ds380 midterm 1

professional ethics

focuses on computer science, engineering, library and information science, and typically worries about professional responsibility, system safety, and codes of conduct.

philosophical ethics

draws on philosophy and law, focuses on analyzing concepts, and typically worries about privacy, intellectual property, and free speech

descriptive ethics

draws on behavioral sciences, focuses on describing rather than deciding ethical issues, and typically worries about impact on cyber technology on governmental, financial, legal, and educational institutions, as well as sociodemographic groups of people.

dialogical ethics

draws on social work and public health, and is exercised in practice through engaging stakeholders.

S in methodology

sense oppurtunities to make ethical decisions

A in methodology

analyze principles at stake, from perspectives of philosophy, organization, professional codes, precedent cases, and discussions with industry peers

E in methodology

engage stakeholders, to establish shared understandings of how objectives, practices, and outcomes are valued differently by those invovled and affected

D in methodolgy

deliberate on choices, aligned with principles and stakeholders in play

I in methodology

initiate action, in light of the foregoing

AI goal alignment

• Goal alignment is genuinely difficult to achieve as a litany of unexpected AI actions illustrate 

• the problem is that we don’t grasp complex systems well enough to anticipate unintended side effects.

• the world is complex, and so is AI

AI goal communication

• Communication is complex (again, we use culturally and cognitively encoded assumptions to manage the complexity, but we still have misunderstandings).

• Communicating with AIs is complex (our communication assumptions are anthropomorphic, making difficult to see our communication the way AIs do).

the single greatest impediment as we approach the task of trying to align AI goals with goals related to human wellbeing

The human inability to navigate formally complex systems

morality

a system of rules for guiding human conduct and principles for evaluating those rules

4 requirements for a moral system

public, informal, rational, impartial

public

everyone knows and is subject to the same set of rules (unless there’s a supernaturally assigned exempt group who are subject to distrinct rules)

informal

no fixed decision structure (unless there’s a supernatural moral decider)

rational

univeraslly accessible, open to arguement (unless there’s a supernaturally authorized group of moral experts with privileged access to information)

impartial

works equitably for everyone (there might be, and have been, exceptions)

ethics

study of morality

ethics distinguish between:

• the source of moral rules of conduct and principles of evaluatoin (e.g. core values)

• justification of rules and principles (through systems of ethics)

3 foundations to explain why X is morally wrong

religious, legal, philosophical

religious ethical foundations

X is wrong because a religious belief says so

legal ethical foundations

X is wrong because the law says so

philosophical ethical foundations

X is wrong because reason says so

divine command ethics

focusing on moral preferences of a deity

consequentialist ethics

focusing on consequences of actions

deontological ethics

focusing on duties and moral principles

right ethics

focusing on social contracts that articulate and guarantee

virtue ethics

focusing on personal moral virtues

evolutionary ethics

moral foundations theory proposes six evolutionarily stablized moral foundations:

• Individualizing: Care/Harm

• Individualizing: Fairness/Cheating

• Individualizing: Liberty/Oppression

• Binding: Loyalty/Betrayal

• Binding: Authority/Subversion

• Binding: Sanctity/Degradation

moral foundations theory

points out that human beings, across cultures, have specific domains of moral instincts and associated types of moral reasoning that operate instinctively in human beings and can be resisted only with great effort 

• While the default human moral
  orientation stresses all six moral
  foundations, we can build cultures
  that amplify some of them while
  muting others (liberal “thin” morality
  vs conservative ”thick” morality).

why is fairness important?

• social stability, avoids revolution

• dignity and discrimination, features that should be irrelevants

• cultural relativism and what is relevant

• distributive justice

distributive justices

• what goods are being distributed?

• who receives the distributions?

• basis for distributions

what goods are being distributed in distributive justices?

jobs, education, govt benefits, healthcare, privacy

who receives the distribution in distributive justices?

individuals, groups of people, calsses of people, regions, cities, states, nations

basis of distribution in distributive justices

equality, equity, individual talent, personal effort, past unfair treatment

equality

everyone is treated the same

equity

everyone has equal access to oppurtunity

privilege

implies the ability to (1) aquire good easily and (2) protect oneself from harms easily. can change for different goods and contexts, relative

goods

may be environmental, economic, personal, social

harms

may be distributions (when goods are not distributed fairly) or representational (e.g. stereotyping)

public good

a commodity or serivce or state of affairs that benefits all members of society. non-excludable and non-rivalrous

public goods can be:

pure (always completely non-excludable and non-rivalrous), and Impure (non-excludable and non-rivalrous only some of the time, or in some places or circumstances)

non-excludable

you can’t exclude people from access

non-rivalrous

one person’s access doesn’t limit another person’s access

excludable

you can exclude people from access

rivalrous

one person’s access can limits another person’s access

private good

a good that is excludable and rivarlous

examples: food, personal computers, parking spaces, private land

club good

a good that is excludable and non-rivalrous

examples: private parks, satellite television, non-free public transport

common-pool good

a good is non-excludable and rivalrous

example: fish stocks, natural mineral resources, free public transport

social goods are:

publics goods specifically related to the rganization and function of society

the problems with public goods

• Free markets can fail to produce them and governments can fail to produce them

• Public-Private Partnerships are collaborations between government (supplying funding) and private companies (providing expertise) to create public goods 

• Creating public goods depends on virtuous individual behavior that economic systems can’t themselves produce

cybertech is often a difficult to create public good. what partnership can help this?

public-private

policy vaccum

No rules yet for a new tech problem

conceptual muddle

Confused/unclear definitions

two kinds of rules of conduct

directives and social policies

4 kinds of discussion stoppers

people disagree on solutions to moral issues, who am i to judge others, morality is simply a private matter, morality is simply a matter for individual cultures to decide

people disagree on solutions to moral issues

fails to (a) recognize experts in many areas disagree on key issues in their fields (b) recognize there are many moral issues on which people agree © distingush about principles and disagreements about facts

who am i to judge others?

fails to (a) distinguish between the act of judging and being a judgemental eprson (b) distinguish between judging as condemning and judging as evaluating (C) recognize that sometimes we are required to make judgements

ethics is simply a private matter

fails to (a) recognize that morality is essentially a public system (b) notice that personally based morality can cause major harm to others (C) // confuses moral choices with individual or person preferences

morality is simply a matter for indivudal cultures to decide

fails to distinguish between descriptive and normative claims made about morality, assums that people can never reach common agrement on some moral principles, assums taht a system is moral because a majority in a culture decides it is moral

adv and disadv of consequence based (utilitarian)

adv: stresses promotion of happiness and utility

disadv: ignores concerns of justice for the minority population

duty based (deontology)

adv: stresses the role of duty and respect for persons

disadv: underestimates the impotrance of happinness and social utility, often does not factor in consequences

contract based (rights)

adv: provides a motivation for morality

disadv: offers only a minimal morality

character based (virtue)

adv: stresses character development and moral education

disadv: depends on homogeneous community standards for morality

act ethical framework

stress the primacy of individual actions over general rules

rule ethical framework

both theories stress the primacy of rules

just consequentialism (james moor)

Deliberate based on:

• impartial/universal 

• No unnecessary harm 

• Individual rights, duties 

Select ➢

• Weigh good and bad 

• Distinguish unconfident facts vs. agreeable principles

structure of logical arguement

premise(s) → conclusion

valid arguement

the assumed truth of the premises is sufficient to guarantee the conclusion

sound arguement

valid arguement that has all true premises 

inductive arguement

the conclusion is not guaranteed but is likely based on the premises (invalid arguement)

unsound arguement

one of the premises is false (valid arguement)

fallacious arguement

the premises do not guarantee the conclusion (invalid arguement)

strong arguements

sound and valid, sound and invalud but inductive

ad hominem

attack, insult, or discredit the speaker, rather than their argument

Appeal to Authority

because an authority or prestigious source said so

slippery slope

shouldn’t do something because it might lead to something else

Causality/Correlation (post hoc ergo propter hoc)

something happened after something else, so the first must have happened because of the first thing

Composition

All of the pieces of something have property X, so the whole thing must also have property X

Division

the whole has property Y, so each of its parts must also have property Y

Ambiguity/Equivocation

when you use ambiguous words that have multiple possible meanings and confuse these meanings to make two things seem similar

False dichotomy (either-or) 

It must be x or y, and it’s not x, so it must be y (what if there are actually more than 2 options)

virtuality/cyberspace

because something happens in cyberspace it does not affect the real world

what is a profession?

vocation, occupation, honest occupation, special kind of honest occupation

safety critical software

.IT professionals that are responsible for safety-critical systems have significant opportunities to do good or cause harm. As such, they have special moral obligation

examples: Aircraft and air traffic control systems, Mass transportation systems, Nuclear reactors, Missile systems, Medical treatment systems

professional codes

inspire, educate, guide, hold accountable, penalize. 3 levels:

• code of ethics (aspirational): provides vision and objectives

• code of conduct (behavioral): addresses the professional’s attitude and behavior

• codes of practices (operational): comprises obligations that derive from element unique to a particular profession

critiques of professional codes

• codes are “self-serving, unrealistic, inconsistent, mere guides for novices, too vague, or unnecessary”

• tend to be incomplete, can provide certain loopholes for unethical behvaior in an org

• codes rest on a series of confusions that are both intellectal and moral

• individuals are unaware to do when two or more principles in a code conflict with one another

• micro vs macro ethics, which responsibilites apply to individual professionals and which responsbilites apply to the profession itself?

• attaching disciplinary procedures and sanctions to codes effectively turns them into legal rules or “authoritative rules of conduct” rather than ethical rules

SECEPP (Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice)

joint code of ethics for SWE. unique b/c a code for the entire profession and has been adopted by 2 intl computings societies. has 8 core principles, in general, emphasizes the profession’s obligation to the public at large

Five important functions that professional codes serve

inspiration, education, guidance, accountability, and enforcement

strengths of professional codes

• Codes inspire the members of a profession to behave ethically

• guide the members of a profession in ethical choices

• educate the members about their professional obligations

• discipline members when they violate one or more directives

• inform the public about the nature and roles of the profession

• “sensitize” members of a profession to ethical issues and alert them to ethical aspects they otherwise might overlook

• enhance the profession in the eyes of the public

weaknesses of professional codes

• include directives that tend to be too general and too vague

• are not always helpful when two or more directives conflict

• comprise directives that are neither complete nor exhaustive

• are ineffective (have no “teeth”) in disciplinary matters

• sometimes include directives that are inconsistent with one another

• do not always distinguish between microethics issues and macroethics issues

• can be self-serving for the profession

Moral Responsibility

usually applied to individuals (rather than collectivities) + applies notions of guilt/shame (but no legal punishment)

Legal Liability

usually applied to corporations (rather than individuals) + does not attribute moral blame to those liable + compensation may be required.

Accountability

can be applied to individuals or corporations + does not necessarily attribute blame + someone is answerable (i.e. it goes beyond mere liability).

Problem of Many Hands

describes the difficulty of assigning accountability in the development of computer systems by teams, where no single individual fully understands all aspects. It advocates for focusing on collective accountability (including orgs) rather than individual moral responsibility

Whistle-blowing

voluntary release of nonpublic information, as a moral protest, by a (former) member of an organization to an appropriate audience about illegal and/or immoral conduct in the organization. internal vs external, personal vs interpersonal, governmental vs non governmental

de george’s model for evaluating whistle-blowing

A. An employee is morally permitted to _______ when… 

• The issue will do considerable harm to the public. 

• the employee has already reported the issue to their immediate supervisor

• The employee has exhausted all internal procedures within the organization.

B. An employee is morally obliged to ________ when…

• The employee has documented evidence that would convince an impartial observer.  

• The employee believes that by going public the necessary changes will be brought about.

digital divide

gap between those who have and do not have access to ICTs, raises distributive justice concerns. the divide can be seen by nations, welath, race, and gender. has effects on social and political institutions (such as education and government) and social sectors (including the workplace)