Some Historical Milestone

WELCOME

QUESTIONS

: I N C O M P U T E R A N D I N F O R M AT I O N E T H I C S

What is

Compute

r Ethics?

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-computer/#DefComEth

Computer Ethics

: refer to a kind of professional ethics in

which computer professionals apply codes of

ethics and standards of good practice within

their profession.

In most countries of the world, the ―information revolution‖ has altered many aspects of

life significantly:

commerce, employment, medicine, security, transportation, entertainment, and so on.

Consequently, information and communication technology (ICT) has affected —

community life, family life, careers, freedom, and democracy .

1940 1950 21st1960

Norbert Wiener

a professor of

mathematics and

engineering at MIT.

An innovative

developments in science

and philosophy led to the

creation of a new branch

of ethics that would later

be called ―computer

ethics‖ or ―information

ethics‖.

Together with colleagues in

While engaged in

this war effort, Wiener

and colleagues created

a new branch of applied

science that Wiener

named ―cybernetics‖

(from the Greek word

for the pilot of a ship).

Even while the Warwas raging, Wienerforesaw enormoussocial and ethicalimplications ofcybernetics combinedwith electroniccomputers.

The world would undergo

―a second industrial revolution‖

— an ―automatic age‖ with

―enormous potential for good

and for evil‖ that would

generate a staggering number

of new ethical challenges and

opportunities.

Cybernetics (1948)

In which he

described his new branch

of applied science and

identified some social

and ethical implications

of electronic computers.

―It has long been clear to me that the

modern ultra rapid computing machine was

in principle an ideal central nervous system

to an apparatus for automatic control; and

that its input and output need not be in the

form of numbers or diagrams. It might very

well be, respectively, the readings of

artificial‖

Wiener‘s book included, for example:

1. An account of the purpose of a

human life

2. Four principles of justice

3. A powerful method for doing applied

ethics

4. Discussions of the fundamental

questions of computer ethics

5. Examples of key computer ethics

topics

The Human Use of Human Beings (1950)

A book in which he

explored a number of

ethical issues that computer

and information technology

would likely generate.

Donn Parker

- Computer scientist

―It seemed,‖

Parker said, ―that

when people entered

the computer

center, they left their

ethics at the door‖.

Headed the development of

the first Code of Professional

Conduct of the Association

for Computing Machinery

(eventually adopted by the

ACM in 1973).

In 1968 he published

―Rules of Ethics in

Information Processing‖

As anexperiment, Weizenbaum usedELIZA to provide “a crudeimitation of a Rogerianpsychotherapist engaged in aninitial interview with apatient”.

Joseph Weizenbaum

created a computer

program that he called

‗ELIZA‘.

Some practicingpsychiatrists saw ELIZA asevidence that computers soonwould be performingautomated psychotherapy.

Wrote the book ComputerPower and HumanReason, which forcefullyexpressed his ethical concerns.The book, together with hiscourses at MIT and the manyspeeches he gave in the1970s, inspired a number ofthinkers and projects incomputer ethics

Joseph Weizenbaum

created a computer

program that he called

‗ELIZA‘.

Walter Maner

Teacher in a university

course in medical ethics

He began to use the

term ‗computer ethics‘ to

refer to ―ethical problems

aggravated, transformed or

created by computer

technology‖.

These effortsspurred thestudy ofcomputer ethicsat a number ofcolleges anduniversities inthe UnitedStates.

involved

add

He developed a

university computer ethics

course and offered a

variety of workshops and

lectures at conferences

across America.

Parker, Weizenbaum and Maner

had raised the computer ethics

consciousness of a number of American

scholars. In addition, several

computing-related social and ethical

problems had become public issues in

America and Europe: computer-enabled

crime, disasters from computer

failures, invasions of privacy via

computer databases, and major law

suits regarding software ownership. The

time was right for exponential growth

in computer ethics.

Parker, Weizenbaum and Maner

had raised the computer ethics

consciousness of a number of American

scholars. In addition, several

computing-related social and ethical

problems had become public issues in

America and Europe: computer-enabled

crime, disasters from computer

failures, invasions of privacy via

computer databases, and major law

suits regarding software ownership. The

time was right for exponential growth

in computer ethics.

• New University Courses

• Research centers

• Conferences

• Journals

• Articles

• Text BooksDONALD GOTTERBARN

KEITH MILLERSIMON ROGERSONDIANE MARTIN

Have recently argued thatcomputer ethics willdisappear as a branch ofapplied ethics?

Wiener-Maner-Górniak

point of view sees computer

technology as ethically

revolutionary, requiring human

beings to reexamine the

foundations of ethics and the

very definition of a human life.

Deborah Johnson perspective is

that fundamental ethical theories will

remain unaffected – that computer

ethics issues are simply the same old

ethics questions with a new twist – and

consequently computer ethics as a

distinct branch of applied philosophy

will ultimately disappear.

Thank You For

Listening…

By: Romeo T. Navarro Jr. II-BSICTE

Jonnalyn Barrientos

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