Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 14, No. 541.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>
[1] From: Arun-Kumar Tripathi <tripathi@statistik.uni- (255)
dortmund.de>
Subject: [Editorial]Ethics and Information Technology --an
important issue
[2] From: Arun-Kumar Tripathi <tripathi@statistik.uni- (51)
dortmund.de>
Subject: [Israel-Report]Children teaching internet Skills to
Seniors by Prof. Edna Aphek
--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2000 17:37:45 +0000
From: Arun-Kumar Tripathi <tripathi@statistik.uni-dortmund.de>
Subject: [Editorial]Ethics and Information Technology --an
important issue
Dear humanists scholars,
((In the Journal "Ethics and Information Technology"--Volume 1, Issue 1
Philip Brey discussed on virtual reality, and most important --In his
paper on the Internet and education, Hubert Dreyfus, drawing on
Kierkegaard's work on the Press, challenges the popular view of the
Internet as a global classroom in which anybody and everybody can
participate in a process of so called `hyperlearning.' Kathleen Wallace's
paper serves as an interesting counterpoint to Dreyfus's because she
defends the positive values of anonymity even in the face of its risks.
I hope, you will enjoy this challenging issue. Thanks. Best.-Arun))
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 11:16:31 -0700 (PDT)
From: Phil Agre <pagre@alpha.oac.ucla.edu>
To: Red Rock Eater News Service <rre@lists.gseis.ucla.edu>
[Forwarded with permission and reformatted.]
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Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 11:08:29 -0400 (EDT)
From: Helen Nissenbaum <helen@Princeton.EDU>
[...]
Ethics and Information Technology
Volume 1, Issue 1
Editorial
In a world where we are all faced with more information than we can
possibly handle, a new journal will, and should, provoke the question,
why? Why is yet another journal needed? The truisms that information
technology is changing the world in profound ways and that these
changes need to be identified, understood, evaluated and, where
possible, influenced for the good, does not fully or adequately answer
the question since a fair number of journals focused on information
technology already exists.
We believe that there is a serious gap in what is currently available.
None of the journals focused on information technology explicitly
addresses the ethical and value dimensions of information technology.
Yet, information technology is profoundly affecting the opportunities
and capacities of individuals to act in morally and socially
responsible ways. Information technology is profoundly changing the
character of social, political, and economic institutions, as well
as social arrangements that aspire to the ideals of justice and human
well-being. The permeation of information technology throughout
our world is challenging and changing fundamental moral concepts and
social values such as freedom, democracy, privacy, responsibility, and
so on. We think the changes in moral concepts and social values are
so important as to be worthy of a new journal.
Why, some may still ask, *ethics* and information technology? Is
this not a topic covered in ethics journals? What is the connection
between technology and ethics? And, why ethics and information
technology when we did not seem to need a new journal or field
of study for automobile, microwave, laser, washing machine, or
telephone ethics? These questions all seem to call for an account
of information technology ethics that explains not just why attention
should be given to the topic but what is special about information
technology. Indeed, a major controversy in the field is whether
the ethical issues arising around information technology are special.
At one extreme are those who believe that ethics cannot be about
technology because it is about moral norms and concepts and since
these apply to human beings, technology is irrelevant. At the
other extreme are those who believe that technology, and especially
information and communications technologies, are changing the world
in such profound ways that the ethical issues they raise are unique
and have moved us into unchartered moral territories.
*Ethics and Information Technology* will not take a position on this
debate. Rather, it will provide a forum for it, as well as many
other ethical issues arising around information and communication
technology. We will strive to make this an interdisciplinary forum
because so many of the important issues are multidimensional, lying
at the nexus of philosophy, sociology, psychology, policy and public
affairs, law, science, engineering and system design. We especially
hope to create a venue for bringing together information technology
and moral philosophy, which we believe has much to say about the
development of information technology but has not been adequately
heard. We will also strive for international relevance. While the
reach of information and communications technology extends beyond and
through national boundaries, we recognise that nations may experience
the technology in a variety of ways. We hope to be able to represent
this variety of perspectives.
We have assembled an outstanding Board of Editors to help steer
the course. Reflecting the Journal's commitment to a broad range
of issues and perspectives they bring expertise from anthropology,
computer science, the law, management and information systems,
philosophy, political science, social theory, sociology,
communications and policy studies.
In this issue we have gathered papers that sample the range of issues,
discussions, and debates we believe need to be brought together `under
one roof'. Let us introduce them to you.
In Philip Brey's paper on virtual reality, it is argued that virtual
reality systems do not merely represent virtual environments but also
make possible, actions or behaviours within these environments that
would be judged unethical, even reprehensible, were they performed
in the real world. Although Brey makes no general pronouncement
about the morality of this possibility, he argues that virtual
reality applications, in the way they structure and represent actions
and their consequences, and signal internal approval or disapproval,
have considerable power to influence the way users perceive actions
and their consequences. This power is achieved frequently through
misrepresentation as well as biased representations that selectively
favour certain values and interests over others. He charges designers
of virtual reality applications with a moral responsibility to reflect
on these moral dimensions of their work.
In his paper on the Internet and education, Hubert Dreyfus, drawing
on Kierkegaard's work on the Press, challenges the popular view of
the Internet as a global classroom in which anybody and everybody can
participate in a process of so called `hyperlearning.' As Kierkegaard
said of the Press, Dreyfus says of the Internet, that it would promote
risk-free anonymity and idle curiosity, both of which undermine
responsibility and commitment. Dreyfus considers how the Net would
promote Kierkegaard's two nihilistic spheres of existence, the
aesthetic and the ethical, while repelling the religious sphere.
In the aesthetic sphere, the aesthete avoids commitments and lives
in the categories of the interesting and the boring and wants to see
as many interesting sights (sites) as possible. In the ethical sphere
we would reach a `despair of possibility' brought on by the ease of
making and unmaking commitments on the Net. Only in the religious
sphere is nihilism overcome by making a risky, unconditional
commitment. Dreyfus concludes that only by working closely with
students in a shared situation in the real world can teachers with
strong identities, ready to take risks to preserve their commitments,
pass on their passion and skill to their students. In this shared
context students can turn information into knowledge and practical
wisdom.
Kathleen Wallace's paper serves as an interesting counterpoint
to Dreyfus's because she defends the positive values of anonymity
even in the face of its risks. Wallace provides a rich and original
conceptual analysis of anonymity, distinguishing different types
of anonymity, and reviewing their ethical implications. She defines
anonymity as noncoordinatability of traits in and through their social
relations and locations, which is achievable because people are a
plurality of traits and these traits are not all related each to every
other. In discussing the ethical standing of anonymity she reminds us
of Plato's parable of the Ring of Gyges. Although Wallace admits that
anonymity always involves a degree of risk -- even where the initial
primary purpose is to protect the anonymous person from the harmful
actions of others, or to promote positively valued activity -- and
anonymity always raises the issue of accountability, she defends its
positive value. To mitigate against risks like those of the Ring of
Gyges, she urges caution and various safeguards.
In a very dense and provocative paper Luciano Floridi proposes
a framework for information ethics to serve as the much needed
conceptual foundation for computer ethics. According to Floridi
the problems of computer ethics strain the conceptual resources
of standard ethical theories. To augment them, he proffers, and
elaborates, information ethics as a particular case of `environmental'
ethics -- an ethics of the infosphere. Information ethics proposes
that there is something more elementary and fundamental than life and
pain, namely, being -- understood as information, and entropy. From
the perspective of information ethics, information has an intrinsic
worthiness, and information ethics substantiates this position,
by recognising that any information entity has a `Spinozian' right
to persist in its own status, and a `constructionist' right to
flourish, i.e. to improve and enrich its existence and essence. As
a consequence of such `rights', information ethics evaluates the duty
of any rational being in terms of the contribution to the growth of
the infosphere. Floridi argues that information ethics constitutes
a valuable perspective from which to approach not only moral problems
in computer ethics, but also a range of conceptual and moral phenomena
within ethical discourse. This paper is sure to draw a lot of
comment, criticism, and debate -- all of which we encourage.
Bernard Gert, in his paper argues that the understandable, but rather
misleading, concentration on controversial issues in moral philosophy
leads people to believe that there is no substantial agreement on
moral matters. Such a focus on controversial issues, he argues,
clouds the fact that for a preponderance of day to day moral decisions
and judgments there is much agreement and certainty. Building upon
this substantial moral agreement, Gert has developed a system of
`common morality,' described comprehensively in his book *Morality:
Its Nature and Justification*, OUP, 1998. In his paper, Gert
exaplains how his system of common morality may help us understand,
and sometimes even resolve, controversial moral problems emerging in
the field of computing. The virtue of common morality, according to
Gert, is that it provides a method for distinguishing between morally
acceptable and morally unacceptable alternatives. Although common
morality does not always yield a unique best solution, it can draw
clear boundaries around what is morally acceptable. He illustrates
this in the case of copying software for a friend.
James Moor's paper develops Gert's theory of morality into a practical
framework for dealing with the policy vacuums created by computing
technology. Moor insists that any new policies we propose must meet
the ethical criteria of Gert's system. When considering the ethical
import of new policies in light of traditional ethical theories we
frequently discover a strong rivalry between the leading contenders
-- consequentialist theories that emphasise the consequences of
actions and deontological theories that stress rights and duties.
Especially where consequentialist theories and deontological theories
offer hopelessly incompatible solutions, applied ethicists, searching
for practical guidance, find themselves immersed in an ad hoc
deliberation, scrounging for solutions from an inconsistent pile of
principles. From Gert's theory Moor develops the conceptual scheme of
`just consequentialism,' whose efficacy he demonstrates on some of the
traditional dilemmas in computer ethics.
Reviews of books and new media will occur as a regular feature of
the journal. This issue includes Gert-Jan C. Lokhorst review of
*The Digital Phoenix: How Computers are Changing Philosophy* edited
by Terrell Ward Bynum and James H. Moor and Leslie R. Shade's review
of *Morality and Machines: Perspectives on Computer Ethics* by
Stacey L. Edgar. We also include Peter Danielson's review of *Lego's
Mindstorms* robot kits. We have included, as well, an annotated
bibliography by our book review editor Herman Tavani. As a service
to our readers, we plan to offer this list at least once per volume.
That covers our first issue. But what about the future? What
are the topics or themes that we see as important and in need of
consideration? We decided to list some of the themes and issues that
we envisage the journal covering. This is by no means an exhaustive
list, merely some indicators of topics on our minds:
Information technology and human values (including ethical,
economic and aesthetic)
The ethics of artificial intelligence, artificial life, virtual
reality, robotics
Moral theory (applicability, role, future)
Ethics and electronic mediation (conceptions of self, identity,
democracy, and communities)
Privacy, surveillance and cryptology
Intellectual property rights and new media
Information technology, reliability, and accountability
The information society, rights and obligations (property, freedom
of speech, access)
The information society and justice (crime, inequality, access)
The ethical implications of the global information infrastructure
The ethics of patient records and virtual medicine
The use of information technology in the workplace (surveillance,
deskilling, decision making, empowerment)
The ethical issues of information technology in the home (on family
and children in particular)
The ethical issues of information technology use in education
Values embedded in the design of information systems and technology
Governance and sovereignty in the digital electronic realm
The Internet and public law
Clearly, there is much to be said, argued and debated and, with the
explosion of information technology in our late modern society, this
is the time to do it. We offer our journal as a `place' that welcomes
these discussions, arguments and debates -- a place that heretofor has
been in the margins of various fields of inquiry, including applied
moral philosophy, sociology, computing, and science and technology
studies. Our policy, already reflected in this first issue, is that
*Ethics and Information Technology* will publish work of high quality
regardless of the discipline, school of thought, or philosophical
tradition.
With this introduction we welcome you to the first issue of the first
volume of *Ethics and Information Technology*!
The Editors:
Jeroen van den Hoven
Lucas D. Introna
Deborah G. Johnson
Helen Nissenbaum
Helen Nissenbaum, University Center for Human Values
5 Ivy Lane, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544-1013
609 258-2879(tel) 609 258-6082 (fax)
Co-editor, Journal of Ethics and Information Technology
<http://www.wkap.nl/journals/ethics_it>
-----------------------------------------------
--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2000 17:38:32 +0000
From: Arun-Kumar Tripathi <tripathi@statistik.uni-dortmund.de>
Subject: [Israel-Report]Children teaching internet Skills to
Seniors by Prof. Edna Aphek
Dear Humanists,
((Hello, I thought..this might interest you..-Arun))
--------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 1 Jan 1996 01:25:05 +0200
From: Pr. Aphek <aphekdr@netvision.net.il>
[--]
Dear Arun,
Thought the following might interest you and may be the group.
Please forward at your discretion.
With best wishes
Edna
Prof. Edna Aphek,Tel-Hi Networks, 42 Hatayassim St.
Jerusalem, Israel.
David Yellin Teachers College, Jerusalem, Israel.
--
Children Tutoring Seniors at internet Skills: An Experiment
Conducted at one Israeli Elementary School.
The internet which connects about 200 million people and
millions of pages, voice , sound, image and video files has
become a most powerful tool in the hands of those who know
how to navigate it.
The opportunity to use this powerful tool exists and is open to
most strata of the population, regardless of the limitations of age,
education, etc. Though the opportunity exists what actually
happens is that the gap between internet surfers and those who
are not knowledgeable in internet skills, is ever growing.
The gap is widening between youngsters, the primary internet
user population , and adults and mostly seniors ,who are not
skilled at using a computer or the internet.
In the new Hi-Tech world, where children speak the new
language of the internet as their mother tongue, it would be most
fitting to put their mastery to good use and train them to teach
this new language to Senior Citizens, those unacquainted with
the language of the internet.
This latter age group might find much interest and relevant, useful
information via the net; they can study on-line, meet new people via the
internet, find useful information, participate in on-line interest groups,
and contribute from their experience and knowledge and most importantly
feel connected.
An experiment was conducted in one elementary school in Israel,
the Alon School in 1999, where ten Seniors were tutored by ten
children aged 11-14.
For documentation of the process as well as an evaluation of the
project, please write to:
Prof. Edna Aphek
E-mail: <aphekdr@netvision.net.il>
--------------
Pr. Edna Aphek
Tel-Hi Networks Ltd.
Tel - 97225633951
Fax - 97225665902
-------------
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