Copyright 1998 Dr. John M. Artz
The Role of Stories in Computer Ethics
By John M. Artz, Ph.D.
Within the computing profession, interest in computer ethics has been growing steadily for
over ten years. Many academic programs now have courses dedicated to social and ethical
issues in information systems or computer science. Yet if you read a book or attend a
conference on computer ethics, you are likely to come away believing that the central
problems in computer ethics have something to do with protecting individual privacy and
providing universal access to the World Wide Web. Dig a little deeper and you might find
some additional problems such as protecting workers from the dehumanizing influences of
technology, or finding ways to hold software developers responsible for the functioning and
reliability of the systems they build. While these, and many other similar issues, are clearly
important to the profession, and are being discussed at length, I would argue that they are
merely examples of two much larger issues that are not being discussed at all. I see the
central problems in computer ethics to be the means of determining ethical standards and
the means of enforcing ethical standards. The first, more clearly, is how do you establish
ethical standards in a professional field that is defined by a rapidly evolving technology
where the consequences of the technology and the impact of any ethical standards cannot be
know in the time frame in which the standards must be established ? And the second,
restated is - once you establish ethical standards, how do you get professionals and
practitioners to accept and adopt those ethical standards ? Stories play a very important role
in both of these issues, but before that can be seen, a few other points must be established.
The purpose of this essay is to sketch out those prior arguments to make a case for the role
of stories in computer ethics. Subsequent essays will explore these prior arguments more
fully.
Narrative vs. Logical Thinking
There is a strong bias in the modern world against the use of stories in the pursuit of truth.
We credit Plato who replaced stories (Greek myths) with reason and we view the modern
age as a testament to the value of rationality. Thus, any argument that promotes the use of
stories sounds like an undesirable throwback to irrational pre-Socratic times. Plato was
certainly correct in his view that stories are imprecise representations of reality. Yet Plato
himself frequently used stories in conveying his own philosophical beliefs. If we are looking
for precise intellectual truths, then perhaps stories are not the best medium for exploration.
However, in areas where our understanding is unclear, either because we do not fully
understand a phenomenon, or the phenomenon is not available for study because it is
merely a possible world, stories play a very important role in advancing our understanding.
To put a finer point on this argument, science and logic fail miserably at telling us what
could be or more importantly what should be. In these two areas stories are powerful
vehicles for intellectual explorations.
In order to fully see the value of stories, one must first recognize the fact that there are two
distinct modes of thinking which humans use to organize and make sense out of their
Copyright 1998 Dr. John M. Artz
experiences. These two modes of thinking are logical thinking and narrative thinking. Both
modes provide meaningful structures for organizing experiences with the goal of making
sense out of them. This is, of course, not to say that narrative thinking and logical thinking
are mutually exclusive. A narrative can be quite logical and a logical argument may well be
expressed in a narrative. However, the characteristics and goals of each mode are quite
different. Logical thinking is context independent, and its goal is the development of
abstract, general principles that can be objectively verified. Narrative thinking is context
dependent and its goal is resolve a particular context dependent situation. The resolution
may not be objectively verified. In fact the richer the narrative description the more
subjective the conclusions may be and the greater the variety of interpretations.
It is complimentary to say that a logical argument clearly leads to one conclusion. However,
to say that a story clearly leads to a single conclusion, would suggest a major shortcoming
of the story. Similarly, it is praise to say that a story means something different to every
person. Yet the same remark is fatally damning when made about a logical argument.
Narrative thinking is a valuable approach to complex issues that are too poorly understood
to be subjected to a purely logical analysis. It is also useful for exploring moral issues and
for exploring possible outcomes of our actions. For these reasons, narrative thinking, and
hence stories, play a vital role in computer ethics.
The Role of Emotion in Reason
For twenty-four centuries, Western philosophers have been trying to squeeze the emotion
out of our thinking processes as though emotion pollutes thought. (This can be blamed on
Plato also, although all this blame is a little unfair.) We try to reason in an objective and
dispassionate manner so that we are not influenced by our feelings which will only lead
us astray in our thinking. However, reasoning without emotional influence is often
seriously flawed and we need to understand the role of emotions in reasoning if we are
going to make correct moral decisions.
There is a well know argument against utilitarianism in which there are several patients in
a hospital in need of organ transplants. One needs a heart, one a liver, one a kidney and so
forth. A health person comes to the hospital to visit an ailing friend and the hospital staff
decides to sacrifice the healthy person to save the lives of the patients who need
transplants. After all, this meets the fundamental tenant of utilitarianism - the greatest
good for the greatest number of people - five or six people get to live and only one has to
die. Logically it works, but its visceral repugnance forces use to go back and reexamine
our reasoning.
Emotions are our connection with the real world. Logical reasoning uses abstract
principles that must ultimately be grounded in how we feel about the world. Thus,
reasoning free of emotion is often incomplete. The Star Trek character Mr. Spock is a
characature of this flawed approach. Stories connect with us emotionally and allow us to
Copyright 1998 Dr. John M. Artz
include emotion as an important component in our moral reasoning. If you were that
patient in the scenario above, would you rather have your fate decided by rational
utilitarians or by people that had to square their decision with their gut feel ?
Imagination and Possible Consequentialism
One of the problems in establishing standards of ethical behavior in a field driven by
technology is that the consequences of the technology and reactions to the technology often
cannot be known. Looking to the past to provide guidance is ineffective because the past
provides few clues. Marshall McLuhan is often attributed with the famous observation that
looking to the past to provide guidance for the future is like driving by looking in the rear
view mirror. Although it is disputed as to whether he ever said that or not, it is still a good
metaphor because it works well to shed light on the problem. If one is driving on a
completely straight highway through the dessert, they may very well be able to drive by
looking in the rear view mirror. If they turn the wheel a little to the right they will see that
they are veering off the road. They can correct their future behavior by doing something and
then viewing the results. However, if they are driving fast, if the road has curves, or if
unexpected things like an animal crossing the road are likely to occur, then driving by
looking in the rear view mirror would be foolish. Since technology is evolving so fast, with
such great impacts, it has increased our speed and made the road ahead very curvy with
many unexpected events. Consequently, we need a headlight into the future to guide us in
deciding what actions we should take. Imagination provides that headlight.
Consider imagination as the creative capacity to think of possibilities. Imagination lets us
see the world, not as it is, but as it could be. And seeing the world as it could be allows us
to make choices about how it should be. It is this ability to see possibilities that drives us
to build technologies to bring about, or implement our preferences about possible worlds.
Stories are both a product and a tool of our imaginations. Using stories in moral reasoning
provides a means for a slightly different view of ethics that could be called possible
consequentialism. Whereas the consequentialist evaluates actions based upon their
consequences, the possible consequentialist evaluates actions based upon their possible
outcomes. The possible outcomes are described in stories and the likelihood of the outcome
is determined by the believability of the story given our understanding of current conditions
and human nature.
The Role of Stories in Moral Development
There are three characteristics of computer ethics that making teaching a difficult task. The
first problem is that the consequences and impacts of new technologies cannot be known.
Thus, consequentialist ethics have limited applications. The second problem is that
computer systems in conjunction with the human systems that utilize them are so complex,
that it would be hard to predict outcomes even if specific consequences were known.
Copyright 1998 Dr. John M. Artz
Because of this complexity, rational analysis is of limited value. Third, there is no
consensus in computer ethics as to what entails ethical behavior. Since there is no consensus
on ethical behavior, rule base ethics and moral indoctrination have limited application.
Even if there were rules to define ethical behavior the enforcement options are very limited.
The penalty for a professional violating a code of ethics often reduces to nothing more than
expulsion from a professional society. As a practical matter this means losing a personal
subscription to a professional journal. For people who do not belong to professional
societies the penalties are even less. Thus, the threat of punishment for unethical behavior is
almost nonexistent. The only alternative for creating ethical practice in the profession and
ethical behavior among the users of technology is through the development of the the moral
sense of individuals. Stories are a powerful tool for developing the moral sense of
individuals. Stories provide the ambiguity needed to explore issues in computer ethics so
that students develop good moral judgment. This allows them to address new issues in
computer ethics as they arise and make appropriate moral decisions.
Problems with using Stories in Computer Ethics
While stories provides a rich technique for exploring ethical issues that arise in computer
systems, there are two rather serious drawbacks to using stories. The first problems is that
very few useful stories exist. In the broader scope of the philosophy of technology there are
some notable classics that explore social and ethical issues. These include Hard Times,
Frankenstein, Player Piano, and Brave New World among others. More recently Michael
Critchton’s Jurassic Park explored ethical issues in biotechnology. There are two problems
with these sources. First, they do not directly address issues in computing so some effort
would have to be made to make them relevant to computer systems. The second problem is
that they are too long. Ideally, the instructor could assign a short story for homework and
discuss the central issues in the next class meeting. However, very few short stories exist.
To fill this void, short stories must be written and that presents a rather large problem.
The second problem in using stories is learning the classroom techniques needed to explore
the central points in a story. There are several possibilities here including unstructured
discussion, literary analysis, and role playing. However, most teachers who have been
educated in technical fields are far more comfortable with abstract reasoning than with
unstructured or experiential learning techniques. Instructors would need substantial
guidance in using this approach.
At first glance the barriers here seem insurmountable. Good short stories that explore the
ethical issues in computer systems need to be written for use in the classroom. And teachers
of computer ethics need to develop new pedagogical skills. However, the outlook is not
quite as bleak as it initially seems. Writers write about topics of current concern so it is
likely, as time goes by, that there will be more and more short stories that can be used in the
classroom. Further, stories written by teachers do not need to be of Pulitzer prize quality in
Copyright 1998 Dr. John M. Artz
order to useful teaching tools. Already teachers often write and use case studies and
scenarios. The step from writing a case study to writing a short story is not as daunting as it
might seem. But there needs to some incentive for teachers to take this step. The most
important incentive would be if publications outlets were available. That would not only
encourage potential writers, but it would make their products available to other teachers
who may wish to use their stories in the classroom. In point of fact, a story (disguised as a
case study) entitled The Killer Robot was published in the September 1994 issue of
Computers and Society demonstrating the value of using stories to explore ethical issues.
To the second point of professional development, I would say that experiential learning is
just another method of teaching. While it may not be a mainstream tool in computer science
or information systems there is no systematic predisposition, as far as I know, among
teachers of computer ethics that would preclude them from learning these techniques.
Compared with the leap from compiler construction to ethical issues, the step from ethical
issues using formal reasoning to ethical issues using stories and experiential learning
techniques seems quite small.
Conclusion
If a child offers a parent some apparently fantastic representation of past events the parent
may well say “Is that the truth or are you just telling stories ?” We tend to view stories as
frivolous fantasy accounts of fictional events whose only purpose is to either entertain us or
distract us from truth and reality. We diminish the value of stories by viewing them as
untrue or irrational and often overlook their value in both intellectual and moral
development. Yet stories have many important roles in our lives. Certainly they entertain us.
They may reinforce traditional values or challenge them. They allow us to experience things
that we may otherwise never experience. They help us to make sense out things when pure
rationality fails. And they allow us to explore possible worlds. Stories are powerful tools
for helping us to understand and make sense out of the world, and a powerful tool for
exploring issues in computer ethics.