Talk:Ethics of technology

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Intro

The opening description is quite awkward, particularly the second sentence which is "Some prominent works of philosopher Hans Jonas are devoted to ethics of technology. The subject has also been explored, following the work of Mario Bunge, under the term technoethics." It is strange to use these two particular philosophers. Although important, they are far from being the central figures within this field and thus the introduction to this topic warrants greater depth and representation in the field. EthicsScholar93 (talk) 06:16, 26 September 2020 (UTC)

From VfD

Non-encyclopedic? POV? Stub? Too many questions, too few answers. [[User:Mike Storm|Mike∞Storm]] 20:47, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Delete.--Samuel J. Howard 21:25, Aug 5, 2004 (UTC)

Keep. Good lemma but very unclear article, I replaced it with a minimal stub. BTW this is a standard course on a number of universities, so can perhaps just some students fill in the details? -- Pjacobi 22:11, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

• Delete in this form: This is more an article for (not about) Hans Jonas. I will attempt to do some rewrite, but I feel like the lemma ought to be a gateway to other ethics categories, as the general subject is too vast to cover in one article. Geogre 00:18, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)
  • Abstain: I've done enough rewriting now that it would be insane to vote against what is 80% mine and 15% Pjacobi's. I don't have a lot of confidence in what I've written (all the bulky stuff after the 1st par.). If people vote to keep, I'm curious as to whether they think the push for Hans Jonas should stay. Geogre 13:04, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)
    • To clarify: I know nothing about the topic, but did only routine Googling on the lemma. I found that's a standard course and the reference to Hans Jonas. Then I replaced the incongruent first author's version with the references to Jonas' books. Pjacobi 13:31, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)
• Keep. This is developing into an awesome article. Lots of room for development, but a great start and an excellent example of what Wikipedia can do. Andrewa 02:10, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)
• Needs rewrite and expansion. Article should reflect the relative importance of work done in the field Stirling Newberry 06:48, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)

• Who says that "Technology itself is incapable of possessing moral or ethical qualities, since "technology" is merely tool making. Thus, "ethics of technology" refers instead to two basic subdivisions."? This part seems to need a reference. Moreover, this understanding of technology as neutral it is not at all in line with later writings within fields such as philosophy of technology and STS-studies. S. Comments? (129.240.146.61 (talk) 10:47, 16 March 2010 (UTC))

Technoethics

• After looking at both articles (and yes, both could use a cleanup) and doing some background reading, these 2 domains, despite overlap, are quite distinct. Technoethics aligns with the Engineers, Computer Scientists, technologists, and social science folk. Much of the work is empirical and oriented towards practical problem solving and knowledge building. Ethics of Technology derives from Philosophy and makes connections with Ethics, Applied Ethics and Philosophy of Technlogy, which provides some theoretical framing for some research in technoethics but lacks the empirical research orientation that defines Technoethics. Since Bunge's work precedes Jonas's, I would have folded Ethics of Technology into Technoethics instead if I was forced to. However, I do think there are more reasons to keep them apart. 99.241.68.132 (talk) 19:45, 5 March 2013 (UTC)

Merge. Not much traction on this item. I recognize the difference between the two topics, but I'm still inclined to vote in favor. I agree with the previous comment about folding EoT into TE, rather than vv. if there are no objections, I'll add the merge job to my to-do list. jxm (talk) 16:06, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

Was there any outcome on this? I'd like to edit one or the other article, but not both. - WilmingMa (talk) 19:57, 20 February 2015 (UTC)

It's still languishing on my to-do list. If you could do the merge, that would be great. WP:BOLD! jxm (talk) 16:32, 23 February 2015 (UTC)

This has been waitng for 4 years now, so I'm acting, even as a non-expert. It could still do with an expert polish. Klbrain (talk) 23:25, 28 May 2016 (UTC)

I added a new section to the subsection that regards current issues that covers the handling of private user data. I know it could definitely use some polish as well, so if anyone would wish to edit it and make it more wordy and add more instances of user data, that would be great. I was having trouble with finding unbiased opinions. Cole bodine (talk) 20:50, 24 February 2019 (UTC)cole_bodine

Disregard my last comment. I took the section out, went back over it in my sandbox (luckily, nobody had edited it at all, so I felt it possible to do that) and now have put a subtopic called "User Data" in the article. Along with it, I put an article on Drones, though the ethics of drones in civilian hands could be elaborated on I'm sure.Cole bodine (talk) 23:12, 17 April 2019 (UTC)

Spelling

In "Historical framing of technology – four main periods", point 2, appears the word "Tecknik" in quotes, in the next sentence it is spelled as "Technik". The latter is the correct contemporary spelling in German (my mother tongue). I did a quick google for "Tecknik" and could not find relevant hits, but I am not sure whether the spelling has changed since the 19th century. If anyone has a reference to the spelling in the article, it would be nice to cite it. Otherwise it might be an unfortunate misspelling within quotation marks, which suggest that the misspelled version is odd, but actually correct. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.132.235.161 (talk) 17:15, 12 September 2016 (UTC)

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NPOV

Technoethics and the evolving knowledge society By Luppicini seems over-cited and sort of disagreeable. The subtopics Technological consciousness and Misunderstandings of consciousness and technology seem very opinionated and non-universal views of a single philosopher, and shouldn't be presented as objective truths in a dictionary. For example, instead of "in fact, consciousness is not only in the head", the article should say "according to R. Luppicini, consciousness is not only in the head". I'll start making small edits later today, but I'd also like feedback on whether we need alternative sources for this and what directions those parts of the article should be developed towards. BlueBanana (talk) 13:18, 9 March 2019 (UTC)

assignment6  : Technology and Ethics During the Coronavirus Pandemic

The world has greatly changed since March 2020. As the world adapts to a new normal, technology has been emerging to help combat this pandemic. I thought adding the ethics behind using technology, especially contact tracing apps, to slow the spread of coronavirus would be a great addition section to this article. I have done some research on my own, I would appreciate if other Wiki contributors provided more information, guidance, or edits to this.

As the world has dealt with the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic, we have turned to technology to help slow down the spread and track the infected or exposed. Many countries have utilized CCTV cameras, drones, credit card information, and location data from cell phones and contract tracing apps. In theory, this is a valuable way to track infected and exposed people with coronavirus but is it an infringement on your privacy? Will the tracking end when you are not infected or exposed? Will you be aware that you are being tracked? How can you feel safe that the government is not tracking you anymore?

As of April 20th, 2020 there has been over 43 contract tracing apps available globally. Countries are in the process of creating their own methods of digitally tracing coronavirus status (symptoms, confirmed infected, exposed). Apple and Google are working together on a shared solution that helps with contract tracing around the world. Since this is a global pandemic with no end in sight, the restriction of some fundamental rights and freedoms may be ethically justifiable. It may be unethical to not use these tracing solutions to slow the spread. The European Convention on Human Rights, the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the United Nations Siracusa Principles all indicate when it is ethical to restrict the rights of the population to prevent the spread of infectious disease. All three documents cite that the circumstances for restricting rights must be time-bound, meet standards of necessity, proportionality, and scientific validity. We must evaluate if the gravity of the situation justifies the potential negative impact, if the evidence shows that the technology will work, is timely, will be adopted by enough people and yields accurate data and insights, and evaluate if the technology will only be temporary. These three documents also provide guidelines on how to ethically develop and design technologies. The development and design guidelines are important for being effective and for security reasons.

Even though these three bodies of government can deem contact tracing ethical, all these contact tracing apps come with a price. They are collecting sensitive personal data including health data. This poses a threat to violate HIPPA and PII if not handled and processed correctly. Even if these apps are only used temporarily, they are storing permanent records of health, movements, and social interactions. Not only do we have to consider the ethical implications of your personal information being stored, but we must also look at the accessibility and digital literacy of the users. Not everyone has access to a smartphone or a cell phone. If we are developing smartphone applications, we will be missing a huge portion of coronavirus data.

While it may be necessary to utilize technology to slow the spread of coronavirus, the Government needs to design and deploy the technology in a way that does not breach the public trust. There is a fine line of saving lives and possibly harming the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals.

Timothy Reilly (talk) 23:50, 23 September 2020 (UTC)Timothy Reilly

this is a good idea, Ill try to edit and add citation where necessary EthicsScholar93 (talk) 06:15, 26 September 2020 (UTC)

References

Is this article in good shape now?

This article has been the subject of multiple student projects from the Wiki Education Foundation and now seems pretty well developed. Is it time to remove the August 2009 "more footnotes" macro? Simsong (talk) 11:43, 20 February 2022 (UTC)

A little too OR + essay

Trimmed from lead for not having an encyclopedic tone, with the most troublesome words in bold:

Ethics of technology is now an important subject as technologies give people more power to act that before. The development of Artificial Intelligence and rise of social media brings up the questions of how to behave on these platforms and how far is A.I allowed to go. Recent issues such as Facebook data leaks and circulation of fake news highlights the downside of social media when in the wrong hands. As technology continues to develop and have the power to alter people's daily lives, questions surrounding what is ethical or not will remain.

"Questions will remain" is dripping with worry beads. — MaxEnt 04:56, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

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