A Methodological Reflection on Converging Technologies and Their Relevance to Informa-tion Ethics

In light of converging technologies, there is a clear sense that ethicists of various technological domains are coming together. Or, that they should come together. Yet, despite increasing cooperation and boundary-crossing in various fields of the ethics of technology, these efforts remain mostly at topical level. Relatively little attention has been given to issues on methodologies. The current paper aims to contribute to the current research by raising the methodological issues. In this paper, my objective is to argue that ethics of Information Technology (or Information Ethics (IE)) can benefit from the insights in other fields of the ethics of technology. Drawing the insights from other fields of the ethics of technology, I shall propose a systematic account of an Empirical Information Ethics (EIE)

Disclosive ethics and information technology: disclosing facial recognition systems

This paper is an attempt to present disclosive ethics as a framework for computer and information ethics � in line with the suggestions by Brey, but also in quite a different manner. The potential of such an approach is demonstrated through a disclosive analysis of facial recognition systems. The paper argues that the politics of information technology is a particularly powerful politics since information technology is an opaque technology � i.e. relatively closed to scrutiny. It presents the design of technology as a process of closure in which design and use decisions become black-boxed and progressively enclosed in increasingly complex sociotechnical networks. It further argues for a disclosive ethics that aims to disclose the nondisclosure of politics by claiming a place for ethics in every actual operation of power � as manifested in actual design and use decisions and practices. It also proposes that disclosive ethics would aim to trace and disclose the intentional and emerging enclosure of politics from the very minute technical detail through to social practices and complex social-technical networks. The paper then proceeds to do a disclosive analysis of facial recognition systems. This analysis discloses that seemingly trivial biases in recognition rates of FRSs can emerge as very significant political acts when these systems become used in practice

Resources for an experimental course in ethics

Technology and ethics was the topic of a recent experimental distance taught course using synchronous and asynchronous e-media. This pilot was offered to a restricted number of IT-literate practitioners without formal background in ethics. Offering the course across disparate time zones meant synchronised sessions were limited thus a question posed in planning was 'What resources should the students study between the synchronous sessions to ensure a lively and economical debate?�. In this account we describe some of the resources that were deployed and what they offered

Review of: The Ethics of Reproductive Technology (Kenneth D. Alpern ed., Oxford University Press 1992)

Review of: The Ethics of Reproductive Technology (Kenneth D. Alpern ed., Oxford University Press 1992). Additional readings, glossary, introduction, notes, preface. LC 92-8252; ISBN 0-19-507435-1. [370 pp. Paper $19.95. 200 Madison Avenue, New York NY 10016.

Science and Technology Governance and Ethics - A Global Perspective from Europe, India and China

This book analyzes the possibilities for effective global governance of science in Europe, India and China. Authors from the three regions join forces to explore how ethical concerns over new technologies can be incorporated into global science and technology policies. The first chapter introduces the topic, offering a global perspective on embedding ethics in science and technology policy. Chapter Two compares the institutionalization of ethical debates in science, technology and innovation policy in three important regions: Europe, India and China. The third chapter explores public perceptions of science and technology in these same three regions. Chapter Four discusses public engagement in the governance of science and technology, and Chapter Five reviews science and technology governance and European values. The sixth chapter describes and analyzes values demonstrated in the constitution of the People’s Republic of China. Chapter Seven describes emerging evidence from India on the uses of science and technology for socio-economic development, and the quest for inclusive growth. In Chapter Eight, the authors propose a comparative framework for studying global ethics in science and technology. The following three chapters offer case studies and analysis of three emerging industries in India, China and Europe: new food technologies, nanotechnology and synthetic biology. Chapter 12 gathers all these threads for a comprehensive discussion on incorporating ethics into science and technology policy. The analysis is undertaken against the backdrop of different value systems and varying levels of public perception of risks and benefits. The book introduces a common analytical framework for the comparative discussion of ethics at the international level. The authors offer policy recommendations for effective collaboration among the three regions, to promote responsible governance in science and technology and a common analytical perspective in ethics

Using drama to introduce ethics to technology students and practitioners

In this poster we describe the use of Joe Penhall's play 'Landscape with Weapon' as a resource to teach ethics to students and practitioners in technology. 'Landscape with Weapon' is a play in three acts that revolve around issues confronting an engineer who works in the weapons industry. The play raises a number of broad questions concerning intellectual property rights, duty and responsibility in professional conduct, amongst other ethical issues. Crucially, however, although the play raises 'big' questions concerning technological development, it is in the portrayal of relationships between individual characters each with their own personal ethical stance, and it is in the development of these relationships through conversations and outbursts that vital ethical questions arise. Although it is not always clearly recognised, it is in the everyday, routine conversations and dealings of people that ethical questions are refined, developed and, on occasion, answered. Accordingly, such dialogues influence action and guide conduct. Rather than focussing on the formulation of theory, a play can demonstrate how ethical stances fare when placed alongside one another. Also, a play encourages the audience to empathise with characters thus inviting the audience to examine their own ethical positions through their reactions to the dialogue, gesture and action set out in the play script. In short, a suitable play such as 'Landscape with Weapon' can function as an allegory representing issues and questions of relevance to an audience of practitioners in a variety of areas of technology development. This poster uses 'Landscape with Weapon' as an example of one amongst several plays and dialogues used as resources for teaching ethics in the Unit 'Introducing Ethics in Information and Computer Sciences' (working title), currently under development with the support of a grant from the HEA Subject Centre for ICS. The Unit, a self-contained multi-media course, will be made available, for re-use and re-purposing under a Creative Commons License, on the LabSpace (http://labspace.open.ac.uk), the experimentation site of the Open University open content initiative OpenLearn (http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn)

Pervasion of what? : techno–human ecologies and their ubiquitous spirits.

Are the robots coming? Is the singularity near? Will we be dominated by technology? The usual response to ethical issues raised by pervasive and ubiquitous technologies assumes a philosophical anthropology centered on existential autonomy and agency, a dualistic ontology separating humans from technology and the natural from the artificial, and a post-monotheistic dualist and creational spirituality. This paper explores an alternative, less modern vision of the 'technological' future based on different assumptions: a 'deep relational' view of human being and self, an ecological view of human–technology relations, and 'ubiquitous' spirituality. Moving beyond an ethics of fear and control, it is argued that technology is part of a lived and active whole that is at the same time human, technological, social, and spiritual. Influenced by ecological and Eastern thinking, it is concluded that an ethics of technology understood as a relational ethics of life asks us to adapt and grow within this multi-faced ecology, which is currently - but not necessarily - pervaded by hyper-individualist modernity and its ego-boosting technologies of the self. This growth is only possible by relating to, and learning from, other cultures and from their specific way of pervading and being pervaded