Computer Ethics Will Change - Essay Example

Question Computer ethics will change. Computer technology constitutes the remaking of society. This is the 2nd industrial revolution. This affects all major aspects of life and this will make our world small. The computer generation will have many faces, this will change radically everything we think and do. There will be radical changes in the work place. For instance, the typewriter has been replaced by computers. The fifty office employees have been reduced to ten skeleton-force employees using the computers as their clerical assistants. Many computer programs can now do the architects', engineers', accountants', and psychologists' jobs. This trend doubles the speed of work and increases ten fold the accuracy of work done. Workers must adjust to the new working conditions or be replaced. New laws and regulations will have to be put in place to control and monitor the new computer age situation. Information can easily be transferred into the office and out of the office. Hence, industries and businesses must create new marketing and business policies and practices. Professional organizations must develop new codes of conduct for their members. Sociologist and psychologists should study and understand new social and psychological phenomena brought about by the computer age. Philosophers must also rethink old social and ethical concepts. Computer theft is now rampant. Computer hackers can access the ATM passwords and get away with stolen money. With this, people must never divulge bank account numbers to anyone or to any information data bank.. The privacy law must be revised as well as computer crime laws must be constantly defined and updated. Since computers make the world a one working place, new policies, laws and ethical standards must be made clear and concrete particularly when it relates to information transfer between two information highways. Both personal and social policies for the ethical use of computers must be implemented.1 Entire libraries and schools can be replaced by a computer software and search engine. As citizens, we must rethink our ethics. The computer has helped do work faster, better and more accurately. We can now communicate through chat and email with anyone around the world. We can even use the web camera to see the faces and actions of the person we are conversing with on the other side of the globe. We can play make believe computer games to while away our time. Computer ethics will let us think about our new way of life and what makes a man happy and feel useful. According to Terry Bynum, the internet raises two big problems: First is the accountability due to anonymity of the internet transactions and communications. Second is the problem of integrity due to the unlimited modifiability of text materials viewed in the internet. Personal and national identity can be lost, since we can now talk to persons from the other part of the world through the web camera, chat or email in seconds. It seems like the conversing persons from both sides of the world are just sitting beside each other.2 You chat in the web with a monicker or make believe name. There may be no harm intentioned. Second problem is the question of integrity of the materials being displayed in the internet screen. We are not sure that the authors of such articles are telling the truth. Larry Lessig said there are 4 constraints to our behaviour and freedom: (1) law (2) norms (cultural and social influences ) (3) market (4) architecture. If there are no ramps in a building, there is no way a person on a wheelchair can go to the 12th floor alone. With the internet, he can communicate and can even make communicating faster3 To keep your information secret is to implement passwords before opening any personal, office, or confidential files. Culture and social influences can affect how messages are interpreted when read in one country's culture and social influences. The same message can be interpreted differently when read by a person or group of persons in another country or place or time. In the market situation, when prices go up, demand for the products or services will usually go down. People will try to look for other substitute for the products that have increased their prices. When demand for a product is high, the price of this product will go up. Our daily foodstuffs like fish, meat, clothes, and laundry supplies will go up and down depending on the demand. One way to control internet abuses is to use password to open personal files. Security guards can also be stationed at strategic offices where highly confidential matters are kept. Only authorized persons, who present proper identification cards and authorizations letters, are allowed to access the confidential office and other confidential files. Then the market for pornography is drastically reduced, if not eliminated yet, the pornography will finally be erased from the internet. This could be done by having laws that put huge fines to users of internet programs with pornography. This is of course opposed by some groups who feel that their freedom to see pornography is being violated. This pornography should not be in public places. In private places where minors are around, pornographic sites should also be strictly prohibited. The cultures and social influences of the society can be reformed, if pornography is a fad there. There are cultures and social influences that can exert pressure to other groups or persons to eliminate or remove immediately pornographic sites. One such action is to stop buying goods or services from groups or persons that is openly advocating the freedom to surf pornographic sites. Laws can be made to implement big fines and penalties for companies that cater to computer programs like pornography. Without the password, your files or money cannot be retrieved. Our Automatic Teller Machine cards will process your withdrawals if you press the correct password. Hacking, sometimes getting somebody else's ATM number for the purpose of stealing money, is a very serious violation of the law and must be heavily punished. We can place computer programs that can prevent pornographic sites from being opened, especially in public places and by minors. In conclusion, the market can prevent the incoming pornographic sites. If there is no money in the viewing of these banned sites, then these pornographic sites will just simply disappear. If the internet structure will be installed with programs that find the pornographic sites and prevent their opening in the computer terminals. Laws can be implemented that will give big penalties and jail terms to persons who create the websites and persons proven to expose their naked bodies in these websites willingly for a fee or not. Penalties and can be imposed to internet viewers banned websites. Question3: Compare and critically contrast utilitarian and deontological theories of ethics. How do these aid in a resolution of the issue of hate-speech on the Internet. Provide some examples from real life. Think of organizations like Neo-Nazi, and how the Internet is helping their cause. The deontologist is looking for an objective basis to ground all moral actions. There is must be something intrinsic to the act itself to determine its moral status. Kant states that good will is that that acts out of duty. This is not out of self - interest and inclination. I ought never to act except in such a way that my maxim should become a universal law. I must follow the ten commandments no matter who gets hurt in the process. I must not kill the opposing dangerous person who will carrying a knife with the intention to damage you. So when I can get a gun, I must to kill him, even in self defense.4 An example is when Somebody asks you to tell where the location of your mother. He tells you he will kidnap your mother. The universal law saying that you should not lie forces you to tell where your mother is because lying is a violation of this universal law. This is one of the disadvantages of deontology. The universal law then must be followed by everyone. The consequence of following deontological morality is not considered here. Utilitarianism (Latin utilis, useful) is of the theories of ethics based on quantitative maximizations of some good for the society or humanity. It is the greatest happiness for the greatest number.5 The disadvantage of this theory is that what may be interpreted as good or bad action by one person or group may be interpreted as the other way around by the opposing person or group. An example is: Gina must be executed because she is an enemy soldier. Another person may say that she could be held alive until the war ends A grocer can increase the selling price of his goods so he can gain profit faster. This is a good utilitarianism act. Some organizations are so bent in using various ways and means to pursue what they believe is their moral obligation for the happiness or survival of the group. In some instances, they result to killings, damages to property, cheating to win elections, graft and corruption in high places. Utilitarianism - Goodness or badness of an actions is determined by its consequences. Utilitarianism, what is good is what benefits most of the persons concerned. Each situation calls for a different action which is good is one situation but is bad in another place or time. Example, a person asks you where you mother is staying. He tells you he wants to kidnap her. You are allowed to lie under utilitarianism. This lying is good morality since it will save her life. If your family goes hungry, you are allowed to steal. This is of course an animalistic action. You are allowed to kill the enemies of the state if ordered to do so. This is the duty of every soldier, even if killing is a violation of the ten commandments. Due to the advent of the computers, persons and groups can now contact, recruit, invest, or even infiltrate other groups or persons faster. Transfer of funds thru the internet is hastened. You can just bring an ATM card or a debit card and shop without bringing big lump sum cash around. This will create a strong situation of a possible hold ups, murders or maiming of the persons carrying the cash. Whether to implement the deontological or the utilitarianism theory is up to the conscience of the person who will have to account for his actions to the Almighty God and the people he has troubled or touched by his choosing one style of theory or the other. 1http://www.southernct.edu/organizations/rccs/resources/research/introduction/bynum_shrt_hist.html 2ttp://www.apa.udel.edu/apa/archive/newsletters/v95n1/computer.asp 3http://boingboing.net/2002_07_01_archive.html 4http://www.molloy.edu/academic/philosophy/sophia/kant/deontology.htm 5http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarianism Read More