Military Robots and the Question of Responsibility

Most unmanned systems used in operations today are unarmed and mainly used for reconnaissance and mine clearing, yet the increase of the number of armed military robots is undeniable. The use of these robots raises some serious ethical questions. For instance: who can be held morally responsible in reason when a military robot is involved in an act of violence that would normally be described as a war crime? In this article, The authors critically assess the attribution of responsibility with respect to the deployment of both non-autonomous and non-learning autonomous lethal military robots. The authors will start by looking at the role of those with whom responsibility normally lies, the commanders. The authors argue that this is no different in the case of the above mentioned robots. After that, we will turn to those at the beginning and the end of the causal chain, respectively the manufacturers and designers, and the human operators who remotely control armed military robots from behind a computer screen.

Broadening the Scope of Ethical Consumer Behaviour

Consumption is an essential everyday process. By very nature, it is a means of expressing our moral identities and an outlet for ethical obligations. In more recent years, ethical aspects of consumption have come under greater scrutiny with the emergence of ethical consumption discourses, and are currently associated with a range of consumer behaviours and responsible business practices. To this end, religion is an undeniably powerful and concurrently the most successful marketing force that can shape the ethical behaviour, yet under-investigated in consumption practices despite Corporate Socially Responsibility provoked ethical behaviour. Ethical consumption practices are regularly characterised as consumption activities that avoid harm to other people, animals or the environment where basic Buddhist teachings become more pertinent and practiced in Buddhist communities. This study conceptualises the importance of religious beliefs in ethical consumer behaviour and through researcher introspection methodology, the study empirically explore whether and how ethical consumerism is reflected through Five Precepts of Buddhism [i.e. (1) abstain from taking life, (2) abstain from stealing, (3) abstain from sexual misconduct, (4) abstain from false speech, and (5) abstain from intoxicants that cloud the mind]. The study contributes to the theory and teaching in the marketing discipline by linking how religious beliefs enhance ethical consumerism that remains largely unexplored.

Ethics and E-Marketing

The use of electronics has made old standards obsolete or at least “Passé.” Therefore, the question of ethics in the use of electronics has not been addressed very well. Common practices are forgotten as well as privacy and separation of work and down time. What this chapter entertains is to set up standards by which the entrepreneur can make best use of e-marketing, use of Internet, e-mails, and other electronic processes that can be used for commerce, while being sensitive to the standards that exist in differing societies and cultures. A starting point must be in distinguishing the needs and cultural standards between developed and developing countries. Another consideration must be the cultural norms of people who live in different places to include religions and moral/ethical standards.

Game Theory vs. Business Ethics

In 1954, the British philosopher Richard Braithwaite gave his inaugural lecture, Theory of Games as a Tool for the Moral Philosopher. Braithwaite predicted game theory would fundamentally change moral philosophy. However, in hindsight, John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern's publication of Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour was the moment modern game theory entered the discipline of ethics. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the relationship between game theory and business ethics. In other words, this chapter explains how game theory plays a role in business ethics and affects business ethics for emerging economies and covers in detail: 1) the history of game theory; 2) types of/definition(s) of games; 3) business ethics; 4) business; and 5) ethics. The chapter concludes with the role that game theory and business ethics play in emerging economies.

Freedom, Equality and the Quality of Democracy

Freedom and equality are the content, the substance and the tension in a liberal democracy of today. Freedom and equality describe the design, stability and the quality of a democracy. Especially in a Quintuple Helix Model, the quality of democracy and sustainable development are closely related, because a high-quality democracy is a prerequisite for promoting sustainability in democracies. By investigating the quality of democracy this article develops two theses: 1.) Democracy with their quality rises or falls with the expression of freedom and/or equality; 2.) Democracy generates its stability from a balanced interaction between freedom and equality. With the concept of Democratic Life this article examines these two theses: Democratic Life as newly developed concept measures the quality of democracy with providing information about the type of a democracy and an approach to measure a democracy´s democratic development for the top 20 of the Democracy Ranking (2009). The central keys of the Democratic Life concept are the ‘Index of Classification' and the ‘Democratic-Life-Index', which are formed from an ‘Index of Freedom' and an ‘Index of Equality'. By empirical examination of the research question of Democratic Life two essential questions in the modern democratic theory can be investigated: 1.) How democratic is a democracy? 2.) How much freedom and equality does a liberal democracy need? The countries analyzed for the Democratic Life concept in this article are the United States, Australia, Sweden and Germany in comparison between 1995 and 2008. This degree of democratic quality will create a lot of problems towards developing sustainability in a democracy, because in the United States there is currently a big disparity between freedom and equality.

A Critique of Legal Framework Facilitating Access to Government Information in Tanzania

This chapter provides a critical analysis of the legal framework for access to information particularly information held by government in Tanzania. The analysis intends to establish whether the existing Right To Information (RTI) legal framework and ICT development in Tanzania facilitates universal and requisite access to government information. In order to do that, the chapter utilises a literature review to understand contemporary trends in both theory and practice. In addition, journal articles, books, reports, case law, and pieces of legislation focusing on RTI are visited to obtain deeper insights in the topic under scrutiny. The findings indicate that, despite Tanzania's efforts to embrace democracy virtues, good governance, and technology, the country lacks adequate legal framework to facilitate universal access to government information and ensure that the Right To Information (RTI) is observed in all the socio-economic contexts. To rectify this problem, there is need to enact the RTI law with clear focus of encouraging access to government information. Although two bills (the Media Service Bill [MSB] and the 2011 RTI) are currently being debated, it is not clear yet when they will become law and subsequently practiced.

URL Manipulation and the Slippery Slope

While computer ethics and information security courses try to teach computer misuse and unauthorized access as clear black and white examples, when examining the use and potentially misuse of URLs the discussion becomes less clear. This paper examines a number of computer use ethical scenarios focusing on the modification of URLs within Web browsers. Using the documented case of applicants to several Ivy-league schools as a discussion point, this paper presents a survey of U.S. students enrolled in information security and computer ethics classes, asking at what point does modifying the URL become hacking, and at what point does it become unethical. The findings of this study are discussed.

Friends and Rivals

This chapter explores how through both narrative and gameplay mechanics, BioWare's 2011 digital role-playing game Dragon Age II seeks to help players redefine their understanding of ethics in terms of human emotion and interaction. These interaction-based ethics are the product of our desire to situate ourselves within a social community rather than on an abstract continuum of universal “right” and “wrong.” The ambiguity contained within the friendship-rivalry system factionalizes Hawke and his/her companions, forcing the player, as the group's leader, to ally with one of the two sides in the game's overarching conflict. This coercive mechanic produces awareness in the player of the way in which interpersonal relationships form our responses in ethical situations, and causes the player to question whether their decisions are the product of “pure” ethics, or the consequence of deliberate or unconscious submission to the ethical mores of others.

The Role of Information Security and Cryptography in Digital Democracy

The preponderant dilemma organisations confront currently is which way to homologate and superintend access for a broad mass of services and products and in parallel to preserve security and privacy. Information technology is rapidly changing, is inherently complex, and complexity kills security. There is an ongoing technical race to maintain security that does not take into account the human factors. The new technological infrastructure affects the degree of anonymity and confidentiality in mass-market computer-based systems and basically determines the evolution of democratic-political culture. Thus, in examining the issue of security, cryptography, privacy in the use of computers and Internet, forms the primary interest form the moral side of view, about what is the right and wrong thing to do, rather than in a legal frame, about what is legal and illegal. Security and privacy are not ethical or moral issues. They are fundamental human rights. In this societal change, the challenges of the information society are many but foremost is the protection of human rights. Addressing the critical question of how technological trends are both helping and hindering the advancement of human rights is essential in the specific digital environment. The democratic key concept is the efficient use of digital resources. We do not only need a culture of security (information), we further need to ensure the security of cultures, meaning that everyone should be able to freely exercise their constitutional rights. The role of this chapter is to bring to the surface the rights (human) implications of ICT and the information society. It enlightens the technical community, which designs, implements, and secures information and communication systems, with an understanding of human rights principles and foundational underpinnings. It highlights the role of government implications, identifies the role and relationship between the stakeholders, and indicates the balance between information security and freedom in order to understand that security, freedom, and rights (human), are not opposite concepts but coexist and progress in parallel.

ID Scanners and Überveillance in the Night-Time Economy

ID scanners are promoted as an effective solution to the problems of anti-social behavior and violence in many urban nighttime economies. However, the acceptance of this and other forms of computerized surveillance to prevent crime and anti-social behavior is based on several unproven assumptions. After outlining what ID scanners are and how they are becoming a normalized precondition of entry into one Australian nighttime economy, this chapter demonstrates how technology is commonly viewed as the key to preventing crime despite recognition of various problems associated with its adoption. The implications of technological determinism amongst policy makers, police, and crime prevention theories are then critically assessed in light of several issues that key informants talking about the value of ID scanners fail to mention when applauding their success. Notably, the broad, ill-defined, and confused notion of “privacy” is analyzed as a questionable legal remedy for the growing problems of überveillance.