Beginning with the computer ethics works of Norbert Wiener (1948, 1950, 1963), a common thread has run through much of the history of computer ethics; namely, concern for protecting and advancing central human values, such a life, health, security, happiness, freedom, knowledge, resources, power and opportunity. Thus, most of the specific issues that Wiener dealt with are cases of defending or advancing such values. For example, by working to prevent massive unemployment caused by robotic factories, Wiener tried to preserve security, resources and opportunities for factory workers. Similarly, by arguing against the use of decision-making war-game machines, Wiener tried to diminish threats to security and peace.
In 1976, nearly three decades after the publication of Wiener's book Cybernetics, Walter Maner noticed that the ethical questions and problems considered in his Medical Ethics course at Old Dominion University often became more complicated or significantly altered when computers got involved. Sometimes the addition of computers, it seemed to Maner, actually generated wholly new ethics problems that would not have existed if computers had not been invented. He concluded that there should be a new branch of applied ethics similar to already existing fields like medical ethics and business ethics; and he decided to name the proposed new field “computer ethics”. (At that time, Maner did not know about the computer ethics works of Norbert Wiener.) He defined the proposed new field as one that studies ethical problems “aggravated, transformed or created by computer technology”. He developed an experimental computer ethics course designed primarily for students in university-level computer science programs. His course was a success, and students at his university wanted him to teach it regularly. He complied with their wishes and also created, in 1978, a “starter kit” on teaching computer ethics, which he prepared for dissemination to attendees of workshops that he ran and speeches that he gave at philosophy conferences and computing science conferences in America. In 1980, Helvetia Press and the National Information and Resource Center on Teaching Philosophy published Maner's computer ethics “starter kit” as a monograph (Maner 1980). It contained curriculum materials and pedagogical advice for university teachers. It also included a rationale for offering such a course in a university, suggested course descriptions for university catalogs, a list of course objectives, teaching tips, and discussions of topics like privacy and confidentiality, computer crime, computer decisions, technological dependence and professional codes of ethics. During the early 1980s, Maner's Starter Kit was widely disseminated by Helvetia Press to colleges and universities in America and elsewhere. Meanwhile Maner continued to conduct workshops and teach courses in computer ethics. As a result, a number of scholars, especially philosophers and computer scientists, were introduced to computer ethics because of Maner's trailblazing efforts.
This “human-values approach” to computer ethics has been very fruitful. It has served, for example, as an organizing theme for major computer-ethics conferences, such as the 1991 National Conference on Computing and Values at Southern Connecticut State University , which was devoted to the impacts of computing upon security, property, privacy, knowledge, freedom and opportunities. In the late 1990s, a similar approach to computer ethics, called “value-sensitive computer design”, emerged based upon the insight that potential computer-ethics problems can be avoided, while new technology is under development, by anticipating possible harm to human values and designing new technology from the very beginning in ways that prevent such harm.
A Brief History of Computer Ethics
Computer Ethics is the branch of philosophy that analysis the nature and social impact of computer technology as well as the standards of conduct which pertain to proper use computers. It involves social issues, such as access rights, working place monitoring, censorship and junk mail; professional issues such as professional responsibility and code of conduct; legal issues such as legal obligations, data protection, computer misuse and software piracy.
Within a relative short period of time, computer technology has created huge new possibilities and also the ethical and social implication on both business and individual’s life. However, ethical framework and laws lag behind all the new innovations, to fill the vacuum, it needs timely effort to make laws, to corporate with company policy, personal policy and social conventions. Computer ethics is at its relatively young stages.
In 1940s, Norbert Weiner, MIT professor and a pioneer of computing, create “cybernetics”, an information feedback system and forecast that computers would create unemployment worse than Great Depression, but it was ignored for decades.
1950s-1960s The dawn of computer technology, which features large mainframe computer, the main issues are “can machines think?” personal privacy threats, centralization of power and big government.
1950: Norbert Wiener published the book, “the Human Use of Human Beings”, which established him as the founder of computer ethics and laid out the foundation of computer ethics.
1966: MIT’s Joseph Weizenbaum writes a program called ELIZA that makes the computer act as a psychotherapist.
1966: First computer crime, a programmer used computer code to prevent his banking account from being flagged as overdrawn. When late discovered, there was no law to charge this crime.
1966: the adoption of Freedom of Information Act, which gave the individual and organizations the right to access data held by the federal government
1960s: Donn Parker, an author on computer crimes, pointed by ACM, led the creation of ethics code in computer technology fields.
Famous quintessential author Issac Asimov, concern in his fiction stories, “are there decisions that computers should never make?”
1970s-1980s The young and exponential growth of computer technology, which features minicomputer, microcomputer, personal computer and the beginning of networking. The attention turned to software and the issues are surrounding it, such as property rights, software piracy, liability, privacy, computer crime, hackers and more.
1970: Walter Maner, a medical teacher and researcher, noticed the need for a separate branch of applied computer ethics, developed course, workshops. The “computer ethics” coined ever since.
1970: The adoption of Fair Credit Reporting Act, which dealt with handling of credit data.
1973: ACM adopted the professional codes of ethics, by the middle of 70s, new privacy and computer crime laws had been enacted in American and European,
1976: Joseph Weizenbaum published book, “Computer Power and Human Reason” which considered the classic in computer ethics.
1976: Abbe Mowshowitz published article, titled: “On approaches to the study of social issues in computing”
It identifies and analyzes technical and non-technical biases in research on social issues in computing. Five positions—technicism, progressive individualism, elitism, pluralism, and radical criticism—which reflect major streams of contemporary social thought are examined. ---- The ACM digital library, volume 24, issues 3, March 1981
1978: The adoption of Right to Federal Privacy Act, which limited government’s ability to search bank records.
1979: Terrell Ward Bynum, developed curriculum for university course on computer ethics. He late launched an essay competition to generate interest in computer ethics. In 1985, he published the widest-selling issue in journal’s history -- “ Entitled Computers and Ethics”
1984: The adoption of Small Business Computer Security and Education Act, which advises congress on matters relating to computer crime against small businesses.
1985: James Moor classic essay, “What is Computer Ethics?” were published, in his view, computer ethics includes:
(1) identification of computer-generated policy vacuums, (2) clarification of conceptual muddles, (3) formulation of policies for the use of computer technology, and (4) ethical justification of such policies. ---Terrell Ward Bynum
1985: Deborah Johnson published the first major textbook in computer Ethics, and became the standard-setting textbook in computer ethics. It also set up the research agenda for almost a decade.
1986: The rewritten of Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which covers the digital, data, and video communication.
1988: Robert Hauptman a librarian at St. Cloud University coined the term “information ethics” it comprises all the ethical issues related to the production, storage, access and dissemination of information.
1988: The adoption of Computer Matching and Privacy Act, which restricts government’s right to programs or identifying debtors.
Since the middle of 1980s, the computer ethics field has grown rapidly, university courses, research centers, conferences, articles, and textbooks have widely become the de facto of topics.
1990s - Present The pinnacle of computer technology, the coming together of computers, telecommunications and media, which features the internet and World Wide Web. It become such a phenomenon, which brought a seemingly endless set of ethical issues such as legal jurisdiction, free speech, virtual community and the concerns of all the past.
1992: ACM adopted the “ACM code of Ethics and Professional Conduct”. It consists of 24 imperatives formulated as statements of personal responsibility.
1995: Gorniak Kocikowska, predicted computer ethics will eventually evolve into a system of global ethics that applicable in virtually every culture, then, it will be the ordinary ethics of information age.
1999: Deborah Johnson, opposite of Gorniak’s view, assumes computer ethical theories will not lead to a revolution in ethics, but only servers as the bedrock foundation of ethical thinking and analysis. The computer ethics is only the same old ethics questions with a new twist.
From present to the near future, Computer technology features the convergence of information and communication technologies. Issues will focus with decision-making capabilities, biochip implants, genomic research and such.
Defining the Field of Computer Ethics
From the 1940s through the 1960s, therefore, there was no discipline known as "computer ethics" (not withstanding the work of Wiener and Parker). However, beginning with Walter Maner in the 1970s, active thinkers in computer ethics began trying to delineate and define computer ethics as a field of study. Let us briefly consider five such attempts:
When he decided to use the term "computer ethics" in the mid-70s, Walter Maner defined the field as one which examines "ethical problems aggravated, transformed or created by computer technology". Some old ethical problems, he said, are made worse by computers, while others are wholly new because of information technology. By analogy with the more developed field of medical ethics, Maner focused attention upon applications of traditional ethical theories used by philosophers doing "applied ethics" -- especially analyses using the utilitarian ethics of the English philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, or the rationalist ethics of the German philosopher Immanual Kant. In her book, Computer Ethics, Deborah Johnson [1985] defined the field as one which studies the way in which computers "pose new versions of standard moral problems and moral dilemmas, exacerbating the old problems, and forcing us to apply ordinary moral norms in uncharted realms,". Like Maner before her, Johnson recommended the "applied ethics" approach of using procedures and concepts from utilitarianism and Kantianism. But, unlike Maner, she did not believe that computers create wholly new moral problems. Rather, she thought that computers gave a "new twist" to old ethical issues which were already well known.James Moor's definition of computer ethics in his article "What Is Computer Ethics?" [Moor, 1985] was much broader and more wide-ranging than that of Maner or Johnson. It is independent of any specific philosopher's theory; and it is compatible with a wide variety of methodological approaches to ethical problem-solving. Over the past decade, Moor's definition has been the most influential one. He defined computer ethics as a field concerned with "policy vacuums" and "conceptual muddles" regarding the social and ethical use of information technology:
A typical problem in computer ethics arises because there is a policy vacuum about how computer technology should be used. Computers provide us with new capabilities and these in turn give us new choices for action. Often, either no policies for conduct in these situations exist or existing policies seem inadequate. A central task of computer ethics is to determine what we should do in such cases, that is, formulate policies to
guide our actions.... One difficulty is that along with a policy vacuum there is often a conceptual vacuum. Although a problem in computer ethics may seem clear initially, a little reflection reveals a conceptual muddle. What is needed in such cases is an analysis that provides a coherent conceptual framework within which to formulate a policy for action .
Moor said that computer technology is genuinely revolutionary because it is "logically malleable":Computers are logically malleable in that they can be shaped and molded to do any activity that can be characterized in terms of inputs, outputs and connecting logical operations....Because logic applies everywhere, the potential applications of computer technology appear limitless. The computer is the nearest thing we have to a universal tool. Indeed, the limits of computers are largely the limits of our own creativity. According to Moor, the computer revolution is occurring in two stages. The first stage was that of "technological introduction" in which computer technology was developed and refined. This already occurred in America during the first forty years after the Second World War. The second stage -- one that the industrialized world has only recently entered -- is that of "technological permeation" in which technology gets integrated into everyday human activities and into social institutions, changing the very meaning of fundamental concepts, such as "money", "education", "work", and "fair elections".
Moor's way of defining the field of computer ethics is very powerful and suggestive. It is broad enough to be compatible with a wide range of philosophical theories and methodologies, and it is rooted in a perceptive understanding of how technological revolutions proceed. Currently it is the best available definition of the field.Nevertheless, there is yet another way of understanding computer ethics that is also very helpful--and compatible with a wide variety of theories and approaches. This "other way" was the approach taken by Wiener in 1950 in his book The Human Use of Human Beings, and Moor also discussed it briefly in "What Is Computer Ethics?" [1985]. According to this alternative account, computer ethics identifies and analyzes the impacts of information technology upon human values like health, wealth, opportunity, freedom, democracy, knowledge, privacy, security, self-fulfillment, and so on. This very broad view of computer ethics embraces applied ethics, sociology of computing, technology assessment, computer law, and related fields; and it employs concepts, theories and
methodologies from these and other relevant disciplines. The fruitfulness of this way of understanding computer ethics is reflected in the fact that it has served as the organizing theme of major conferences like the National Conference on Computing and Values (1991), and it is the basis of recent developments such as Brey’s "disclosive computer ethics" methodology and the emerging research field of "value-sensitive computer design".
In the 1990s, Donald Gotterbarn became a strong advocate for a different approach to defining the field of computer ethics. In Gotterbarn's view, computer ethics should be viewed as a branch of professional ethics, which is concerned primarily with standards of practice and codes of conduct of computing professionals:
There is little attention paid to the domain of professional ethics -- the values that guide the day-to-day activities of computing professionals in their role as professionals. By computing professional I mean anyone involved in the design and development of computer artifacts... The ethical decisions made during the development of these artifacts have a direct relationship to many of the issues discussed under the broader concept of computer ethics.
