SI 410 Ethics and Information Technology Week 2

SI 410 Ethics and Information Technology Week 2 a: Values and Norms in Applied Ethics

Plan for Today � Tease out blogging ideas from two chapters � Examples of reading for big ideas � Mapping from examples to personal ideas � A position that you might take � Philip Brey, Twente University, Netherlands � “Values in technology and disclosive computer ethics” � Jeroen van den Hoven, Delft University � “The use of normative theories in computer ethics” 2 SI 410 Ethics and Information Technology Week 2

Brey on Moral Values Worth Analyzing � “Values, then, correspond to idealized qualities or conditions in the world that people find good. ” (p. 46) � What are some examples of “idealized qualities? ” � Moral values: Justice, freedom, autonomy, privacy, democracy � Non-moral values: aesthetics, economic, social, personal (beauty, efficiency, social harmony, friendliness) 3 SI 410 Ethics and Information Technology Week 2

Embedded Values � Brey (p. 42): “The embedded values approach holds that computer systems and software not morally neutral and that it is possible to identify tendencies in them to promote or demote particular moral values and norms. ” �… moral consequences subject to ethical analysis as values �… operations of systems that are unknowingly value laden � Artifacts are capable of either promoting or harming the realization of values. � “… 4 built in consequence, which is a built-in tendency to SI 410 Ethics and Information Week promote or harm the realization of. Technology a value. ” (p. 2 46)

Biases in Information Systems [Brey] � Bias = systematically and unfairly discriminates against certain individuals or groups, who may be users or other stakeholders. ” (p. 48) � � “Embedded values are not necessarily a reflection of the values of designers. ” (p. 50) � 5 Pre-existent (individual or societal) � Examples: racial profiling in loan application software; gender biases in video game design Technical (constraints or considerations) � Examples: screen size and search results; overly simplistic algorithms or models Emergent (social context of use) � ATMs in populations with low written literacy … this lays the groundwork for assigning moral agency to systems. SI 410 Ethics and Information Technology Week 2

Disclosive Ethics [Brey] � Role of Computer Ethics: “morally evaluate practices that involve ICT and to devise ethical policies for these practices. ” -- Brey is the never-ending policy geek! � Practices can be morally transparent or opaque. � “The aim of disclosive ethics is to identify morally opaque practices, describe and analyze them, so as to bring them into view, and to identify and reflect on any problematic moral features in them. ” (p. 51) 6 SI 410 Ethics and Information Technology Week 2

Morally opaque practices � Brey example: “browser tracking” � Cookies – opaque because people don’t understand how they work, what happens to the information, or how to deal with them. � Cookies act against the value of privacy. � Solution: some form of informed consent? � Blog: What examples of morally opaque practices might be applied to other values? � 7 Justice, freedom, autonomy, democracy SI 410 Ethics and Information Technology Week 2

Friedman Values in Design � Human welfare; Ownership and property; Privacy; Freedom from bias; Universal usability; Trust; Autonomy; Informed consent; Accountability; Courtesy; Identity; Calmness; Environmental sustainability Batya Friedman University of Washington “We need to design buildings with nature in mind, and within view. In other words, we cannot with psychological impunity digitize nature and display the digitized version as a substitute for the real thing (and worse, then destroy the original). ” [Friedman, p. 80] 8 SI 410 Ethics and Information Technology Week 2

It’s not high-definition anything. It’s a window. “ 9 SI 410 Ethics and Information Technology Week 2

Friedman – VSD Orientation and Method Proactive – early influence on design � Enlarge arena of impact � Conceptual, empirical, and technical methods applied iteratively � Enlarged scope of values, especially those with moral import � Distinction between usability and human values with ethical import � Accounts for direct (users) and indirect stakeholders (those affected) � Interactional -- the technology’s actual use depends on the goals of the people interacting with it. � Values are universal but play out locally in different ways. � 10 SI 410 Ethics and Information Technology Week 2

Using Normative Theories � Van den Hoven “… a fully adequate ethical treatment of ICTs … requires a somewhat different approach to moral theorizing from the ones that have been tried thus far. ” (p. 61) � Conceptual and value pluralism: avoid skepticism and relativism � Empirical, realistic, and practical: for guidance in actual use � Fill conceptual vacuums: in the shaping of technology � Moral design: not just moralistic evaluation after the fact 11 SI 410 Ethics and Information Technology Week 2

Pluralism: Theory and Anti-theory � You can take a stand on this issue… � Theory: complexity leads to multiple views of same issue � Copying software for a friend: (one example on ethics Q) � Helping a friend � Illegal copying a software program � Violating a morally acceptable law to gain some benefit � Anti-theory: � Posner: 12 useless in practice not an agent of moral change SI 410 Ethics and Information Technology Week 2

So, What are Some of These Theories? � Aristotle: moral action is what a virtuous person does � Character is destiny: “it is impossible to know what is right and not be inclined to do it. ” � Kant: moral action turns on the characteristics of the action itself; act in everyone’s best interests � Each person is morally autonomous and deserving of respect � Utilitarian: moral actions have the best consequences � Good 13� is non-moral: (e. g. , happiness, pleasure, well being) http: //www. ucl. ac. uk/Bentham. SI 410 Ethics and Information Technology Project/who/autoicon/Virtual_Auto_Icon Week 2

Utilitarian Ethics (Consequentialism) � Parent: Jeremy Bentham (1748 -1832) � Outcome “trumps” intention (will) � Choose the act that does the most good (least harm) for the greatest number of people � Morality of the action depends on the results http: //www. ucl. ac. uk/Bentham-Project/ 14 SI 410 Ethics and Information Technology Week 2

Example: Are Violent Video Games Evil? � Manhunt, Zog’s Nightmare, Ethnic Cleansing, Grand Theft Auto Manhunt executions: http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=PGuh. X 5 Amju. A � Ethnic Cleansing: � https: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Ethnic_Cleansing_(video_game) � Utilitarian: virtual suffering doesn’t count; no humans harmed; no issue � Jury is out on empirical evidence � Kant: no one’s dignity is at stake except, perhaps the player � Violation of a duty to one’s self � Aristotle: 15� cultivating the wrong sort of character SI 410 Ethics andother Information Technology Works against empathy for humans Week 2

A Way Toward Understanding �… before we jump to design clever solutions (via engineering and computer science …. � …. Ask how the problem came into being � …. Explore the design and architectural decision that led to it � Choice architecture: organizing the context in which people make decisions 16 SI 410 Ethics and Information Technology Week 2

A Way Toward Understanding � “Grounded Preparation” (Brey, p. 72) � Meticulous understanding of the field – essence of applied ethics. � Figure out the properties of artificial agents, how they differ from humans, � “Conceptions are the specific and substantive specifications and instantiations of a general and formal concept. ” [p. 73] � Examples of new conceptions, not new concepts: (p. 73) � digital democracy, software patents, virtual child pornography, online relationships, net friendship, cyber communities, informational privacy, artificial life, tele-work, intellectual property, e-Trust, electronic commerce 17 SI 410 Ethics and Information Technology Week 2

Paul Conway Associate Professor University of Michigan School of Information pconway@umich. edu