UDEL ELEG491 Final Exam

main tenets of common carriage

The business of transportation should be agnostic

The transportation service cannot discriminate against its passengers

What does Wu think about local and internetwork restrictions

non-discrimination rule allows local restrictions (bandwidth, local devices, policing of ethernet), but not internetwork restrictions (blocking specified addresses, bans on vpn, tcps, or applications)

John Stuart Mill's Harm Principle -

- Minimal regulation argument

- only regulate for self-protection, prevent harm to others, for ones own good

Two senses of "internet regulation"

1) regulating content (online obsenity, hate speech, etc)

2) regulating processes (rules for commercial transactions in cyberspace)

Alternatives for who/what should regulate commerce and speech

anything that's not government (self-governance, private interests, anything not govt)

Content Based Regulation Agencies

FDA, Local and State Boards of Health, liquor control board

Process Based Regulation Agencies

FTC, FCC, SEC

Four Taditional Types ("Titles") of media

1) Publishing

2) Broadcast

3) Distribution

4) common carrier

Net neutrality debate

is the internet a common carrier? its been back and forth

- FCC declared it was in 2015, subjecting it to the same rules as other utilities.

- 2017 executive order overturned it

- 2018 reversed by "restoring internet freedom" order

- 2024 reinstated nn, january of 2025, US appeal blocked the action

fate of bell/AT&T as a common carrier

Bell's patents expired by 1894

Bell consolidated control over long-distance service nationwide by the 1920's

The 1934 Communications Act declares Bell a "natural monopoly" and places it under common carrier regulation—what they "transported" had to treated with neutrality

AT&T converges with the "baby Bells to continue the monopoly

Wu's principle of net neutrality and comparison to other media

"a maximally useful public info network aspires to treat all content, sites, and platforms equally"

compares it to the electric grid (who cares whats plugged in)

what does DRM (Digital Rights Management) allow in cyberspace

allow content owners to regulate the flow of information in digital media by blocking access to it via encryption, and limiting access through passwords

This is both content regulation and process regulation

History of Internet Domain Names

Jon Postel administered the internet registries

NSF took over licensing of domain names in 1980s

ICANN took over the process in 1998

International Governmental Advisory Committee now controls it

First Amendment of the US constitution and why it is a conditional right

"Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press"

It can be suspended (harms others, no shouting fire in the movie theater)

Does the First Amendment restrict Hate Speech?

No, as long as it does not incite physical harm (psychological harm is okay)

Details of obscenity standard in Miller v. California

1) depicts sexual acts whose depiction is specifically prohibited by law

2) depicts them in a patently offensive manner (prurient interest judged by a reasonable person using community standards)

3) no serious Social, Literary, Artistic, Political, or Scientific value (SLAPS)

Fate of speech limiting legislation:

CDA, COPA, CIPA all were not passed (except for a few situations) because if the internet is intended for adults, we cannot regulate for children (b/c then it treats adults as children)

Forms of Speech that can be legally censored

Those that lead to physical harm

different types of "virtuality"

1) online (virtual) communities

2) VR

3) Websites (Online Presence)

4) MP Online Games

Standard and "online" definitions (sociology) of community

Standard: people living the same place and sharing the same norms and laws

Online: people decide to forma community out of shared interests and goals, irrespective of physical proximity (volitional)

The Borgman, Dreyfus, and Contemporary critiques of online communities

B: online comms compete with RL and cause disconnectedness and 'diminished presence'

D: anonymity online is without risk, hence one cannot build real relationships

C: OC's support polarization, degenerate behavior, and criminality

Etzioni's defense of the benefits of online communities

- bonding/making new friends

- proximity in space/time not req

- bridge geographic borders

- inclusive to homebound people

- accommodate more people

- safer than RL communities

- have stronger "memories"

- allow new relationships

Relation of Plato's Ring of Gyges to online behavior

Giving oneself this anonymity causes one to do immoral acts

Brey's analysis of representational issues in online communities

- misrepresentations

- biased representations

- indecent representations

these hinder the moral dev of those not subjected and psychologically harm those that are (harms both)

details of LamdaMOO case

- privately owned text based MUD which left users with self-governance

- led to virtual sex and a "rape" which banned the offender

Philosophical claims about the wrong done in the LamdaMOO case

- online speech is still "real"

- connecting consent to text-based or graphical depictions is controversial

Lin's examples of AI decisions that fall into a "moral gray space"

many AI design decisions will not be "obviously" right or wrong

E.g highway lane spacing and traffic routing apps

themes in the ethics of automation as researched by different disciplines

- Safety and loss calculations

- autonomy

- interaction, trust, acceptance

- context/application

forms of the traditional Trolley Problem and the moral dilemma the present

traditional: flipping a switch to save five but kill one

footbridge: push someone off a bridge to stop the trolley and save five.

(how much can you intervene before it weighs on your concious)

how do several "crash" scenarios for AV's present moral dilemmaa

1) dead passenger > dead bystander

2) dead passengers < dead bystanders

3) prob of killing p > prob of B

4) damage associated with 3

(basically, there are so many potential outcomes, its controversial on who determines these selections)

scenarios beyond the "crash" that have moral implications

- 3-car tailgating with "mixed" AVs and non-AVs

- crosswalk intervention

- brake failure

- chicken between AV and non-AV

details of the 6 levels of SAEJ3016 driving automation

0) you are responsible for everything

1) responsible for everything, but have lane centering and steering support

2) responsible for everything but have steering and brake support and lane centering and cruise control

3) dont drive when auto features are engaged, but must drive if feature requests it

4) drives for you but only for select locations

5) drives for you everywhere

kantian vs engineering conception of autonomy

Kant: the ability to make morally relevant choices independent of influencing factors

Engineering: the machine acts independently of user control in all scenarios (level 5), well beyond "driver support"

searle's "chinese room" argument and possibility of autonomous moral agents

- simulation of mental operations is not "realization" of a mind

- the claim that thinking requires self-origination

- claims the computer is only working with syntax, which is not sufficient for semantics

philosophical conditions for moral agency

- decision-making ability

- effective decisions

- intention of action

basic lesson of the "uncanny valley"

human affinity towards something increases with human likeness

characteristics of sociable robots according to M. Hanheide

- embodiment in a situated manner

- lifelike qualities

- identifying persons

- learning of social situations

- being understood

Types of democracy along the "continuum"

General point is that there is no pure form of democracy (closest we get to is Plebiscitarian)

- direct democracy <> Plebiscitarian (everyone votes)

- rep democracy <> republican (electing representatives)

Hart's 4 types of responsibility

1) role - goes with title

2) causal - natural processes or people

3) liability - used to determine responsibility or pay

4) capacity - used to determine ones ability to make a decision

Of Hart's 4 types of responsibility which are "backward" and which are "forward"

2-4 are backward 1 and 4 are forward

what is important about knowledge in an engineer's responsibility

engineers have the responsibility to decline or refuse to pass a design from being implemented

Define culpability, strict liability, and negligence

C: responsibility due to intentional harmful action w/o justification or excuse, and where the likely consequences were known

SL: req to pay for damage caused by one's actions, regardless of fault, negligence, or intent

N: failure to exercise reasonable care

what types of responsibility are of interest to Kantians, and why

causal - it is the foundation of moral autonomy and likewise moral status

Be able to explain how responsibility questions arise in every section of this course

who is responsible for:

privacy

safe computers

hacking

copying IP

etc

what is jonas's imperative of responsibility

Modern technology has introduced actions of such novel scale, objects, and consequences that the framework of former ethics can no longer contain them

Proposes a new categorical imperative: Act so that the effects of your action are compatible with the permanence of genuine human life.

explain why Jonas thinks that technology is inherently ambivalent

- tech can be good or bad

- potential is employed on ever larger scales as need

- magnitude is on temporal and spatial scales

- forces us to confront anthropocentrism

- could be apocalyptic

How has modern technology introduced an "ethical novum" acc to Jonas

its immense scale and causal range of the technological practice

what is the import of Jonas's example of plowshares and swords

"plowshares" can be as disastrous in the long run as "swords"

why does Jonas believe that former ethical systems were anthropocentric

former systems never cared about the effect on future life on earth.

why acc to Jonas must we reject anthropocentric ethics in the future

Rejecting this would force us to address future generations, and force us to avoid developing tech which would harm our future generations.

what is the main argument of Bloom and Harris concerning AI robots and our own morality

the "westworld problem" where we run the risk of building machines that only monsters would use as they please (we would do bad things to these robots)

What principles are common to most professional ethical codes

beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, justice

What are the common elements of the ethics codes we examined

First point, you must protect the health, safety and wellbeing of the public

why do these codes apply to specific professions - why are the special

because each profession has its special attributes, audiences, and actions

How does resnik's code rely on more basic ethical principles

he encompasses both scientific and societal norms:

principles such as honesty, objectivity, integrity, carefulness, and openness

what does the BART case show about using different principles of an ethics code?

Bay Area Rapid Transit case - whole point is to say that if there was an engineering failure, and you looked at the code associated with them, the first principle would address the area of harm.

relevance of arrows theorem to the issue of deriving social from individual choice

There is no one "reasonable" procedure to derive social choice from individual choice

example of non-transitivity problem (Condorcet) in ordered-preference voting

if you have a group of people to list their preferences, they will often cancel each other's preferences out

def and ex of the "digital divide"

separates the information haves and have nots - exists between nations and within nations

General IT trends in lessening the global digital divides

a) increasing access to information tech

b) increasing the knowledge and ability to use that tech

other IT-related political problems for democracy

- auto-indoctrination

- personalization filters

- mass dispersion of half truths

- comment/trolling

- information overload

- data mining to make the voter="the product"

ways that IT has impacted elections

- social media sites could influence political outcomes

- political blogs could spread false info

- governments master the "dark arts" of propaganda

carother's main reasons that IT hasn't helped democracy

1) it is too soon to tell - some changes may be local

2) large, countervailing trends (authoritarianism)

3) IT itself does not mobilize collective action

examples (from carothers) of IT/democracy successes and failures

Nixon-Kennedy debates (televised versus radio)

lessons from the use of electronics devices in the "arab spring"

a country can never truly control the internet, as there are so many ways around what's put in place to prevent info from spreading

Marcuse's account of freedom in industrial development

- rational "industrial" development can both supply and deprive freedom

Marcuse's concept of the "machine process"

•The "machine process" integrates all aspects of work, culture, and leisure

•Technological progress can make us (voluntarily) part of "the machine"

•Potentially, automation can satisfy all our "needs" and make us "free" we become people who get everything we want (Wall-E)

Marcuse's argument for future progress via automation

it has the potential to satisfy all our "needs" and make us "free"

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