JHU Computer Ethics Final Exam Preparation

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key ethical concepts, legal definitions, historical cases, and technological frameworks from the JHU Computer Ethics final exam preparation material.

Technology and Ethics (Gerd Leonhard)

The core thesis presented by Gerd Leonhard asserting that technology itself has no ethics.

Computer Ethics (James Moor)

The analysis of the nature and social impact of computer technology and the corresponding formulation and justification of policies for the ethical use of such technology.

Redefinition of Traditional Work (James Moor)

The transformation driven by computer technology whereby 'work' is no longer restricted to happening at a specific time or a specific physical place.

Origins of Computer Ethics (Terrell Ward Bynum)

The founding of the field as partially a response to Norbert Wiener's World War II development of an antiaircraft cannon capable of shooting down fast warplanes.

De-skilling

The process where human skill and craftsmanship are eliminated or diminished by replacing human workers with computer technology.

Ethical Guidance Dilemma (Juan Enriquez)

The challenge in identifying who teaches ethics because traditional authorities—such as holy books, parents, religious figures, teachers, doctors, and governments—have historically imparted incorrect moral teachings.

Consumer Moral Influence (Shakib and Layton)

The economic impact exerted when consumers actively patronize businesses they consider morally sound, making it harder for unethical enterprises to survive.

Universal Ethics

A singular, globally shared set of moral rules—which Shakib and Layton assert does not exist.

Internet Boundary Challenge (Jefferies)

The fundamental governance difficulty that arises because the Internet is an inherently global network operating without territorial boundaries.

Deep Fake Technology

Synthetic media technology that raises ethical concerns by fabricating a person's likeness in video to depict them saying or doing whatever the creator desires.

Iron Cage (Neil McBride)

A sociological and technological concept describing human confinement and constraint caused by technological systems.

Driver-Centric Vehicle Design (Neil McBride)

The design recommendation that automotive systems should focus on providing richer information to drivers so they become better drivers, rather than removing human agency.

Automated Detect and Avoid Ethics (Erik Theunissen)

An ethical dilemma stemming from the fact that programming automated collision-avoidance algorithms requires deliberate premeditation regarding how a robotic system will respond in critical incidents.

Autonomous Vehicle Safety Claim Discrepancy

The reality that current empirical data does not corroborate the industry assertion that self-driving cars have demonstrably reduced total accident figures.

Temporal Nature of Ethics (Juan Enriquez)

The principle that ethics evolves over time, where emerging technology transforms human ethics rather than ethics dictating technology.

Historical Humility (Juan Enriquez)

The ethical disposition recognizing that people must remain humble about past generations' moral failures, because contemporary society will likewise be judged by the future.

Gift of Fire Analogy

The perspective that computer technology is akin to fire: a powerful tool that, if unmanaged, can spin out of control and cause extensive harm to society.

Critical Systems Responsibility (Michael C. McFarland)

The central issue in safety-critical computing concerning where accountability lies when computer hardware or software fails in high-stakes environments.

Computer Scientist Hippocratic Oath

The proposed professional standard suggesting that computer scientists take a formal ethical pledge to 'do no harm.'

Formal System

A computational and mathematical framework using a defined grammar to encode logic and states such that a conclusion deductively follows from a premise.

Challenges to Formal Methods (Darren Abramson et al.)

Key verification hurdles including mathematically modeling complex systems and environments, automating mathematical proofs, and mechanically verifying proof correctness.

Hello Barbie Surveillance Concerns (Jones and Meurer)

Privacy issues arising when children's recorded conversations are managed by third-party cloud vendors (such as ToyTalk), creating big-data tracking that threatens a child's developmental trust.

Extrinsic Loss of Freedom

A restriction of liberty where an individual's actions and choices are directly dictated or controlled by another entity.

Intrinsic Loss of Freedom

A behavioral inhibition occurring when an individual alters their own conduct because they are conscious of being watched, monitored, or spied upon.

Durlak's Basic Rights of Privacy

A classification identifying intimacy, reserve, and solitude as fundamental components of personal privacy.

Normative Ethics

A major branch of philosophical ethics focused on developing, articulating, and justifying universal rules and standards for right conduct.

Ethics of Virtue

An ethical approach centered on moral character, fundamentally asking what kind of person does the right thing.

Social Ethics

An inquiry into collective morality that examines what institutional and social structures are necessary to safeguard justice, human life, and dignity.

Filter Bubble

Algorithmic personalization on search engines and social platforms that isolates users in customized information bubbles based on personal profiles.

Copyright

A legally granted monopoly providing an author or creator exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, and display their original work.

First Sale Provision

A copyright principle permitting the lawful purchaser of a copyrighted physical copy to resell, lend, or discard that particular copy without permission.

Dual Protection of Software (Robert Plotkin)

The distinctive intellectual property status of software, allowing it to be protected simultaneously under both patent and copyright law.

Intellectual Property (IP)

Intangible creations of the mind protected by law, encompassing original musical compositions, literary works, inventions, and proprietary formulas.

Trademark

A distinctive word, phrase, name, or symbol used in commerce to identify and distinguish the source of goods or services.

Trademark Infringement

The unauthorized commercial use of a registered trademark in connection with the sale of goods or services in a manner likely to cause confusion.

Trademark Blurring

A form of dilution that occurs when a famous mark is applied to completely dissimilar goods (e.g., using the Disney brand to market men's suits), diminishing its distinctiveness.

Latanya Sweeney's De-anonymization Demonstration

A landmark proof-of-concept re-identifying Massachusetts Governor William Weld by matching supposedly anonymized health records against public voter registration datasets.

Password Usability Paradox (Edward Gehringer)

The human factors dilemma where imposing excessively rigid, frequently expiring password rules drives users to compromise security by writing down credentials.

WiFi Pineapple

A wireless auditing and penetration device that can intercept network traffic and compromise devices connected to the same wireless network.

Algorithmic Bias (Friedman and Nissenbaum)

A characteristic of computer systems that systematically and unfairly discriminates against specific individuals or groups in favor of others.

Airline Ticketing System Bias

An algorithmic bias where reservation systems omit split-carrier flight itineraries despite them being significantly cheaper for the customer.

Medical Residency Match Bias

A structural algorithmic bias documented in the National Resident Matching Program that disadvantages medical school candidates when selecting training programs.

Binary Arithmetic Drift Hazard (Alan Clements)

Hardware-level rounding and truncating errors in binary arithmetic that resulted in catastrophic real-world failure, such as the Patriot missile defense failure that killed several soldiers.

Facebook Emotional Contagion Experiment

An unconsented psychological study in which user feeds were algorithmically filtered for positive or negative content to manipulate users' emotional states.

Pharmaceutical Spam Hazard

A global health risk where approximately 50% of sent spam advertises medical and pharmaceutical products, a large percentage of which are counterfeit.

Secret Data Collection

An unethical research practice whereby human subjects are evaluated and their data harvested without their explicit informed consent or knowledge.

A Gay Girl in Damascus Hoax

A fraudulent digital persona claiming to be a Syrian lesbian activist during the Arab Spring, who was ultimately exposed as a male American student studying abroad.

Griefing

Deliberately abusive, harassment-based behavior in virtual worlds and MMORPGs that inflicts genuine psychological distress and mirrors real-world bullying.

Internet Census 2012 (Carna Botnet)

An unauthorized port scanning and vulnerability survey that illicitly accessed hundreds of thousands of embedded systems using factory-default credentials.

Logic Bomb

Malicious code deliberately inserted into critical systems (including elements of the US electrical power grid) set to trigger under specific preconditions in cyber warfare.

Just Cyber Warfare (Luciano Floridi)

A specialized cyber ethics framework positing that classical Just War Theory is inadequate and that information possesses an intrinsic right to exist, rendering destructive cyber warfare immoral.

Just War Theory

A traditional philosophical and legal doctrine requiring that military conflict only be initiated as a last resort, produce more good than harm, and strictly avoid targeting non-combatants.