JANE DIAZ

MR. PAJO

BS-IM

ITETHICS

 

 

BOOKREVIEW #9

ETHICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN THE INFORMATION AGE

by: Joseph Migga Kizza

 

 

Chapter I – INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL AND ETHICAL COMPUTING

 

 

It is clear that the study of ethical and social issues in computing interdisciplinary

in nature. The conceptual approach integrates, from the perspective of computer

science, the complementary disciplines of philosophical ethics and social science.

Ethicists from both philosophy and theology, historians, social analysts, sociologists,

anthropologists, and psychologists have all contributed heavily to the research in this

area .

However, instead of requiring computer science students to learn from these

disciplines by taking separate courses in philosophy and sociology, we propose that

elements from these disciplines be incorporated into the core of computer science.

Teaching the ethics and social impact strand can also be accomplished by incorporating

a set of modules into other computer science core courses if there are enough faculty

members committed to including the material as a significant part of their computer

science courses. This means that a social and ethical impact module should be

incorporated into many of the traditional undergraduate computer science courses such

as introductory programming, data bases, programming languages, operating systems,

AI, and software engineering. Another approach is to include several of the knowledge

units in, a senior-level project course emphasizing skills and knowledge required to

become a responsible computer professional.

 

 

Chapter II – MORALITY AND THE LAW

 

 

With a discussion of the normative foundations of economic analysis, namely, the

subject of welfare economics, I also describe notions of morality and fairness, which play

an important, if dominant, role in much normative discourse about law, and I discuss the

connections between welfare economics and morality. A theme of this discussion is that

notions of morality have functional aspects, and that, for a complex of reasons, they also

take on importance in their own right to individuals.

Every political and legal scholar in our philosophical tradition has written about

the need for limits on government power and the importance of preserving personal

liberty. There is a crucial difference, however, between promoting public morality and

protecting the sensibilities of reasonable members of the community while in the public

sphere something that falls under the police power of state and criminalizing private

consensual conduct that harms neither the individuals involved nor the general public

something that is outside the bounds of the police power.

 

 

Chapter III – ETHICS, TECHNOLOGY AND VALUE

 

 

“Ideally, new technology will advance, enhance and support human values. But

of course this is not an ideal world. The effects of technology are mixed. For example,

the “agricultural revolution” and the “industrial revolution” brought many benefits to

human beings: food for the hungry, effective medical care for the sick, relief from heavy

labor, rapid and comfortable transportation, and so on. Nevertheless, problems were

generated: overpopulation, world-threatening weapons, pollution, terrible accidents that

killed many people, etc.

Too often, new technology develops with little attention to its impact upon human

values. The mass production of automobiles, for example, had profound effects upon

cities, travel, entertainment, nature, the environment, even sexual mores. Many of the

consequences were unforeseen – even unimagined – by those who created the

technology. Let us do better! In particular, let us do what we can in this era of “the

computer revolution” to see that computer technology advances human values.”

(http://www.southernct.edu/organizations/rccs/resources/teaching/teaching_mono/bynu

m/bynum_human_values.html) The entry of proactive technology into highly sensitive

environments, such as the home, produces specific design challenges that are

inextricably linked to ethical issues.