Reading questions for:
Bynum, Ethics and the Information Revolution.
CS-80--Senior Seminar
Fall '01

Jim Rogers

September 5, 2001

1.

What does Moor mean by ``logically malleable''? One can find claims of universality for steam power and electricity; is the innovation of computers one of type or one of degree? What does he mean by ``policy vacuum'' and ``conceptual muddle''? Are these challenges to established ethics peculiar to computer and information technology or were they present in earlier technological revolutions as well?

2.

Bynum discusses a sequence of authors in tracing the historical development of the notion of computer ethics, including Norbert Wiener, Donn Parker, Joesph Weizenbaum, Walter Manner, James Moor, Deborah Johnson, Bynum, and Simon Rogerson. Considering the historical context of each author, the titles of their works and Bynum's descriptions, what do you suppose the practical ethical issues that concerned each of them were like? How have these evolved over time? Have they been cumulative or have some of them proved to be insignificant?

3.

Bynum also discusses the variation in the way several of these authors conceptualize of the field of computer ethics. He actually refers to the variation as a process of redefinition. To what extent are these actually redefinitions as opposed to extensions of definitions? At what point does the focus change from addressing specific ethical issues to addressing the problem of ever evolving ethical issues?

4.

Where did each of the topics Bynum covers in his sample arise in the historical development of the field? How have the issues covered by each topic changed as the technology and our understanding of the challenges it presents has changed?

5.

Bynum closes with a comparison of two distinct (in his analysis) visions of the merging of computer ethics and ordinary ethics, due to Gorniak and Johnson, respectively. What, if any, is the distinction between these? To what extent have the special ethical problems of other professional fields (medical ethics, legal ethics, etc.) be incorporated into ``ordinary'' ethics? What is distinct about computer ethics that might cause it to supplant (or be supplanted by) every-day ethics?

About this document ...

Reading questions for:
Bynum, Ethics and the Information Revolution.
CS-80--Senior Seminar
Fall '01

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