Whence and W(h)ither Technology Ethics

Will there be a future for technology ethics as a respected academic discipline among philosophers, scientists, engineers, and the general public? We hope that the answer is, “Yes.” But for that to be so, the field must undertake a frank assessment of its historical origins in Heidegger’s ideology-laden, technology critique and in the environmental crisis of the 1960s and 1970s, along with the nuclear arms race and protests against newer technologies of war deployed in Vietnam. Moreover, technology ethics for the twenty-first century will thrive and will have an impact on technologists and policymakers only if it finds its way to complement its traditional emphasis on risk with an analytical framework that foregrounds the promotion of the human and the common good independent of received assumptions about the moral valence of technology, itself.

Four challenges to Confucian virtue ethics in technology

Purpose As interest in technology ethics is increasing, so is the interest in bringing schools of ethics from non-Western philosophical traditions to the field, particularly when it comes to information and communication technology. In light of this development and recent publications that result from it, this paper aims to present responds critically to recent work on Confucian virtue ethics (CVE) and technology. Design/methodology/approach Four critiques are presented as theoretical challenges to CVE in technology, claiming that current literature insufficiently addresses: overall applicability, collective ethics issues, epistemic overconfidence within technology corporations and amplification of epistemic overconfidence by the implementation of CVE. These challenges make use of general CVE literature and work on technology critique, political philosophy, epistemology and business ethics. Findings Implementing CVE in technology may yield some benefits, but these may be outweighed by other outcomes, include strengthening hierarchies, widening inequities, increasing, rather than limiting, predictive activity, personal data collection, misinformation, privacy violations and challenges to the democratic process. Originality/value Though not directly advocating against CVE, the paper reveals hitherto unidentified and serious issues that should be addressed before CVE are used to inform ethics guidelines or regulatory policies. It also serves as a foundation for further inquiry into how Eastern philosophy more broadly can inform technology ethics in the West.

Ethics for a Digital Age (Vol. II) [Book Review]

The second volume of Ethics for a Digital Age edited by Bastiaan Vanacker and Don Heider (2018) highlights research presented at the fifth and sixth Annual International Symposia on Digital Ethics. The volume features ten essays organized under three banner topics that include 1) Trust, Privacy, and Corporate Responsibility; 2) Technology, Ethics, and the Shifting Role of Journalism; and 3) Ethics and Ontology. Together, the essays aim to invigorate conversations about ethical issues in professional and philosophical contexts. In this review, I first provide a synopsis of each section and its corresponding essays to give readers a sense of the depth and breadth of topics covered in the volume. I conclude the review by identifying themes that unite the essays and broadly contribute to this robust field of inquiry.

Workplace automation without achievement gaps: a reply to Danaher and Nyholm

In a recent article in this journal, John Danaher and Sven Nyholm raise well-founded concerns that the advances in AI-based automation will threaten the values of meaningful work. In particular, they present a strong case for thinking that automation will undermine our achievements, thereby rendering our work less meaningful. It is also claimed that the threat to achievements in the workplace will open up ‘achievement gaps’—the flipside of the ‘responsibility gaps’ now commonly discussed in technology ethics. This claim, however, is far less worrisome than the general concerns for widespread automation, namely because it rests on several conceptual ambiguities. With this paper, I argue that although the threat to achievements in the workplace is problematic and calls for policy responses of the sort Danaher and Nyholm outline, when framed in terms of responsibility, there are no ‘achievement gaps’.

Outer Space as a New Frontier for Technology Ethics

As technologies help us to push further and further into outer space, new ethical issues emerge, as is typical for new frontiers. This chapter will survey issues ranging from the practical to the theoretical, such as bioethics for astronauts, including issues of sex and reproduction and whether we should initially send humans at all (instead of robots); commercial activities in space, including tourism and property rights; terraforming, colonization, and space settlements, including environmental considerations; planetary protection/quarantine and other safety and risk issues; dual-use technologies that could further militarize space; and more. This chapter will argue that, in addition to novel ethical issues arising from this new technological frontier, old ethical discussions generated by technology (e.g., abortion, genetic enhancement) will need revisiting once we escape terrestrial assumptions and context.