1. Discuss two reasons why it is good to study computer ethics.
We should study computer ethics because doing so will make us behave
like responsible professionals. And We should study computer ethics because doing so will teach us how
to avoid computer abuse and catastrophes.
2. Walter Maner believes that computer ethics education should not be given purely
as a remedial moral education. Do you agree? Discuss.
Yes, because the involvement of computers in human conduct can create entirely new ethical issues, unique to computing that do not alter other areas.
3. Give support to the argument that computer ethics must be taken as a remedial
moral course.
that certain ethical issues are so transformed by the use of computers that they deserve to be studied on their own, in their radically altered form,that the involvement of computers in human conduct can create entirely new ethical issues, unique to computing, that do not surface in other areas.
4. Computer ethics education taken as a remedial education does not provide an adequate
rationale. Discuss.
a perceived need for moral education does not and cannot provide an adequate rationale for the study of computer ethics. Rather, it must exist as a field worthy of study in its own right and not because at the moment it can provide useful means to certain socially noble ends. To exist and to endure as a separate field, there must be a unique domain for computer ethics distinct from the domain for moral education, distinct even from the domains of other kinds of professional and applied ethics.
5. Discuss each of Walter Maner’s six levels of justification for the study of computer
ethics.
Level One
We should study computer ethics because doing so will make us behave like responsible professionals.
At worst, this type of rationale is a disguised call for moral indoctrination. At best, it is weakened by the need to rely on an elusive connection between right knowledge and right conduct. This is similar to the claim that we should study religion because that will cause us to become more spiritual. For some people, perhaps it may, but the mechanism is not reliable.
Level Two
We should study computer ethics because doing so will teach us how to avoid computer abuse and catastrophes.
The cases commonly used raise issues of bad conduct rather than good conduct. They tell us what behaviors to avoid but do not tell us what behaviors are worth modeling.The cases commonly used raise issues of bad conduct rather than good conduct. They tell us what behaviors to avoid but do not tell us what behaviors are worth modeling.
Level Three
We should study computer ethics because the advance of computing technology will continue to create temporary policy vacuums.
Long-term use of poorly designed computer keyboards, for example, exposes clerical workers to painful, chronic, and eventually debilitating repetitive stress injury. Clearly employers should not require workers to use equipment that will likely cause them serious injury.
Level Four
We should study computer ethics because the use of computing permanently transforms certain ethical issues to the degree that their alterations require independent study.
I would argue, for example, that many of the issues surrounding intellectual property have been radically and permanently altered by the intrusion of computer technology. The simple question, "What do I own?" has been transformed into the question, "What exactly is it that I own when I own something?" Likewise, the availability of cheap, fast, painless, transparent encryption technology has completely transformed the privacy debate. In the past, we worried about the erosion of privacy. Now we also worry about the impenetrable wall of computer-generated privacy afforded to every computer-literate criminal.
Level Five
We should study computer ethics because the use of computing technology creates, and will continue to create, novel ethical issues that require special study. I will return to this topic in a moment.
Level Six
We should study computer ethics because the set of novel and transformed issues is large enough and coherent enough to define a new field.
6. Write a chronology of the history of computers listing the milestones in a timeline.
| Computer History Year/Enter | Computer History Inventors/Inventions | Computer History Description of Event |
| Konrad Zuse - Z1 Computer | First freely programmable computer. | |
| John Atanasoff & Clifford Berry ABC Computer | Who was first in the computing biz is not always as easy as ABC. | |
| Howard Aiken & Grace Hopper Harvard Mark I Computer | The Harvard Mark 1 computer. | |
| John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly ENIAC 1 Computer | 20,000 vacuum tubes later... | |
| Frederic Williams & Tom Kilburn Manchester Baby Computer & The Williams Tube | Baby and the Williams Tube turn on the memories. | |
| John Bardeen, Walter Brattain & Wiliam Shockley The Transistor | No, a transistor is not a computer, but this invention greatly affected the history of computers. | |
| John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly UNIVAC Computer | First commercial computer & able to pick presidential winners. | |
| International Business Machines IBM 701 EDPM Computer | IBM enters into 'The History of Computers'. | |
| John Backus & IBM FORTRAN Computer Programming Language | The first successful high level programming language. | |
| Stanford Research Institute, Bank of America, and General Electric ERMA and MICR | The first bank industry computer - also MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) for reading checks. | |
| Jack Kilby & Robert Noyce The Integrated Circuit | Otherwise known as 'The Chip' | |
| Steve Russell & MIT Spacewar Computer Game | The first computer game invented. | |
| Douglas Engelbart Computer Mouse & Windows | Nicknamed the mouse because the tail came out the end. | |
| ARPAnet | The original Internet. | |
| Intel 1103 Computer Memory | The world's first available dynamic RAM chip. | |
| Faggin, Hoff & Mazor Intel 4004 Computer Microprocessor | The first microprocessor. | |
| Alan Shugart &IBM The "Floppy" Disk | Nicknamed the "Floppy" for its flexibility. | |
| Robert Metcalfe & Xerox The Ethernet Computer Networking | Networking. | |
| Scelbi & Mark-8 Altair & IBM 5100 Computers | The first consumer computers. | |
| Apple I, II & TRS-80 & Commodore Pet Computers | More first consumer computers. | |
| Dan Bricklin & Bob Frankston VisiCalc Spreadsheet Software | Any product that pays for itself in two weeks is a surefire winner. | |
| Seymour Rubenstein & Rob Barnaby WordStar Software | Word Processors. | |
| IBM The IBM PC - Home Computer | From an "Acorn" grows a personal computer revolution | |
| Microsoft MS-DOS Computer Operating System | From "Quick And Dirty" comes the operating system of the century. | |
| Apple Lisa Computer | The first home computer with a GUI, graphical user interface. | |
| Apple Macintosh Computer | The more affordable home computer with a GUI. | |
| Microsoft Windows | Microsoft begins the friendly war with Apple. | |
7. List and discuss the major categories of computers based on processing powers.
Analog Computers: These are almost extinct today. These are different from a digital computer because an analog computer can perform several mathematical operations simultaneously. It uses continuous variables for mathematical operations and utilizes mechanical or electrical energy.Hybrid Computers: These computers are a combination of both digital and analog computers. In this type of computers, the digital segments perform process control by conversion of analog signals to digital ones.
Following are some of the other important types of computers.
Mainframe Computers: Large organizations use mainframes for highly critical applications such as bulk data processing and ERP. Most of the mainframe computers have the capacities to host multiple operating systems and operate as a number of virtual machines and can thus substitute for several small servers.
Microcomputers: A computer with a microprocessor and its central processing unit is known as a microcomputer. They do not occupy space as much as mainframes. When supplemented with a keyboard and a mouse, microcomputers can be called as personal computers. A monitor, a keyboard and other similar input output devices, computer memory in the form of RAM and a power supply unit come packaged in a microcomputer. These computers can fit on desks or tables and serve as the best choices for single-user tasks.
Personal computers come in a variety of forms such as desktops, laptops and personal digital assistants. Let us look at each of these types of computers.
Desktops: A desktop is intended to be used on a single location. The spare parts of a desktop computer are readily available at relative lower costs. Power consumption is not as critical as that in laptops. Desktops are widely popular for daily use in workplaces and households.
Laptops: Similar in operation to desktops, laptop computers are miniaturized and optimized for mobile use. Laptops run on a single battery or an external adapter that charges the computer batteries. They are enabled with an inbuilt keyboard, touch pad acting as a mouse and a liquid crystal display. Its portability and capacity to operate on battery power have served as a boon for mobile users.
Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs): It is a handheld computer and popularly known as a palmtop. It has a touch screen and a memory card for storage of data. PDAs can also be effectively used as portable audio players, web browsers and smart phones. Most of them can access the Internet by means of Bluetooth or Wi-Fi communication.
Minicomputers: In terms of size and processing capacity, minicomputers lie in between mainframes and microcomputers. Minicomputers are also called mid-range systems or workstations. The term began to be popularly used in the 1960s to refer to relatively smaller third generation computers. They took up the space that would be needed for a refrigerator or two and used transistor and core memory technologies. The 12-bit PDP-8 minicomputer of the Digital Equipment Corporation was the first successful minicomputer.
Supercomputers: The highly calculation-intensive tasks can be effectively performed by means of supercomputers. Quantum physics, mechanics, weather forecasting, molecular theory are best studied by means of supercomputers. Their ability of parallel processing and their well-designed memory hierarchy give the supercomputers, large transaction processing powers.
8. Discuss three reasons that led to the development of PCs.
First it was led by hardware, second the two fronts: the APPLE 1 and APPLE 2, lastly in 1981, the IBM joined the PC wars.
9. What government agencies underwrote the development of the Internet? Why
did this support stop? Was it good for the Internet?
ARPANET, National Science Foundation(NSF) ,CSNET, NSFNET
10. How is the Internet governed today? Discuss the governing structure.
•!A complex system, still evolving rapidly •!Nowhere near being a “legacy” system •!A “network of networks” working cooperatively •!Intelligence predominantly at the edges •!Proven to be flexible, adaptable and responsive to users’ needs •!But the “Internet model” presents a challenge to traditional governance players and mechanisms –!The Internet is inherently global, and therefore trans-jurisdictional –!There is no shared model for what is acceptable and what is not (with obvious exceptions) –!Nothing new, but the challenges can appear to be new
11. What is Mosaic? When was it developed and by whom? Why is not popular today?
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. The earliest known examples of mosaics made of different materials were found at a temple building in Abra,Messopotamia, and are dated to the second half of 3rd millennium BC.
Exercise 2:
1. How do morality and law relate to each other?
The basis of law is morality. The law presupposes that the people should have a feeling of gratitude.
and the fulfillment of law should be preceded by morality.
2. What is moral relativism?
may be any of several descriptive, meta-ethical, or normative positions. Each of them is concerned with the differences in moral judgments across different people and cultures:
3. What is the connection between law and art?
Both can create and model, and contemporary critics define law as instrument of exercising power
4. Why is reasoning so important in morality?
It is important in order to think clearly and accurately and thus to make solid moral decisions.
5. Is morality evolutionary or revolutionary? Discuss
It is evolutionary because there seems no doubt that, in a broad sense, morality has evolved and its significance has been in its contribution to survival. Moral systems are also under continuous test from a rapidly changing political, social, cultural and technological environment, Evolving morality has to respond to the interaction between the changing environment and the continued - still necessary - existence of the 'primitive' behavioral patterns.
6. Happiness is human. Discuss..
there's only one kind of true happiness (ie. the human kind). It has to do with how humans uniquely experience the act of living. A contrast with non-human beings (animals) may help illuminate what it is that human happiness is.
7. What is the role of education in moral behavior?
Part of character education is encouraging the acquisition of these habits by offering students effective role models, both in real life and through stories and heroes.
8. Show how and why the following rules are culture-free:
(i) The Golden Rule- The Golden Rule has its roots in a wide range of world cultures, and is a standard different cultures use to resolve conflicts.
(ii) The Bronze Rule- We make kindness to be as cheap as any other kindess in the sense of not being unkind. But unkindness that expects unkindness that gets unkindness builds up a thick skin that justice only hardens.
(iii) The Iron Rule- The human potential of ordinary people emerges when they engage diverse human beings in the serious business of the polis.9. If you were charged with creating a “new” human society, what moral code would
you design and why?
Personhood: One failing of almost all moral codes is their lack of definition of when human personhood begins. There is a consensus that an ovum and sperm do not constitute a human person. Everyone agrees that a newborn baby is a human person. There is also a consensus among most pro-life and pro-choice supporters that once human personhood begins, that human being should be given full rights, including the right to live. But these two groups differ greatly -- even among themselves -- on when embryonic or fetal life with human DNA becomes a human person.10. We tend to live a moral script everyday. Reflect on what is in your script.
11. Morality is time sensitive. Discuss.
Time affected moral judgments in this way when hypothetical scenarios involved harming someone as a means to an end.
.. the common thread between them is that both of them is needed in morality anf both are word of God
complex factors have influenced the decisions for where, what, and how technology is introduced into our nation's school systems, ultimately, the schools will be held accountable for these investments.
Time affected moral judgments in this way when hypothetical scenarios involved harming someone as a means to an end.
12. Study the Native American Ten Commandments and the Christian Ten Commandments.
Without comparing them, discuss the common thread between them... the common thread between them is that both of them is needed in morality anf both are word of God
13. How does guilt help to shape our moral journey?
Guilt is one of the most powerful emotions within a man’s consciousness that shapes human personality and society. Guilt governs our behavior, colors the way we perceive ourselves, and slants our outlook of the world. We can understand guilt if we view it as a self-policing feeling and an emotion of self-punishment that all societies must encourage and maintain to influence individual actions.
14. Discuss the interplay between guilt and conscious.
self-conscious emotions, especially shame and guilt, which attributes to how people react to or use laughing at themselves and others when interacting with others.
15. What roles does conscious play in decision making?
Yes, intuition/ conscious can make you a much more effective decision maker, especially when you deal with non-standard situations or in expedient decision making. The solution just comes to them from somewhere in their subconscious mind, instead of being a result a lengthy chain of logical derivations
16. Natural law is universal. Discuss.
The natural law is universal, that is to say, it applies to the entire human race, and is in itself the same for all. Every man, because he is a man, is bound, if he will conform to the universal order willed by the Creator, to live conformably to his own rational nature, and to be guided by reason.
17. What is the law of nature? Discuss why it is different from natural law?
any of a number of doctrines in moral, political and legal theory. the two are distinct in that natural law is a view that certain rights or values are inherent in or universally cognizable by virtue of human reason or human nature
18. What role does each one of the following play in our lives?
(i) conventional law- concerned with the soul but more importantly, with truth and justice
(ii) natural law- natural law might be relevant to identify and define crimes that justify national court assertion of universal jurisdiction
(iii) law of nature- criticize decisions about the statutes, but less so to criticize the law itself
19. Can there be a common morality? Why or why not?
Yes, because they are perhaps analogous to the raw sense data that are relied on in the natural sciences to launch the construction of scientific theories and accounts of the nature of reality.
20. Is common morality possible in cyberspace?
Yes21. Discuss the possibility of common morality in the age of globalization.
Globalization, as a concept, refers both to the "shrinking" of the world and the increased consciousness of the world as a whole. Morality is very important and play important role.
22. What is the effect of globalization on morality?
The spread and increased interrelations of various religious groups, ideas, and practices and their ideas of the meanings and values of particular spaces
Exercise 3
1.
How would you define ethics to the following audiences?
• Seventh-graders- the rules of conduct
• College students-- Ethics is the branch of study dealing with what is the proper course of action for man.
• Members of the clergy-
also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality — that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.
2. Why are acts such as abortion legal in some societies and not in others?
Such societies usually lay down a maximum age after which the foetus must not be aborted, regardless of the circumstances. Most opponents of abortion agree that abortion for the sake of the mother's health can be morally acceptable if there is a real risk of serious damage to the mother.
3. Does technology bring relevant changes in ethics?
Yes
4. Use the traditional model of ethics to explain the effects of technology on ethics
to seventh-graders.
complex factors have influenced the decisions for where, what, and how technology is introduced into our nation's school systems, ultimately, the schools will be held accountable for these investments.
5. What are the merits of computer ethics education?
In addition to representing a pressing business and social concern, computer ethics increasingly was seen as an important area of study. Many universities have added computer ethics to their curricula, a measure that is now required for a computer science department to earn certification by the Computer Accreditation Board. Even elementary and secondary school students were exposed to computer-ethics lessons in the early 2000s. The generation that was raised with powerful computers and the Internet was a prime consideration for those concerned with the ethical use of such technology.
6. Why should we study computer ethics?
Because sexual predators still prey on preteens. Plus the computer is used for a litany of things today which use your identification, passwords, banking information, etc. But I think we are all going way too PC so long live the First Amendment.7. There are two views on teaching computer ethics. State the views. What view do
your agree with and why?
supports this by stating that computer ethics involves “ethical issues faced by a computer professional as part of
the job”.
the job”.
8. Why do we need ethical theories?
Anyone who has a sense of right and wrong therefor has some form of ethics, whether we agree with them or not. Simply because we understand one persons ethical view doesn't mean we have to accept or practice them, Hitler believed what he was doing was right, as did many of the Christian Churches of his day, there are still some that do, so he had embraced a moral theory, but would you personally consider him ethical? If not then it is, indeed, possible to understand a moral theory and still be unethical.9. According to the human nature theory, you are supposed to develop your capabilities and your actions are based on those capabilities. If individuals have few developed capabilities (due to circumstances beyond their control for example),
should they be responsible for their actions?
Yes
10. Discuss the existence of universal moral norms.
When we look around, we everywhere find bitter and seemingly interminable moral disagreements about abortion, or euthanasia, or animal rights, or social justice, and many other issues, not to mention the vast gulfs that separate the moral outlooks of different cultures. The idea that there is a universal moral code can thus sound far fetched.11. Discuss the effects of time on moral norms.
The most important variable reducing household recycling is the opportunity cost of time spent recycling. We find no evidence of crowding-out of intrinsic motivation when recycling is perceived as mandatory. On the contrary, we find that governmental legislation increases household recycling efforts on most materials.12. Using graphics, demonstrate the working of the functional definition of ethics.
13. Professional organizations usually use professional codes of ethics to enforce discipline
in their members. Do codes always work? Sometimes
14. Suggest an alternative to the professional codes of ethics and demonstrate that your
alternative can work.
15. How does technology affect ethics? morality?
In today's work environment, workers are expected to know more than ever before. With the growing of technology comes more knowledge that end-users must know, so it is important for workers not to be distracted by unethical practices
