ECS 188 - Ethics in an Age of Technology - m Phil Rogaway

ECS 188: Ethics in an Age of Technology - Annotated List of Readings

This page is jointly written by Earl Barr and Phil Rogaway. The articles we list, except those at the end in red, are things that Earl or Phil think have significant value. The opinions given might be Phil's, Earl's, or both; regard "I" as a random variable (despite the inappropriate name and font). This enumeration is a partial listing of readings that we've used in the past, plus a few additional readings that we haven't used yet but have located and think might be good.

Two anthologies have been used in the class: Hester and Ford [hereafter HF], Computers and Ethics in the Cyberage; and Ermann and Shauf [hereafter ES], Computers, Ethics, and Society. But few of these readings are from either of these books. When they are, we say so.

We suggest that you use some articles from this list, along with other materials you find, to supplement the classroom text.

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Viewpoints on Technology

Ethics in an Age of Technology, vol. 2 by Ian Barbour. The first time I taught the course we actually read the whole book, but that was too much. Author's pro-Christian-bias shows through in places. I do recommend covering at least the first chapter.

Informing Ourselves to Death [ES] by Neil Postman. Five Things We Need To Know About Technical Change by Neil Postman. Phil is quite fond of Postman—he thinks writes clearly and and comes across as a broad-minded thinker. Earl think him sloppy. In any case, both of us are in furious agreement that Postman generates good discussion and introduces students, who tend to be uncritically pro-technology, to an influential thinker who is suspicious of technology and decries its costs.

Why the Future Doesn't Need Us by Bill Joy. An important reading because of Bill Joy's stature among our students (and computer scientists in general). Stream-of-consciousness style of prose gets old after a while.

Something by Jacques Ellul, unknown what. A reading should probably be found for this important thinker. Eg, I just located an on-line piece The Technological Bluff that looks interesting and might be redactable.

Something by Lewis Mumford, unknown what Famous thinker but the reading in [HF] was hideous. Poorly written to the point of being incomprehensible. Hard to believe that everything of his is this incomprehensible. Conceivably a result of over-redacting, conceivably endemic to the author.

Something by Ivan Illich Recommended to me by Marion Videau, looks more readable than Mumford or Ellul. Eg, Silence is a Commons seems short, interesting, and readable. Or one might extract something from Tools for Conviviality. Or something on education; for example, Eduction without School is of a good length and may be interesting to our students.

Philosophy

Hans Jonas, a couple of selected chapters from The Imperative of Responsiblity: in Search of an Ethics for the Technological Age Mentioned in the containing web page. Excellent but requires some sophistication, no doubt too demanding for many of our students, but I will certainly try it anyway.

Computer Ethics (3rd ed.), Chapter 2, by Deborah Johnson. Not bad for a brief introduction to moral philosophy. Recommended. A chapter from [ES] on utilitarianism, by Hospers, was also fine (which is to say it was very annoying and would therefore make for a fine discussion.)

Those who walk away from Omelas by Le Guin. A short story that dramatizes the absurd-consequences objection to utilitarianism. But I (Phil) didn't think much of it as fiction or philosophy. I do like throwing some piece of fiction in the mix, however. Maybe some other fiction can be located—perhaps someone can find a nice piece by Asimov, Heinlein, or Stanislaw Lem.

A Critique of Ethical Relativism by Pojman. I think it important to address and effectively minimize ethical relativism, for otherwise you get the same "well, it's fine for him but not me" arguments repeatedly. This article does a reasonable job at tearing apart ethical relativism.

Kantian Ethics by Feldman. A reasonable, if hostile, description of Kantian deontology. Feldman deconstructs Kant's own examples of the first form of the categorical imperative, then levels two criticisms that Feldman thinks decisively undermine Kant's theory. Useful for its brevity and clarity, but only if you intend to teach deontological analysis.

O'Neil, Kant's Formula of the End in Itself and World Hunger A generalization of Kantian ethics from individuals to organizations, focused on the second form of the categorical imperative. One of us disliked this reading, saying "Drop this—attempts and fails to reinvent Kant to make it seem more socially-conscious."

The Ethics of Virtue by James Rachels, from Chapt. 13 of The Elements of Moral Philosophy, 4th ed. An OK virtue-ethics reading.

Scientist Finds the Beginnings of Morality in Primate Behavior A NY Times article (March 20, 2007) describing the work of Frans de Waal, who argues that morality is rooted not in reason but in in empathy, emotion, and basic primate behaviors.

Computer Ethics, High-Level

What is Computer Ethics? by James Moor, or an updated paper by the same author, Reason, Relativity, and Responsibility in Computer Ethics The first paper is said to be historically important but I thought it rather shallow and dull. Who cares about "defining" a term like "computer ethics" or answering questions like whether or not it should be regarded as a separate branch of ethics?

Computer Ethics by Terrell Bynum, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy A reasonable writeup on computer ethics, probably better than the above.

A History of the Personal Computer, by Robert Pool I only mention this reading because several students commented that they really liked it. I myself didn't think it had much to offer. It does make clear the principles that "best does not win" and it hints at some of the questionable ethics that propelled the PC to dominance.

Privacy, Intellectual Property, Trusted Computing

Privacy as contextual integrity by Helen Nissenbaum. OK, but less interesting than it first appeared. I do like having readings from law scholars. The authors approach to looking a privacy seems valid, but I don't know that the reading is particularly well-connected to ethics. It may help one to understand how to think about privacy in a more systematic manner.

James Boyle, The Second Enclosure Movement and the Construction of the Public Domain Fascinating reading, well written, interesting viewpoints. Strongly recommended. Good find by Earl.

Adam Jaffe and Josh Lerner, Patent Prescription OK reading, certainly not exciting, to accompany the above.

Biddle et al, The Darknet and the Future of Content Distribution Sloppy writing and sloppy thinking (these go together well), yet good for discussion. Recommended. An example of how bad work can actually make a good reading in this class.

Doctorow, Untitled DRM talk by Doctorow Good pairing with the above. Recommended. Informal writing style rather fun, far less tedious then Bill Joy's.

Ross Anderson, `Trusted Computing' Frequently Asked Questions Nice writeup on TC (or whatever is the alias of the day). Topical given the emergence of "TCM" chips on pretty much any new PC you buy.

Richard Stallman, The Right to Read and The GNU Manifesto Classic Richard Stallman. Highly recommended. Seems impossible but desirable to try to find an articulate writer with opposite viewpoints.

Intellectual Property: A Balance: The British Library Manifesto Short reading (four pages) recommended by Earl.

Democracy and Technology

David Kairys, Freedom of Speech Fascinating reading, written by a lawyer. Pair with a technology-related readings on democracy and discuss whether technologies like the internet and the mass-media are ultimately democracy-promoting or anti-democratic.

War and Technology

Just War Theory by Alex Mosley. Reasonable if unexciting writeup.

War and Massacre by Thomas Nagel Philosophically solid writeup, Earl is particularly fond of this piece. It is a difficult reading.
Computers, Ethics, and Collective Violence by Summers and Markusen. Phil is quite fond of this reading (Earl isn't). Cover it when covering other "big" threats, like Bill Joy's Wired article or the movie Testament

Professional Ethics

ACM Code of Conduct Something necessary to discuss, despite the limitations and narrowness of this code. Recommended. Discuss in the context of particular ethical scenarios, as in these samples by Sara Baase.

Jeff Schmidt, Disciplined Minds, selected chapters, such as Chapters 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 13. Important reading and good for discussion. Author argues that professionals like us are trained to be conservative, playpen thinkers that serve the needs of their masters. Highly recommended. Singled out by some students as the most interesting thing they read. So even if you cover just a few readings outside of the newly-selected anthology, I wouldn't omit this one.

Therac Disaster by Nancy Leveson A famous, interesting, but long, reading. The content is mostly software engineering so it does not sustain discussion for an entire class period, but, given its length, it's difficult to assign accompanying readings. Earl thought this reading problematic enough to make it "not recommended", but Phil disagrees: it's a rare chance to glimpse the way complex things fail in real life. I pair this with a reading on the Bhopal disaster.

Bhopal Lives and After Bhopal from the Village Voice (xerox of old microfiche in a folder in Phil's office). Also on-line resources like this 5-minute interview with Dominique Lapierre (index 24 mins). There is something that feels wrong to me about covering a relatively small-scale screw-up like the Therac-25 and ignore big industrial "accidents" like Bhopal, TMI, or Chernobyl. Of these three, I recommend Bhopal as the case study.

The Morality of Whistle Blowing [ES], by Sissela Bok Probably an important topic to discuss. This might not be the best possible reading on it. Well paired with news articles.

Animal Liberation

Animal Liberation at 30 by Peter Singer Singer, one of the principle intellectual founders of the Animal Liberation movement, argues that personhood (ie, an entity whose interests must be taken into account in moral analysis) cannot be consistently restricted to human beings. With that extension, his argument is a classic and straightforward application of utilitarianism. Well written and pairs well with the following.

Personal Reflections on the "Animal-Rights" Phenomenon by Adrian Morrison Morrison is a researcher who has been targeted by extremists in the Animal Liberation movement. His article, while not exceedingly well-reasoned, brings into focus interesting questions about what sorts of research should and should not be allowed, and why. Leads to an interesting discussion when assigned in conjunction with the Singer article above. The persecution that Morrison faced is especially relevant at the time of this writing.

AI and Robotics

Computing Machinery and Intellignece by Alan Turing The students are very interested in the ethics of AI. Unfortunately, I haven't found a good reading, and have resorted to this reading, which, although it is interesting and generates good discussion, does not have a strong ethical dimension.

Discourse Theory

Unclear, have never yet taught this topic. Issues of language, rhetoric, and discourse theory seem to come up often in this class, and I think a discussion specifically on this topic would be appropriate later on in this class. Perhaps a selection from a George Lakoff book would be good, perhaps paired with something like Helen Nissenbaum's Hackers and the contested ontology of cyberspace. Can also dissect an article like Are Hacker Break-ins Ethical, by Eugene Spafford, from a viewpoint of discourse theory.

Gender Issues

Gender Bias in Instructional Technology, by Katy Campbell. Produced one of the more lively discussion in memory, with many of the men in the class, especially, just hating this article. It might not be the best possible article but, judging from the response, this is a good "hot button" and something of interest to our students.
UN, International Law, Technology, and Human Development

Latest Human Development Report, United Nations. We discussed the 2003 report when this was the latest and it seemed to have quite a bit at the intersection of technology, ethics, and human welfare.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN, 1948 Key documents of International Law and agreed-upon enumerations of human rights comes up often enough that I think it desirable to cover this material at some point. Possibly pair with readings on international humanitarian law (the "law of war"), covering the Hague Conventions and the Geneva Conventions (if not here, cover these with war-related readings).

Some Bad Readings (don't use these)

Aristotle, The Best Action Is the That Exercise the Minds's Faculties [ES]. Anderson et al., Using the ACM Code [ES]. Herbert Dreyfus, Using Computers as Means, Not Ends [ES]. Michael Heim, Boolean Logic [ES]. This was the batch from [ES] that I would regard as big losers, either for over-redaction and obscurity (Aristotle), a lack of interesting ideas to communiate (Anderson et al.), or a general feeling, when I read it, of intellectual mushiness (the rest).

Viewpoints on Technology
Ethics in an Age of Technology, vol. 2 by Ian Barbour.	The first time I taught the course we actually read the whole book, but that was too much. Author's pro-Christian-bias shows through in places. I do recommend covering at least the first chapter.
Informing Ourselves to Death [ES] by Neil Postman. Five Things We Need To Know About Technical Change by Neil Postman.	Phil is quite fond of Postman—he thinks writes clearly and and comes across as a broad-minded thinker. Earl think him sloppy. In any case, both of us are in furious agreement that Postman generates good discussion and introduces students, who tend to be uncritically pro-technology, to an influential thinker who is suspicious of technology and decries its costs.
Why the Future Doesn't Need Us by Bill Joy.	An important reading because of Bill Joy's stature among our students (and computer scientists in general). Stream-of-consciousness style of prose gets old after a while.
Something by Jacques Ellul, unknown what.	A reading should probably be found for this important thinker. Eg, I just located an on-line piece The Technological Bluff that looks interesting and might be redactable.
Something by Lewis Mumford, unknown what	Famous thinker but the reading in [HF] was hideous. Poorly written to the point of being incomprehensible. Hard to believe that everything of his is this incomprehensible. Conceivably a result of over-redacting, conceivably endemic to the author.
Something by Ivan Illich	Recommended to me by Marion Videau, looks more readable than Mumford or Ellul. Eg, Silence is a Commons seems short, interesting, and readable. Or one might extract something from Tools for Conviviality. Or something on education; for example, Eduction without School is of a good length and may be interesting to our students.
Philosophy
Hans Jonas, a couple of selected chapters from The Imperative of Responsiblity: in Search of an Ethics for the Technological Age	Mentioned in the containing web page. Excellent but requires some sophistication, no doubt too demanding for many of our students, but I will certainly try it anyway.
Computer Ethics (3rd ed.), Chapter 2, by Deborah Johnson.	Not bad for a brief introduction to moral philosophy. Recommended. A chapter from [ES] on utilitarianism, by Hospers, was also fine (which is to say it was very annoying and would therefore make for a fine discussion.)
Those who walk away from Omelas by Le Guin.	A short story that dramatizes the absurd-consequences objection to utilitarianism. But I (Phil) didn't think much of it as fiction or philosophy. I do like throwing some piece of fiction in the mix, however. Maybe some other fiction can be located—perhaps someone can find a nice piece by Asimov, Heinlein, or Stanislaw Lem.
A Critique of Ethical Relativism by Pojman.	I think it important to address and effectively minimize ethical relativism, for otherwise you get the same "well, it's fine for him but not me" arguments repeatedly. This article does a reasonable job at tearing apart ethical relativism.
Kantian Ethics by Feldman.	A reasonable, if hostile, description of Kantian deontology. Feldman deconstructs Kant's own examples of the first form of the categorical imperative, then levels two criticisms that Feldman thinks decisively undermine Kant's theory. Useful for its brevity and clarity, but only if you intend to teach deontological analysis.
O'Neil, Kant's Formula of the End in Itself and World Hunger	A generalization of Kantian ethics from individuals to organizations, focused on the second form of the categorical imperative. One of us disliked this reading, saying "Drop this—attempts and fails to reinvent Kant to make it seem more socially-conscious."
The Ethics of Virtue by James Rachels, from Chapt. 13 of The Elements of Moral Philosophy, 4th ed.	An OK virtue-ethics reading.
Scientist Finds the Beginnings of Morality in Primate Behavior	A NY Times article (March 20, 2007) describing the work of Frans de Waal, who argues that morality is rooted not in reason but in in empathy, emotion, and basic primate behaviors.
Computer Ethics, High-Level
What is Computer Ethics? by James Moor, or an updated paper by the same author, Reason, Relativity, and Responsibility in Computer Ethics	The first paper is said to be historically important but I thought it rather shallow and dull. Who cares about "defining" a term like "computer ethics" or answering questions like whether or not it should be regarded as a separate branch of ethics?
Computer Ethics by Terrell Bynum, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy	A reasonable writeup on computer ethics, probably better than the above.
A History of the Personal Computer, by Robert Pool	I only mention this reading because several students commented that they really liked it. I myself didn't think it had much to offer. It does make clear the principles that "best does not win" and it hints at some of the questionable ethics that propelled the PC to dominance.
Privacy, Intellectual Property, Trusted Computing
Privacy as contextual integrity by Helen Nissenbaum.	OK, but less interesting than it first appeared. I do like having readings from law scholars. The authors approach to looking a privacy seems valid, but I don't know that the reading is particularly well-connected to ethics. It may help one to understand how to think about privacy in a more systematic manner.
James Boyle, The Second Enclosure Movement and the Construction of the Public Domain	Fascinating reading, well written, interesting viewpoints. Strongly recommended. Good find by Earl.
Adam Jaffe and Josh Lerner, Patent Prescription	OK reading, certainly not exciting, to accompany the above.
Biddle et al, The Darknet and the Future of Content Distribution	Sloppy writing and sloppy thinking (these go together well), yet good for discussion. Recommended. An example of how bad work can actually make a good reading in this class.
Doctorow, Untitled DRM talk by Doctorow	Good pairing with the above. Recommended. Informal writing style rather fun, far less tedious then Bill Joy's.
Ross Anderson, `Trusted Computing' Frequently Asked Questions	Nice writeup on TC (or whatever is the alias of the day). Topical given the emergence of "TCM" chips on pretty much any new PC you buy.
Richard Stallman, The Right to Read and The GNU Manifesto	Classic Richard Stallman. Highly recommended. Seems impossible but desirable to try to find an articulate writer with opposite viewpoints.
Intellectual Property: A Balance: The British Library Manifesto	Short reading (four pages) recommended by Earl.
Democracy and Technology
David Kairys, Freedom of Speech	Fascinating reading, written by a lawyer. Pair with a technology-related readings on democracy and discuss whether technologies like the internet and the mass-media are ultimately democracy-promoting or anti-democratic.
War and Technology
Just War Theory by Alex Mosley.	Reasonable if unexciting writeup.
War and Massacre by Thomas Nagel	Philosophically solid writeup, Earl is particularly fond of this piece. It is a difficult reading.
Computers, Ethics, and Collective Violence by Summers and Markusen.	Phil is quite fond of this reading (Earl isn't). Cover it when covering other "big" threats, like Bill Joy's Wired article or the movie Testament
Professional Ethics
ACM Code of Conduct	Something necessary to discuss, despite the limitations and narrowness of this code. Recommended. Discuss in the context of particular ethical scenarios, as in these samples by Sara Baase.
Jeff Schmidt, Disciplined Minds, selected chapters, such as Chapters 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 13.	Important reading and good for discussion. Author argues that professionals like us are trained to be conservative, playpen thinkers that serve the needs of their masters. Highly recommended. Singled out by some students as the most interesting thing they read. So even if you cover just a few readings outside of the newly-selected anthology, I wouldn't omit this one.
Therac Disaster by Nancy Leveson	A famous, interesting, but long, reading. The content is mostly software engineering so it does not sustain discussion for an entire class period, but, given its length, it's difficult to assign accompanying readings. Earl thought this reading problematic enough to make it "not recommended", but Phil disagrees: it's a rare chance to glimpse the way complex things fail in real life. I pair this with a reading on the Bhopal disaster.
Bhopal Lives and After Bhopal from the Village Voice (xerox of old microfiche in a folder in Phil's office). Also on-line resources like this 5-minute interview with Dominique Lapierre (index 24 mins).	There is something that feels wrong to me about covering a relatively small-scale screw-up like the Therac-25 and ignore big industrial "accidents" like Bhopal, TMI, or Chernobyl. Of these three, I recommend Bhopal as the case study.
The Morality of Whistle Blowing [ES], by Sissela Bok	Probably an important topic to discuss. This might not be the best possible reading on it. Well paired with news articles.
Animal Liberation
Animal Liberation at 30 by Peter Singer	Singer, one of the principle intellectual founders of the Animal Liberation movement, argues that personhood (ie, an entity whose interests must be taken into account in moral analysis) cannot be consistently restricted to human beings. With that extension, his argument is a classic and straightforward application of utilitarianism. Well written and pairs well with the following.
Personal Reflections on the "Animal-Rights" Phenomenon by Adrian Morrison	Morrison is a researcher who has been targeted by extremists in the Animal Liberation movement. His article, while not exceedingly well-reasoned, brings into focus interesting questions about what sorts of research should and should not be allowed, and why. Leads to an interesting discussion when assigned in conjunction with the Singer article above. The persecution that Morrison faced is especially relevant at the time of this writing.
AI and Robotics
Computing Machinery and Intellignece by Alan Turing	The students are very interested in the ethics of AI. Unfortunately, I haven't found a good reading, and have resorted to this reading, which, although it is interesting and generates good discussion, does not have a strong ethical dimension.
Discourse Theory
Unclear, have never yet taught this topic.	Issues of language, rhetoric, and discourse theory seem to come up often in this class, and I think a discussion specifically on this topic would be appropriate later on in this class. Perhaps a selection from a George Lakoff book would be good, perhaps paired with something like Helen Nissenbaum's Hackers and the contested ontology of cyberspace. Can also dissect an article like Are Hacker Break-ins Ethical, by Eugene Spafford, from a viewpoint of discourse theory.
Gender Issues
Gender Bias in Instructional Technology, by Katy Campbell.	Produced one of the more lively discussion in memory, with many of the men in the class, especially, just hating this article. It might not be the best possible article but, judging from the response, this is a good "hot button" and something of interest to our students.
UN, International Law, Technology, and Human Development
Latest Human Development Report, United Nations.	We discussed the 2003 report when this was the latest and it seemed to have quite a bit at the intersection of technology, ethics, and human welfare.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN, 1948	Key documents of International Law and agreed-upon enumerations of human rights comes up often enough that I think it desirable to cover this material at some point. Possibly pair with readings on international humanitarian law (the "law of war"), covering the Hague Conventions and the Geneva Conventions (if not here, cover these with war-related readings).
Some Bad Readings (don't use these)
Aristotle, The Best Action Is the That Exercise the Minds's Faculties [ES]. Anderson et al., Using the ACM Code [ES]. Herbert Dreyfus, Using Computers as Means, Not Ends [ES]. Michael Heim, Boolean Logic [ES].	This was the batch from [ES] that I would regard as big losers, either for over-redaction and obscurity (Aristotle), a lack of interesting ideas to communiate (Anderson et al.), or a general feeling, when I read it, of intellectual mushiness (the rest).

Last revised 10 Jan 2007 by Phil