Module 11: New Frontiers for Computer
Ethics: Virtualization and Virtual Reality
Virtualization
History of Virtualization
Different Aspects of Virtualization
Virtual Reality
Social and Ethical Implications of
Virtualization*
Virtualization Security as an Ethical
Imperative
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Introduction
Virtualization is a process through which one can create something
that is there in effect and performance but in reality not there – that
is virtual.
It is a physical abstraction of the company computing resources like
storage, network servers, memory and others.
For computing systems, it is a process in which software creates
virtual machines (VMs) including a virtual machine monitor called
'hypervisor,' that allocates hardware resources dynamically and
transparently so that multiple operating systems, called “guest
operating systems” can run concurrently on a single physical
computer without even knowing.
The potential power of virtualization in substantially increasing the
performance of computing systems such as hardware and software
through division of the underlying physical computing resources into
many equally powerful virtual machines, has increased the
popularity of the technology in the last twenty years and this love
continues today
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Ethical and Social...J.M.Kizza
History of Virtualization
Computers of the 1960s could do only one task at a time and
depended on human operators, increasing system performance
was bottlenecked at two points: at the submission stage and at the
computation stage.
Batching improved system performance some but did not go far
enough.
In response to this growing need for speed up, IBM responded with
the CP-40 main frame which later evolved into the CP-67 system,
thought to be the first commercial Main Frame to support
Virtualization.
The CP-67 had a unique operating system combination consisting of
CMS (Console Monitor System) piggybacked on a control program
called rightly CP.
The CP/CMS was a small single-user interactive operating system
and CP, upon which CMS run, actually run on the Mainframe to
create the Virtual Machines which individually run their own copies
of CMS.
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Ethical and Social...J.M.Kizza
Different Aspects of
Virtualization
There are many types of virtualization including platform, network,
storage and application.
Platform Virtualization - is the use of server hardware by the
virtualization software to host multiple VMs as guest VMs. Each VM
is a virtual environment with its operating system (the guest
operating system), which may or may not be the same as the
physical server’s operating system (the host operating system),
emulates the whole physical infrastructure of a computing system
including memory and each VM is independent of other VMs
sharing the physical server.
Platform virtualization itself is subdivided into two types: workstation
and server:
– Workstation Virtualization
– Server Virtualization
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Network Virtualization - Like storage virtualization, network
virtualization pools the resources, like files, folders, storage and I/O
devices, of separate and different networks into one network
Storage Virtualization - is the process of pooling together of
resources of many different network storage devices such as hard
drives to create what looks like one big storage managed from a
single console
Application Virtualization – the process of allowing the bytecode of
an application package to be portably run on many different
computer architectures and operating systems through the use of
running an interpreter or just-in-time compilation of the application
before it runs on the computer architecture of choice. An example of
this is the Java Machine Virtualization.
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Virtual Reality
VR – is a stimulation of a real or imaginary
phenomena in three-dimensional environments
Is revolutionalizing the study of science
Ethics in Virtual Reality:
Lack of being in control
Safety and security of users
Human-agent interactions
Intentions of the actor
Accountability of the actor
Responsibility of the actor
Psychological effects on the actor and commnity
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Social and Ethical Implications
of Virtualization
One of the anticipated good of virtualization to society is to extend
known and relatively managed humanity’s social spheres and social
networks in an unprecedented way through opening up of virtual
domains of social interactions, many with a degree of managed
control.
Another good social aspect of virtualization is to avail tools for
society to create new virtual social networks out of the old and
dismantle old social ones.
In addition, virtualization is bringing about easy creation of new
human identities in the new virtual environments
– This makes authentication more difficult but at the same time creating
unprecedented potential in self-creation and self-presentation. This may bring
new opportunities to humanity.
– virtualization, in principle, has the potentiality of either erasing or
heightening or situated presence in the world.
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Virtualization on the flip side, may create mayhem to the social
infrastructure as we know it today, just because individual can
literally decide to be who they wish to be with ease.
True virtualization requires an absence of reality. This may lead to:
– Lack of consciousness in individuals and groups,
– Lack of accountability as individuals and groups are shielded from real
consequences of their actions.
Without a situated and embodied sense of individual or
group responsibility, there are likely to be no
commitment and no risk
In such an environment, therefore, moral engagement is limited
and human relations become trivialized
This may lead to society not benefiting from virtualization.
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Virtualization Security as an
Ethical Imperative
Perhaps the greatest threat presented by virtualization to
computer networks is the fact that using one physical
computer, one can access many virtual infrastructure, a
feat that not so feasible in the physical networks.
Virtualization security should include:
– Hypervisor security
– Securing Communications Between Desktop and
Virtual Infrastructure
– Security of Communication Between Virtual Machines
– Threats and Vulnerabilities Originating from a VM
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The ethical approach entails us to making sure we devote our best
and most thorough thinking to every weak spot in our interaction
with the world.
Virtualization, in all its forms, is a process and a technology that is
bound to complicate and transform the social fabric of society.
It is not only ethical but imperative that we deal with all its ethical
and security loopholes through which both intentional and
unintentional exploitations of the technologies can take place, and
these exploitations are bound to have far-reaching consequences
for humanity.
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