The Ethics of Technology

The Ethics of Technology PDF Author: Martin Peterson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190652276
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Book Description
Autonomous cars, drones, and electronic surveillance systems are examples of technologies that raise serious ethical issues. In this analytic investigation, Martin Peterson articulates and defends five moral principles for addressing ethical issues related to new and existing technologies: the cost-benefit principle, the precautionary principle, the sustainability principle, the autonomy principle, and the fairness principle. It is primarily the method developed by Peterson for articulating and analyzing the five principles that is novel. He argues that geometric concepts such as points, lines, and planes can be put to work for clarifying the structure and scope of these and other moral principles. This geometric account is based on the Aristotelian dictum that like cases should be treated alike, meaning that the degree of similarity between different cases can be represented as a distance in moral space. The more similar a pair of cases are from a moral point of view, the closer is their location in moral space. A case that lies closer in moral space to a paradigm case for some principle p than to any paradigm for any other principle should be analyzed by applying principle p. The book also presents empirical results from a series of experimental studies in which experts (philosophers) and laypeople (engineering students) have been asked to apply the geometric method to fifteen real-world cases. The empirical findings indicate that experts and laypeople do in fact apply geometrically construed moral principles in roughly, but not exactly, the manner advocates of the geometric method believe they ought to be applied.

The Ethics of Technology

The Ethics of Technology PDF Author: Sven Ove Hansson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1783486597
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 279

Book Description
Our daily lives are affected by new technologies at an ever increasing rate. It is becoming more and more important to assess future technologies from an ethical point of view, and to do this before they are introduced on a massive scale. Such assessments require systematic use of many different kinds of knowledge. In this important new book, an international team of leading experts in the field provides the first comprehensive treatment of the methods available for ethical assessments of technologies and their social introduction. The book explores how information from empirical research can be used in ethical analyses of technology and includes chapters showing how ethical analysis can shed light on topics such as privacy, risk, sustainability, dual use, gender issues, justice, international technology transfer, and the responsibility of engineers. It provides an invaluable resource for students in the philosophy and ethics of technology, science and technology studies, applied ethics, bioethics, business ethics and the ethics of computing.

The Ethics of Ordinary Technology

The Ethics of Ordinary Technology PDF Author: Michel Puech
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317216512
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Book Description
Technology is even more than our world, our form of life, our civilization. Technology interacts with the world to change it. Philosophers need to seriously address the fluidity of a smartphone interface, the efficiency of a Dyson vacuum cleaner, or the familiar noise of an antique vacuum cleaner. Beyond their phenomenological description, the emotional experience acquires moral significance and in some cases even supplies ethical resources for the self. If we leave this dimension of modern experience unaddressed, we may miss something of value in contemporary life. Combining European humanism, Anglophone pragmatism, and Asian traditions, Michel Puech pleads for an "ethical turn" in the way we understand and address technological issues in modern day society. Puech argues that the question of "power" is what needs to be reconsidered today. In doing so, he provides a three-tier distinction of power: power to modify the outer world (our first-intention method in any case: technology); power over other humans (our enduring obsession: politics and domination); power over oneself (ethics and wisdom).

Right/Wrong

Right/Wrong PDF Author: Juan Enriquez
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262542811
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 299

Book Description
A lively and entertaining guide to ethics in a technological age. Most people have a strong sense of right and wrong, and they aren't shy about expressing their opinions. But when we take a polarizing stand on something we regard as an eternal truth, we often forget that ethics evolve over time. Many shifts in the right versus wrong pendulum are driven by advances in technology. Our great-grandparents might be shocked by in vitro fertilization; our great-grandchildren might be shocked by the messiness of pregnancy, childbirth, and unedited genes. In Right/Wrong, Juan Enriquez reflects on what happens to our ethics as technology makes the once unimaginable a commonplace occurrence.

Ethics in the AI, Technology, and Information Age

Ethics in the AI, Technology, and Information Age PDF Author: Michael Boylan
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538160765
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Book Description
Increasingly, technology, the Internet and social media are playing a major part in our lives. What should we think about the ethical issues that arise, such as the changing role of intelligent machines in this Information Age? The impact of technology upon society is a perennial question, but the power of computing and artificial intelligence has ratcheted up the ethical implications of this relationship. It merits careful consideration. Ethics in the AI, Technology, and Information Age brings together a cohort of international scholars to explore the ethical ramifications of the latest technologies and their effects on our lives. This it does in three parts: (1) theoretical considerations, (2) practical applications, and (3) challenges. Beginning with theoretical essays, the book investigates the relationship between technology and nature, the limits of being “human” versus “machine,” and the moral implications of artificial intelligence. The book then examines key questions; such as ownership of technology, artificial intelligence’s replacement of human jobs and functions, privacy and cybersecurity, the ethics of self-driving cars, and the problematic aspects of drone warfare. With an appendix of films and documentaries to inspire further discussion on these topics, students and scholars will find Ethics in the AI, Technology, and Information Age an essential and engaging resource both in the classroom and in their daily technology-filled lives.

Narrative and Technology Ethics

Narrative and Technology Ethics PDF Author: Wessel Reijers
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030602729
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 221

Book Description
This book proposes that technologies, similar to texts, novels and movies, ‘tell stories’ and thereby configure our lifeworld in the Digital Age. The impact of technologies on our lived experience is ever increasing: innovations in robotics challenge the nature of work, emerging biotechnologies impact our sense of self, and blockchain-based smart contracts profoundly transform interpersonal relations. In their exploration of the significance of these technologies, Reijers and Coeckelbergh build on the philosophical hermeneutics of Paul Ricouer to construct a new, narrative approach to the philosophy and ethics of technology. The authors take the reader on a journey: from a discussion of the philosophy of praxis, via a hermeneutic notion of technical practice that draws on MacIntyre, Heidegger and Ricoeur, through the virtue ethics of Vallor, and Ricoeur’s ethical aim, to the eventual construction of a practice method which can guide ethics in research and innovation. In its creation of a compelling hermeneutic ethics of technology, the book offers a concrete framework for practitioners to incorporate ethics in everyday technical practice.

Ethics and Technology

Ethics and Technology PDF Author: Herman T. Tavani
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 376

Book Description
Explores current issues in the field of cyberethics, including questions about onlinepersonal privacy, sharing music, and unreliable software, and analyzes the practical, moral, and legal implications of each issue.

The Ethics of Invention: Technology and the Human Future

The Ethics of Invention: Technology and the Human Future PDF Author: Sheila Jasanoff
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393253856
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 217

Book Description
We live in a world increasingly governed by technology—but to what end? Technology rules us as much as laws do. It shapes the legal, social, and ethical environments in which we act. Every time we cross a street, drive a car, or go to the doctor, we submit to the silent power of technology. Yet, much of the time, the influence of technology on our lives goes unchallenged by citizens and our elected representatives. In The Ethics of Invention, renowned scholar Sheila Jasanoff dissects the ways in which we delegate power to technological systems and asks how we might regain control. Our embrace of novel technological pathways, Jasanoff shows, leads to a complex interplay among technology, ethics, and human rights. Inventions like pesticides or GMOs can reduce hunger but can also cause unexpected harm to people and the environment. Often, as in the case of CFCs creating a hole in the ozone layer, it takes decades before we even realize that any damage has been done. Advances in biotechnology, from GMOs to gene editing, have given us tools to tinker with life itself, leading some to worry that human dignity and even human nature are under threat. But despite many reasons for caution, we continue to march heedlessly into ethically troubled waters. As Jasanoff ranges across these and other themes, she challenges the common assumption that technology is an apolitical and amoral force. Technology, she masterfully demonstrates, can warp the meaning of democracy and citizenship unless we carefully consider how to direct its power rather than let ourselves be shaped by it. The Ethics of Invention makes a bold argument for a future in which societies work together—in open, democratic dialogue—to debate not only the perils but even more the promises of technology.

Ethics, Technology, and Engineering

Ethics, Technology, and Engineering PDF Author: Ibo van de Poel
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444395718
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 390

Book Description
Featuring a wide range of international case studies, Ethics, Technology, and Engineering presents a unique and systematic approach for engineering students to deal with the ethical issues that are increasingly inherent in engineering practice. Utilizes a systematic approach to ethical case analysis -- the ethical cycle -- which features a wide range of real-life international case studies including the Challenger Space Shuttle, the Herald of Free Enterprise and biofuels. Covers a broad range of topics, including ethics in design, risks, responsibility, sustainability, and emerging technologies Can be used in conjunction with the online ethics tool Agora (http://www.ethicsandtechnology.com) Provides engineering students with a clear introduction to the main ethical theories Includes an extensive glossary with key terms

Technology Is Not Neutral

Technology Is Not Neutral PDF Author: Stephanie Hare
Publisher: Perspectives
ISBN: 9781907994975
Category : Information science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
It seems that just about every new technology that we bring to bear on improving our lives brings with it some downside, side effect or unintended consequence. These issues can pose very real and growing ethical problems for all of us. For example, automated facial recognition can make life easier and safer for us - but it also poses huge issues with regard to privacy, ownership of data and even identity theft. How do we understand and frame these debates, and work out strategies at personal and governmental levels? Technology Is Not Neutral: A Short Guide to Technology Ethics addresses one of today's most pressing problems: how to create and use tools and technologies to maximize benefits and minimize harms? Drawing on the author's experience as a technologist, political risk analyst and historian, the book offers a practical and cross-disciplinary approach that will inspire anyone creating, investing in or regulating technology, and it will empower all readers to better hold technology to account.