Digital Ethics

Digital Ethics

Digital Netiquette

Digital Etiquette

- The way we behave online

- Netiquette isn’t only about being nice, it is about communicating clearly. 

-Some abbreviations and emoticons may be fine with friends but definitely not appropriate in formal communication

Multiple Choice

A set of rules of how to behave online is known as:

• Etiquette

• Protocols

• Netiquette

• Manners

Multiple Select

What is wrong with this e-mail?

• Informal

• Capital letters

• Friendly

Digital Ethics

-Technology is a very powerful tool and like any other tool one can wield it for good or for bad depending on the choices that are made.

-We need to decide how to use them.

-Sometimes the answer is not as clear.

Scenario 1

• A robbery is about to take place in one of these houses.

• You are a certified digital hacker, and you can access the data from these houses.

• Your skills can help the CIA get the necessary information to prevent this from happening.

• What do you do?

Poll

Would you help the CIA find the burglar by hacking the computer systems in these homes?

• Yes

• No

Scenario 1

• After hacking into their system..

• You realise these people are innocent..

• You had the wrong intel..

• You friend John warned you not to do this..

Multiple Select

What do you think was John's reasoning when he warned you not to hack into the systems:

• These people have a right to privacy

• You must do whatever is needed to find the burglar

Scenario 2

• Here we have a self driving (or autonomous) car. It’ll take you anywhere you want without you having to drive at all.

• Manufacturers say they are safer than human drivers, because they remove human error.

• An interesting question has risen from this:

Scenario 2

• Your car is driving on a road when suddenly the brakes fail. You are approaching a crossing with two pedestrians on it!

• You are surrounded by trees on both sides of the road, and construction on the opposite side. This means the car has to make a choice.

• Does it carry straight on and hit pedestrians, saving you but causing serious harm to others.

• Or does swerve to crash, protecting other people, but seriously harming you?

Poll

With that in mind, look at the following scenario and pick which option you think is morally correct:

• Don't swerve and save the driver

• Swerve and save the pedestrians

What is the right answer?

• Most people say that saving as many people as possible is most important to them.

• However in another survey, when asked if they would buy a car that would behave this way, they were not so sure.

Who Decides?

• The Ethical Question: One of the biggest issues here is that in a human driving situation of the same scenario, any actions would be viewed as instinctive and without thought.

• However, a self-driving car has to be programmed, meaning it can be argued its choice to hurt one person or another is pre-meditated.

• Who controls that code, and who makes those decisions? Owners, Governments, Companies?

On the other hand..

It’s important to remember though, that these are thought experiments.

We should think long and hard about them, but self-driving cars are predicted to save thousands of lives every year

Facebook Experiment

• Facebook abandoned an experiment after two artificially intelligent programs appeared to be chatting to each other in a strange language only they understood.

  
  

• The two chatbots came to create their own changes to English that made it easier for them to work – but which remained mysterious to the humans that supposedly look after them.

  
  

• Article from The Independent

Poll

Can we teach robots right from wrong?

• Yes

• No

Can We Teach Robots Right From Wrong?

Robot arm uses trial and error to solve problems.

One thing robots traditionally have been unable to do is learn from their mistakes.

They'll follow their programming over and over and not adapt to new situations or correct errors