Chapter 6 explores the many new moral problems presented to businesspeople by technology. What new moral dilemmas are presented by the Internet? As information becomes increasingly accessible to all, what counts (and what should count) as ownership of valuable information? Is technology a good in itself, or is it also often harmful? What should be the role of technology in a good business and a good life?

Elizabeth A. Buchanan explains how the information age creates new ethical dilemmas as information becomes increasingly important to the concrete development of emerging peoples and nations. She also argues that the kind of information placed on the Internet creates special moral problems, because it is controlled by the powerful persons who own the technologies. We can destroy cultural diversity and cultural freedom by a thoughtless dispersion of our own cultural information.

Victoria Groom and Clifford Nass explore the moral issues surrounding the use of robots; as technology increasingly allows it, can robots become real teammates to humans? Clive Thompson asks, “Do we have a right to mental privacy?” Sun founder Bill Joy discusses the larger problems of technology today: Is it always a good in our lives? How and why is technology a danger? Joy argues that we need very strict oversight of the development of technology and that there are many reasons to suppose that technology is not good for humans at all.

By the close of Chapter 6, you should:

• Understand several moral dangers presented by technology
• Understand how the Internet and related technologies are changing the concept of property
• Understand the pros and cons of free distribution of information over the Internet
• Understand how privacy is being changed by technology
• Understand why ethics are important for persons in the technology industries, and the particular ethical challenges such persons face

Suggested Readings

American Association for the Advancement of Science. “The Ethics of Research in Cyberspace.” http://www.aaas.org/spp/sfrl/projects/intres/main.htm.

Terry Halbert. Cyberethics. Lanham, MD: South-Western College, 2004.

Adam D. Moore. “Employee Monitoring and Computer Technology.” Business Ethics Quarterly 10 (July 2000).

“On Student Privacy.” Family Education Right to Privacy Act (abridged).

George Reynolds. Ethics in Information Technology. New York: Course Technology, 2006.  

Richard A. Spinello. Case Studies in Information Technology Ethics. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002.

Websites

Find a valuable collection of resources on computer ethics and related issues at http://cyberethics.cbi.msstate.edu/

Visit the “Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility” website at www.cpsr.org

Learn about how the way we view ethics and technology had to change after September 11, 2001, at www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/ethicalperspectives/kvamme.html

Read about trends in how businesses are incorporating artificial intelligence and robotics at https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/focus/human-capital-trends/2018/ai-robotics-intelligent-machines.html#ai-and-people-are-smarter-togeth

Find a large collection of professional codes of ethics, gathered by the Illinois Institute of Technology, at http://ethics.iit.edu/ecodes/

Visit UNESCO and learn about ethics and technology at http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/bioethics/

 

Find a more detailed discussion of SOPA at http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/17/technology/sopa_explained/index.htm

 

Read the recording industry’s take on online music piracy at http://www.riaa.com/physicalpiracy.php?content_selector=what-is-online-piracy

Check out a discussion of how technological mind reading would affect our lives at http://www.salon.com/2012/12/15/mind_reading_is_possible/