that he called
‗ELIZA‘.
As
an
experiment, Weizenbaum used
ELIZA to provide “a crude
imitation
of
a
Rogerian
psychotherapist engaged in an
initial
interview
with
a
13. Some
practicing
psychiatrists saw ELIZA as
evidence that computers soon
would
be
performing
automated psychotherapy.
Joseph Weizenbaum
created a computer
program that he called
‗ELIZA‘.
Wrote the book Computer
Power
and
Human
Reason,
which
forcefully
expressed his ethical concerns.
The book, together with his
courses at MIT and the many
speeches he gave in the
1970s, inspired a number of
thinkers and projects in
computer ethics
14. He began to use the
term ‗computer ethics‘ to
refer to ―ethical problems
aggravated, transformed or
created
by
computer
technology‖.
Walter Maner
Teacher in a university
course in medical ethics
These
efforts
spurred
the
study
of
computer ethics
at a number of
colleges
and
universities
in
the
United
States.
He
developed
a
university computer ethics
course and offered a
variety of workshops and
lectures at conferences
across America.
15. Parker, Weizenbaum and Maner
had raised the computer ethics
consciousness of a number of American
scholars.
In
addition,
several
computing-related social and ethical
problems had become public issues in
America and Europe: computer-enabled
crime, disasters from computer
failures, invasions of privacy via
computer databases, and major law
suits regarding software ownership. The
time was right for exponential growth
in computer ethics.
16. Parker, Weizenbaum and Maner
had raised the computer ethics
consciousness of a number of American
scholars.
In
addition,
several
computing-related social and ethical
problems had become public issues in
America and Europe: computer-enabled
crime, disasters from computer
failures, invasions of privacy via
computer databases, and major law
suits regarding software ownership. The
time was right for exponential growth
in computer ethics.
18. Have recently argued that
computer
ethics
will
disappear as a branch of
applied ethics?
Deborah Johnson perspective is
that fundamental ethical theories will
remain unaffected – that computer
ethics issues are simply the same old
ethics questions with a new twist – and
consequently computer ethics as a
distinct branch of applied philosophy
will ultimately disappear.
Wiener-Maner-Górniak
point of view sees computer
technology
as
ethically
revolutionary, requiring human
beings to reexamine the
foundations of ethics and the
very definition of a human life.
