Engineering and Environmental Technoethics

2010 ◽  
pp. 146-162
Author(s):  
Luppicini Rocci
Keyword(s):  
Computer Navigation ◽  
Engineering Ethics ◽  
Computer Networking ◽  
Navigation Systems ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
The Public ◽  
Nuclear Explosions ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Public Reaction

This chapter traces the development of Engineering Ethics, Computer Ethics, and Environmental Technoethics. It also covers the topic of military technoethics as an important new development that deserves special attention. The story begins in the late 19th century with the development of various engineering professional bodies to ensure that engineers were responsible for potentially harmful constructions. This in turn, gave rise to the creation of codes of engineering ethics to help guide professional conduct. As the public demand for engineering increased throughout the 20th century, so did the ethical implications and demand for codes of engineering ethics. In the 1950s and 1960s, the continued expansion of industrial growth lead also to a number of human caused environmental disasters ranging from oil spills to nuclear explosions to the release of toxic chemicals into the air and water supply. This brought on a public reaction among environmental organizations and increased public attention to ethical implications of technology and the environment. These developments helped nurture in studies in environmental technoethics and the ethical concern over human involvement in technology related environmental change. Also in the 1950s and 1960s, the public use of mainframe computers, promising outlook for computer networking, and scholarly interest in systems research raised additional interest concerning the ethical implications connected to computer innovation in society. This chapter provides a review of background developments, challenges, and current directions in each of these areas. It uses examples to illustrate the potency of technology in reference to key areas (i.e., access equity, software design, computer navigation systems, construction, mining, and other areas of technology use and misuse). It concludes with insider interviews from leading experts working in the field and recommendations on how to use technoethical inquiry to leverage the ethical use of science and technology in areas where technological innovation has created ethical challenges and dilemmas.

Engineering and Environmental Technoethics

2010 ◽  
pp. 146-162
Author(s):  
Luppicini Rocci
Keyword(s):  
Computer Navigation ◽  
Engineering Ethics ◽  
Computer Networking ◽  
Navigation Systems ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
The Public ◽  
Nuclear Explosions ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Public Reaction

This chapter traces the development of Engineering Ethics, Computer Ethics, and Environmental Technoethics. It also covers the topic of military technoethics as an important new development that deserves special attention. The story begins in the late 19th century with the development of various engineering professional bodies to ensure that engineers were responsible for potentially harmful constructions. This in turn, gave rise to the creation of codes of engineering ethics to help guide professional conduct. As the public demand for engineering increased throughout the 20th century, so did the ethical implications and demand for codes of engineering ethics. In the 1950s and 1960s, the continued expansion of industrial growth lead also to a number of human caused environmental disasters ranging from oil spills to nuclear explosions to the release of toxic chemicals into the air and water supply. This brought on a public reaction among environmental organizations and increased public attention to ethical implications of technology and the environment. These developments helped nurture in studies in environmental technoethics and the ethical concern over human involvement in technology related environmental change. Also in the 1950s and 1960s, the public use of mainframe computers, promising outlook for computer networking, and scholarly interest in systems research raised additional interest concerning the ethical implications connected to computer innovation in society. This chapter provides a review of background developments, challenges, and current directions in each of these areas. It uses examples to illustrate the potency of technology in reference to key areas (i.e., access equity, software design, computer navigation systems, construction, mining, and other areas of technology use and misuse). It concludes with insider interviews from leading experts working in the field and recommendations on how to use technoethical inquiry to leverage the ethical use of science and technology in areas where technological innovation has created ethical challenges and dilemmas.

Shaping Digital Democracy in the United States

2014 ◽  
pp. 213-231
Author(s):  
Rachel Baarda ◽  
Rocci Luppicini
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Networking Site ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
The Public Sphere

Ethical challenges that technology poses to the different spheres of society are a core focus within the field of technoethics. Over the last few years, scholars have begun to explore the ethical implications of new digital technologies and social media, particularly in the realms of society and politics. A qualitative case study was conducted on Barack Obama's campaign social networking site, my.barackobama.com, in order to investigate the ways in which the website uses or misuses digital technology to create a healthy participatory democracy. For an analysis of ethical and non-ethical ways to promote participatory democracy online, the study included theoretical perspectives such as the role of the public sphere in a participatory democracy and the effects of political marketing on the public sphere. The case study included a content analysis of the website and interviews with members of groups on the site. The study's results are explored in this chapter.

scholarly journals Analyzing the Ethical Implications of Research Using Leaked Data

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 505-509
Author(s):  
Anne E. Boustead ◽  
Trey Herr
Keyword(s):  
Human Subjects ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Ethical Guidelines ◽  
Data Breach ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Insight Into

ABSTRACTAlthough information made public after a data breach can provide insight into difficult research questions, use of these data raises ethical questions not directly addressed by current ethical guidelines. This article develops a framework for identifying and managing risks to human subjects when conducting research involving leaked data. We contend that researchers who seek to use leaked data should identify and address ethical challenges by considering the process through which the data were originally released into the public domain.

The Use and Abuse of Digital Democracy

2014 ◽  
pp. 1663-1682
Author(s):  
Rachel Baarda ◽  
Rocci Luppicini
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
Social Networking Site ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
The Public Sphere

The field of technoethics explores the ethical challenges that technology poses to the different spheres of society. Recently, scholars have begun to explore the ethical implications of new digital technologies and social media, particularly in the realms of society and politics. A qualitative case study was conducted on Barack Obama's campaign social networking site, mybarackobama.com, in order to investigate the ways in which the website uses or misuses digital technology to create a healthy participatory democracy. For an analysis of ethical and non-ethical ways to promote participatory democracy online, the study included theoretical perspectives such as the role of the public sphere in a participatory democracy and the effects of political marketing on the public sphere. The case study included a content analysis of the website and interviews with members of groups on the site. The study's results can be found further in the article.

The Use and Abuse of Digital Democracy

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 50-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Baarda ◽  
Rocci Luppicini
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
Social Networking Site ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
The Public Sphere

The field of technoethics explores the ethical challenges that technology poses to the different spheres of society. Recently, scholars have begun to explore the ethical implications of new digital technologies and social media, particularly in the realms of society and politics. A qualitative case study was conducted on Barack Obama’s campaign social networking site, my.barackobama.com, in order to investigate the ways in which the website uses or misuses digital technology to create a healthy participatory democracy. For an analysis of ethical and non-ethical ways to promote participatory democracy online, the study included theoretical perspectives such as the role of the public sphere in a participatory democracy and the effects of political marketing on the public sphere. The case study included a content analysis of the website and interviews with members of groups on the site. The study’s results can be found further in the article.

Shaping Digital Democracy in the United States

2015 ◽  
pp. 1244-1262
Author(s):  
Rachel Baarda ◽  
Rocci Luppicini
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Networking Site ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
The Public Sphere

Ethical challenges that technology poses to the different spheres of society are a core focus within the field of technoethics. Over the last few years, scholars have begun to explore the ethical implications of new digital technologies and social media, particularly in the realms of society and politics. A qualitative case study was conducted on Barack Obama's campaign social networking site, my.barackobama.com, in order to investigate the ways in which the website uses or misuses digital technology to create a healthy participatory democracy. For an analysis of ethical and non-ethical ways to promote participatory democracy online, the study included theoretical perspectives such as the role of the public sphere in a participatory democracy and the effects of political marketing on the public sphere. The case study included a content analysis of the website and interviews with members of groups on the site. The study's results are explored in this chapter.

Navigating the Ethics of Big Data in Public Health

2019 ◽  
pp. 353-367
Author(s):  
Effy Vayena ◽  
Lawrence Madoff
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Credit Card ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Public Health Research ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Community ◽  
Digital Disease Detection ◽  
The Public Sphere

“Big data,” which encompasses massive amounts of information from both within the health sector (such as electronic health records) and outside the health sector (social media, search queries, cell phone metadata, credit card expenditures), is increasingly envisioned as a rich source to inform public health research and practice. This chapter examines the enormous range of sources, the highly varied nature of these data, and the differing motivations for their collection, which together challenge the public health community in ethically mining and exploiting big data. Ethical challenges revolve around the blurring of three previously clearer boundaries: between personal health data and nonhealth data; between the private and the public sphere in the online world; and, finally, between the powers and responsibilities of state and nonstate actors in relation to big data. Considerations include the implications for privacy, control and sharing of data, fair distribution of benefits and burdens, civic empowerment, accountability, and digital disease detection.

scholarly journals Advances in Forest Robotics: A State-of-the-Art Survey

Robotics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Luiz F. P. Oliveira ◽  
António P. Moreira ◽  
Manuel F. Silva
Keyword(s):  
Future Research ◽  
Navigation Systems ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Environmental Preservation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Forest Exploitation ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Scientific Papers ◽  
Great Relevance ◽  
Robotic Applications

The development of robotic systems to operate in forest environments is of great relevance for the public and private sectors. In this sense, this article reviews several scientific papers, research projects and commercial products related to robotic applications for environmental preservation, monitoring, wildfire firefighting, inventory operations, planting, pruning and harvesting. After conducting critical analysis, the main characteristics observed were: (a) the locomotion system is directly affected by the type of environmental monitoring to be performed; (b) different reasons for pruning result in different locomotion and cutting systems; (c) each type of forest, in each season and each type of soil can directly interfere with the navigation technique used; and (d) the integration of the concept of swarm of robots with robots of different types of locomotion systems (land, air or sea) can compensate for the time of executing tasks in unstructured environments. Two major areas are proposed for future research works: Internet of Things (IoT)-based smart forest and navigation systems. It is expected that, with the various characteristics exposed in this paper, the current robotic forest systems will be improved, so that forest exploitation becomes more efficient and sustainable.

scholarly journals The Distinct Wrong of Deepfakes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrienne de Ruiter
Keyword(s):  
Digital Data ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Digital Representations ◽  
Distinctive Aspect ◽  
Moral Dimensions ◽  
Audio Files ◽  
Potential Use ◽  
Identity Protection

AbstractDeepfake technology presents significant ethical challenges. The ability to produce realistic looking and sounding video or audio files of people doing or saying things they did not do or say brings with it unprecedented opportunities for deception. The literature that addresses the ethical implications of deepfakes raises concerns about their potential use for blackmail, intimidation, and sabotage, ideological influencing, and incitement to violence as well as broader implications for trust and accountability. While this literature importantly identifies and signals the potentially far-reaching consequences, less attention is paid to the moral dimensions of deepfake technology and deepfakes themselves. This article will help fill this gap by analysing whether deepfake technology and deepfakes are intrinsically morally wrong, and if so, why. The main argument is that deepfake technology and deepfakes are morally suspect, but not inherently morally wrong. Three factors are central to determining whether a deepfake is morally problematic: (i) whether the deepfaked person(s) would object to the way in which they are represented; (ii) whether the deepfake deceives viewers; and (iii) the intent with which the deepfake was created. The most distinctive aspect that renders deepfakes morally wrong is when they use digital data representing the image and/or voice of persons to portray them in ways in which they would be unwilling to be portrayed. Since our image and voice are closely linked to our identity, protection against the manipulation of hyper-realistic digital representations of our image and voice should be considered a fundamental moral right in the age of deepfakes.

Global Social Media Ethics and the Responsibility of Journalism

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Craig
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Communication Network ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Media Ethics ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Ethical Frameworks ◽  
Media Practices

Social media have amplified and accelerated the ethical challenges that communicators, professional and otherwise, face worldwide. The work of ethical journalism, with a priority of truthful communication, offers a paradigm case for examining the broader challenges in the global social media network. The evolution of digital technologies and the attendant expansion of the communication network pose ethical difficulties for journalists connected with increased speed and volume of information, a diminished place in the network, and the cross-border nature of information flow. These challenges are exacerbated by intentional manipulation of social media, human-run or automated, in many countries including internal suppression by authoritarian regimes and foreign influence operations to spread misinformation. In addition, structural characteristics of social media platforms’ filtering and recommending algorithms pose ethical challenges for journalism and its role in fostering public discourse on social and political issues, although a number of studies have called aspects of the “filter bubble” hypothesis into question. Research in multiple countries, mostly in North America and Europe, has examined social media practices in journalism, including two issues central to social media ethics—verification and transparency—but ethical implications have seldom been discussed explicitly in the context of ethical theory. Since the 1980s and 1990s, scholarship focused on normative theorizing in relation to journalism has matured and become more multicultural and global. Scholars have articulated a number of ethical frameworks that could deepen analysis of the challenges of social media in the practice of journalism. However, the explicit implications of these frameworks for social media have largely gone unaddressed. A large topic of discussion in media ethics theory has been the possibility of universal or common principles globally, including a broadening of discussion of moral universals or common ground in media ethics beyond Western perspectives that have historically dominated the scholarship. In order to advance media ethics scholarship in the 21st-century environment of globally networked communication, in which journalists work among a host of other actors (well-intentioned, ill-intentioned, and automated), it is important for researchers to apply existing media ethics frameworks to social media practices. This application needs to address the challenges that social media create when crossing cultures, the common difficulties they pose worldwide for journalistic verification practices, and the responsibility of journalists for countering misinformation from malicious actors. It is also important to the further development of media ethics scholarship that future normative theorizing in the field—whether developing new frameworks or redeveloping current ones—consider journalistic responsibilities in relation to social media in the context of both the human and nonhuman actors in the communication network. The developing scholarly literature on the ethics of algorithms bears further attention from media ethics scholars for the ways it may provide perspectives that are complementary to existing media ethics frameworks that have focused on human actors and organizations.

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