IS 376
Ethics and Convergence
Dr. Kapatamoyo
11/20/14
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Defining Terms
 Society: an association of people organized under a
system of rules designed to advance the good of its
members over time.
 Every society has rules of conduct describing what
people ought and ought not to do in various situations.
These rules are called Morality.
 A person may belong to various societies, which can
lead to some interesting moral dilemmas.
 Ethics: is the study of morality, a rational examination
into people's moral beliefs and behavior.
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Broad Issues
 Forming communities allow us to enjoy better lives than if
we lived in isolation.
 Communities facilitate the exchange of goods and services.
 There is a price associated with being part of a community.
 Communities impose certain obligations and prohibit
some actions.
 Responsible community members take the needs and
desires of other people into account when they make
decisions.
 They recognize that virtually everybody shares the “core
values” of life, happiness, and the ability to accomplish
goals.
The Law of Unintended
Consequences
 Human actions have unintended or unforeseen effects.
 These effects can be positive or negative, and in some
cases perverse (totally in opposite to what was
originally intended).
 Interactions with Robots will also generate unforeseen
consequences.
 Therefore, this law equally applies to the study of
information technology or just any other type of
technology.
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Is Technology Neutral?
 A central issue of contention between technological
determinists and social determinists is whether
technology is neutral.
 Technological determinism holds that technology is
value-free, and is therefore neutral.
 Technical features determine how people may use a
particular technology
 Social determinism argues that technology is valueladen, and cannot be neutral (cannot exist in a
vacuum).
 What features are put there in the first place?
 Who makes the decision?
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Impact of IT
IT can have an impact
at these levels:
 Individual
 Group
 Organizational
 Societal
 National
 Global
The impact can be:
 Social
 Economic
 Political
 Legal
 Psychological
 Historical
 Ethical
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Isaac Asimov (1942)
 Science fiction writer, Asimov, wrote a short
story "Runaround”. And included the Three
Laws of Robotics:
 A robot may not injure a human being or,
through inaction, allow a human being to
come to harm.
 A robot must obey the orders given to it by
human beings, except where such orders
would conflict with the First Law.
 A robot must protect its own existence as
long as such protection does not conflict
with the First or Second Law.
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Towards an Ethical Robot
 Alan Winfield (England),
 When robots are to be trusted,
especially when interacting with
humans, they will need to be
more than just safe.
 Predicting the consequences of
both their own actions, and the
actions of other dynamic actors in
their environment.
 With an ‘ethical’ action selection
mechanism a robot can
sometimes choose actions that
compromise its own safety in
order to prevent a second robot
from coming to harm.
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Ethics

Ethics is the study of what it means to “do the
right thing.”
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It is often equated with moral philosophy
because it concerns how one arrives at specific
moral choices.
Ethical theory posits that people are rational,
independent moral agents, and that they make
free choices.
Computer ethics is a branch of ethics that
specifically deals with moral issues in computing
(as a profession; other professions have specific
ethical standards as well).
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The Michael
Industrial Complex
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Why Study Ethics?
 Society is changing rapidly as it incorporates the
latest advances in information technology.
 Many of these interactions have to be analyzed
from an ethical standpoint.
 Ethics is the rational, systematic analysis of
conduct that can cause benefit or harm to other
people.
 Its important to note that ethics is focused on the
voluntary, moral choices people make because
they decided they ought to take one course of
action rather than an alternative. It is not
concerned about involuntary choices or choices
outside the moral realm.
3 Perspectives
on CyberEthics
 Number 1
1. Professional Ethics;
 The Main emphasis here is on the
Designing, Developing and
Maintenance of technologies.
 Most professions have this sort of
ethics specific to the field.
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3 Perspectives
on CyberEthics
 Number 2

Philosophical Ethics;
 Ethic issues here typically involve concerns of
responsibility and obligation affecting individuals as
members of a certain profession; or broader concerns
such as social policies and individual behavior.
 Three distinct stages for ethic applications are
 Identify a particular controversial practice as a
moral problem.
 Describe and analyze the problem by clarifying
concepts and examining the factual data
associated with that problem.
 Apply moral theories and principles in the
deliberative process in order to reach a position
about that particular moral issue.
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3 Perspectives
on CyberEthics
 Number 3
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Sociological Ethics
 These are non-evaluative and focus on
particular moral systems and reports how
members of various groups and cultures
view particular moral issues.
 These are descriptive ethics. The first two
(Number 1 and 2) are normative ethics.
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Normative vs.
Descriptive Ethics
• Normative ethics: focus on
• What we should do in making practical moral
standards.
• Descriptive ethics: focus on
• What people actually believe to be right or wrong,
• The moral values (or ideals) they hold up to,
• How they behave, and
• What ethical rules guide their moral reasoning.
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Deontological Views:
Key Principles
• The principal philosopher in this tradition is Immanuel
Kant (1724-1804, Kalinigrad, Russia).
• Ethical decisions should be made solely by considering
one's duties and the absolute rights of others.
• Act only according to that maxim by which you can at
the same time will that it would become a universal law.
• There are four key principles to Kant’s Categorical
Imperative:
• The principle of universality: Rules of behavior should be
applied to everyone. No exceptions.
• Logic or reason determines rules of ethical behavior.
• Treat people as ends in themselves, but not as means to
ends.
• Absolutism of ethical rules.
• e.g., it is wrong to lie (no matter what!)
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Utilitarianism
 Founded by John Stuart Mill (1806-1873, London,
England)
 An ethical act is one that maximizes the good or
“utility” for the greatest number of people.
 Consequences are quantifiable, and are the main
basis of moral decisions.
 Rule-utilitarianism:
 Applies the utility principle to general ethical rules
rather than to individual acts.
 The rule that would yield the most happiness for the
greatest number of people should be followed.
 Act-utilitarianism:
 Applies utilitarianism to individual acts. We must
consider the possible consequences of all our
possible actions, and then select the one that
maximizes happiness to all people involved.
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Natural Rights
• One of the founding fathers is John Locke
(1632-1704, Essex, England).
• Natural rights are universal rights derived
from the law of nature (e.g., inherent rights
that people are born with).
• Ethical behavior must respect a set of
fundamental rights of others. These include
the rights of life, liberty, and property.
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Situational Ethics
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Originally developed by Joseph Fletcher (19051991, Newark, NJ).
There are always 'exceptions to the rule.’
 The morality of an act is a function of the state
of the system at the time it is performed.
 “Each situation is so different from every other
situation that it is questionable whether a rule
which applies to one situation can be applied to
all situations like it, since the others may not
really be like it. Only the single law of love
(agape) is broad enough to be applied to all
circumstances and contexts.”
 A pioneer in the field of bioethics, and involved
in the topics of abortion, infanticide, euthanasia,
eugenics, and cloning.
Negative Rights vs.
Positive Rights
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Negative rights (or liberties) are rights to act
without interference.
 e.g., rights to life, liberty and property; or to vote;
 You cannot demand (or expect) facilities to be
provided to you to exercise your right.
Positive rights (or claim-rights) are rare. These are
rights that impose an obligation on some people
to provide certain things to others.
 Such as free education for children
Controversies often rise as to whose (what) rights
should take precedence.
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Normative Questions
 Should computers, computer
systems and robots make
human level decisions?
 Then what? Who shoulders the
liability?