Ethics: Normative vs Descriptive Ethics

Learning Objectives

• The chapter outlines the differences between normative and descriptive ethics and their respective accomplishments
• It highlights tensions in ethical discussions, such as limited resources, competing goods, and differing perceptions of what is good
• It compares the use of case studies and science fiction for studying ethics and technology
• It explores the distinction between personal and professional ethics, and explains why studying ethics matters for technologists

Introduction

• Computing has greatly impacted modern travel, communication, and medical care
• Rapid technological advancement has both positive and negative consequences
• Social media can connect communities while aiding white supremacists
• Online financial systems provide efficiency but increase the risk of theft
• The technology gap between rich and poor countries could widen
• Changes can produce negative and positive effects
• Ethical questions emerge around the worth of trade-offs, defining acceptable costs, and potential project impact
• Technology makes lives safer, healthier, more interconnected, beautiful, and less poverty-stricken
• Technology has the potential to escalate inequality, harm others, and create conditions leading to poor decisions

Ethical Considerations in Technology

• The future relies on actions and choices of technology developers, so it's essential to understand the stakes
• It is vital to clarify personal goals/values, to understand the questions that can be asked, to consider the impact
• The book provides tools for ethical reasoning rather than definitive answers
• It introduces ethical problems in technology design, development, and deployment
• Technology changes rapidly, so focus is placed on structural questions over specific technologies
• Ethical questions in technology mirror broader ethical dilemmas across different areas of life
• The book uses insights from various disciplines and primarily focuses on computing technologies
• The aim is to train to recognize ethical problems and provide evaluation tools
• The most important step in ethical problem-solving is figuring out the right questions to ask

Analyzing Ethical Statements

• Agreement on what the world should be like is needed for easy ethical conversations
• Differing ideas stem from personal experience, with terms like "ethical" and "unethical" often used to express agreement rather than delve into reasoning
• Ethical language holds power, even when reflection and care is lacking
• Ethical statements come in normative and descriptive forms
• Normative statements assess how things should be, rooted in value judgments
• "Descriptive ethics" as a framework helps understand situations and potential actions
• Ethical description involves careful ethical reasoning when new problems arise
• Making a judgement involves norms, while descriptive elements can obscure them
• "Simple factual descriptions are multifaceted, with differences reflecting normative judgments
• Every descriptive act involves choices and potential biases, even if not consciously recognized

Why Study Ethics

• Grappling with ethical questions can be intimidating due to big and high stakes in technology and engineering
• Sole techno-focus stems from feeling overwhelmed by social and ethical dimensions
• Releasing untested programs or neglecting reflection on impacts is irresponsible
• Computing advancements from robots to messaging apps carry implications needing understanding
• Best practices emphasize multidisciplinary reflection to address broad implications in technology and engineering
• It is important to consider diverse perspectives, values and cultures for dealing with these issues
• Ethical computing issues are similar to issues humans have been wrestling with for long
• Ethical frameworks rely on conceptualizing the world differently, which is part of the challenge
• Over the years ethicists have created theoretical systems for difficult situations
• Studying these leads to different ways of asking and answering questions
• Strengthening capacity to identify, analyze, and respond to ethical issues requires a deeper understanding than applying concepts to specific situations

Basic Problems in Ethics

• Recognizing the type of problem is helpful, and allows focus on what is most important
• No single answer is often the case and choices will have their drawbacks
• Clarifying the nature of a problem will allow conceiving and identifying a way forward
• Limited resources is a common problem
• There is often a need to consider competing kinds of goods - goals or things that come into conflict
• People may disagree because of their aims
• People disagree at what is good, so they have different ideas about which option satisfies it
• Studying ethics makes it easier to confront them (tough questions), and think more clearly about what is at stake

Self-Interest and Ethical Living

• It is false that ethical people must only sacrifice themselves for others
• Being ethical does not mean that you give up on your own success or pleasure
• The text doesn’t require an agent to forget about their own well-being
• Ethical traditions do not demand selflessness
• Self-interest is not unified, with different ways for something to be good for someone
• Ethical conflicts should not be imagined in binary terms (“Good for me vs. good for you")
• Many choices and various ways to evaluate, so the terms are never binary
• Some goods are zero sum; others are a matter of competition

Ethics & Morality

• Ethics and Morality can be used interchangeably
• Moral philosophers do not completely agree whether ethics is a subset of morality
• Morals = person's standards of behavior, beliefs concerning what is/isn't acceptable
• Ethics = Standard, but additionally the thoughtful reflection on and application of standards of behavior & beliefs on what is/isn't acceptable

Why Combine Technology and Ethics

• Ethical problems can be located in both arts and humanities
• Focusing on specific tech problems offers tools for professional success
• Knowing them helps recognize and deal with issues as a professional

How Technology Changes Ethics

• Ethical issues are a subspecies of resource issues
• Tech has changed the conditions of ethical problems
• Ethical problems still persist amidst transformations
• Communication, information, and modern computing have changed human social configurations
• Ethical questions must be informed by these changes
• People began to focus on computer ethics to address tech societal issues in the 80s
• Features of computer technology can transform human activities and social institutions
• A framework is lacking when addressing changes, resulting in policy vacuums

Invisibility In Modern Ethics

• The “invisibility factor” is a unique feature of computing technologies
• Three stems:
  • invisible abuse of computer lower-level operations by exploiting users
  • Invisible programming values that might advantage or disadvantage different people via algorithm
  • Unchallenged assumption of computer invisible calculations humans are unable to inspect/completely understand

Technological Social Changes

• Tech changes result in reconfigurations
• Reproducibility: Computing, information, and communication tech has radically altered the rate which media is reproduced and transmitted
• Information Flow: The internet enhances both one to one and many to many communications to a greater extent than before
• Identity Conditions: Enable enhanced communication, enhanced identification etc

Why Computing Professionals Study Ethics

• It can be argued that a great design allows human beings to imagine new goals
• However, what kinds of goals are worth having? That is for philosophy departments or social science
• Practitioners have a responsibility here

Ethics vs. Engineering Problems

• Tech is just a mean to making human life better
• People also need to understand what makes human life better
• In computing, goals can be programmed into a single variable
• However this is not the same for human values

Fictional Case Studies

• It introduces science fiction as a means to study ethics
• These can be fictional or based on events
• Instead of the featureless figures of a case study, a story’s characters have personalities of their own that shape their perceptions and choices.
• We can better have a means to understanding

What is Worth Learning

• Science fiction has its worth in the study of ethics
• It is an easy fit in study

Apologia: Study Point

• Apologia gives us a fresh perspective on how humans use the technologies around them
• It challenges us to look at harms

Professional Ethics and Guides

• This section presents information on having clear ethical questions
• In line with agreeing and working with the ACM

Thinking Inside Ethical Frameworks

• The goal of a study in this textbook is to give tools for thinking about dilemmas
• Using deontology, utilitarianism, virtue ethics, and communitarianism
• Moral philosophers use these as instruments that people have been using which allows to view them more methodically

Life After Learning

• The whole reason to learn all of this is to apply it in a professional setting
• The information here is all useful

The Rest of the Book

• The book is split into 2 parts: (1) Textbook and (2) an anthology
• Each story will be framed and oriented
• Story points will also direct the stories in what is included in the textbook
• All include:
  • Ethical frameworks
  • Managing knowledge
  • Personhood and privacy
  • Tech and society
  • Professional ethics