Master of ScienceMaster of Science

Well-Being Values and Well-Being Values and Virtues in Information Virtues in Information

TechnologyTechnology

Philip Brey

University of Twente

1. Embedded Values in Technology

2. Values in Information Technology

3. Well-Being Values in IT

4. Virtues in IT

5. Designing for Well-Being

Outline

• Computer systems and software are not morally neutral

• It is possible to identify tendencies in them to promote or demote particular moral values and norms

• These value tendencies can be identified and studied largely or wholly independently of actual uses of the system

1. Embedded Values Approach

issues

Examples:

• Neutrality thesis: Artefacts themselves do not do anything. Users use them for unethical means.

• Strong interpretation of ‘embedded values’: Built-in consequences manifest themselves in each and every use of an artifact.

• Weak interpretation of ‘embedded values’: particular consequences manifest themselves in central uses of the artifact (involving their primary function(s)).

Some consequences concern the realization of values

A value is realized if the ideal conditions defined by it are matched by conditions in the actual world.

To have a value is to want it to be realized. (But, values can generally be realized only to a degree; e.g. realization of freedom)

A built-in value (or embedded value) is a tendency to promote or harm the realization of a value (which is a kind of built-in consequence)

Embedded values as built-in consequences

Moses’ overpasses that give access to Long Island from Manhattan: were built low to block bus traffic and keep out poor blacks. Built-in disvalue: injustice

Seat belts that require they are strapped on before the car starts. Built-in value: safety; disvalue: harm to individual freedom

Software that automatically collects and communicates private information about users. Disvalue: lack of privacy

Examples

IT can be biased or unjust: it can systematically and unfairly discriminates against certain individuals or groups, who may be users (‘user biases’) or stakeholders represented by the system (‘information biases’)

IT can undermine autonomy: software agents can undermine user autonomy in various ways – for example by having only limited capabilities to perform wanted tasks or by not making relevant information available to the user

2. Values in Information Technology

IT can harm or support democratic values: Some have argued that the Internet is an inherently democratic technology that has a built-in tendency to promote or harm the realization of democratic values such as freedom of expression.

Other studies within the embedded values approach have focused on specific values, such as privacy, trust, community, moral accountability and informed consent, and/or specific technologies e.g. search engine algorithms, computer games, plagiarism detection software and facial recognition systems.

Values in Information Technology

Preexisting: Values exist prior to design of system, reflecting values of those who have a significant input into the design, or from organizations, institutions or the general culture that constitute the context in which the system is developed.

Technical: Technical constraints that could result in value-laden designs.

Emergent: Arises when the social context in which the system is used is not the one intended by its designers. (Friedman & Nissenbaum)

How does IT acquire embedded values?

3. Well-Being Values in IT

Well-being is one of the highest values we want to realize.

We all want a good life.

What conditions must be satisfied for one’s life to be good?

What could be the role of IT in this?

Four types of theories of well-being:

1. Hedonist theories: Well-being is realized by pleasure

2. Desire-satisfactionist theories: Well-being is realized by the satisfaction of our desires

3. Objective list theories: Well-being is realized if we are in possession of a list of objective goods

4. Hybrid theories: Well-being is a combination of objective and subjective conditions

Components of Well-Being

Twente approach: combine philosophical and empirical theories in reflective equilibrium to arrive at subjectivized objective list

Items on the list:

- bodily pleasure - self-respect- aesthetic pleasure - deep personal relationships- engagement and creative pleasure - transcendent meaning- achievement and desire fulfillment - virtue- autonomy - trust and security- physical health - knowledge and wisdom

Approach: Take these intermediate-level values and study how they are or fail to be realized through both technological design and context of use.

Consider:

1. Direct consequences: immediate effects on users2. Virtual replacement effects: how does the artifact

support replacement of the actual with a virtual or digital equivalent?

3. Transcategorical replacement effects: how does the artifact support replacement of other actual activities with IT-related activities?4. Other indirect consequences

Direct consequences are least dependent on context of use and most tied to the systems themselves. Some of them qualify as embedded values.

E.g.

Bodily pleasures:

- Positive contributions of IT: visual and auditory stimulation (games, music, video, simulations)

- Negative contributions of IT: physical strain and discomfort of extended PC use

Deep personal relationships:

- Positive contributions: affordance to continue existing relationships via CMC; affordance to build new such relationships; some disclosure may be easier via CMC than face-to-face

- Negative contributions: no embodiment; less opportunities for shared activity; more difficult to build trust; easier to abandon others or multitask; possible replacement effects of deep relationships for shallow ones or other IT uses

Embedded Values in Consumer IT

Consumer IT generally focuses on desire satisfaction. Products are made and marketed to satisfy real or manufactured desires in consumers.

Some of these desires may correspond to other intermediate well-being values, but their realization may also be harmful to them.

E.g., impoverished social relations, emphasis on instant gratification, gains in information but loss in wisdom, less development of certain virtues

4. Virtues in IT

Virtues: character traits that dispose their possessors towards activity that promotes human flourishing (of themselves and / or others)

Vices: character traits that dispose towards activity that inhibits human flourishing

Virtuousness may be one of the components of well-being (but which virtues?)

Virtuousness may also be a requirement for moral agency

Frances Grodzinsky and others: cultivating virtue of IT professionals (and users) through teaching

Miguel Sicart: how can software programs behave in a virtuous manner?

My question: how do IT artifacts support or harm the development and maintenance of virtues?

Shannon Vallor: we need to understand and evaluate the impact of IT on the development and maintenance of virtues

Virtues and vices are formed by the repetition of specific kinds of activity, and, once formed, are reliably and habitually expressed.

Which virtues and vices result from repetitive use of different sorts of IT?

Virtues are typically developed as a consequence of performing actions that are, at least initially, difficult.

Yet, IT is often designed to make actions easier.

E.g., CMC: does not cultivate patience since easy escapes exist from any conversation. Comments are brief and instantly digestible.

Similar effect on honesty: it is easy to avoid being honest in CMC. Little accountability.

But doesn’t IT also provide a great tool for training and learning to develop virtues?

E.g., empathy: through roleplaying and CMC creativity: the computer as versatile tool

tolerance: developing more liberal attitudes by being exposed to alternative viewpoints

Conclusion: each virtue has to be considered individually

5. Designing for Well-Being

How can considerations of value be made part of the design process?

Value-Sensitive Design (VSD) approach (Batya Friedman et al.)

This approach aims to offer a set of methods, tools and procedures for designers by which they can systematically account for values in the design process, in a way that balances the interests of different stakeholders

1) Conceptual investigations: aim to conceptualize and describe the values implicated in a design, as well as the stakeholders affected by it, and consider the appropriate trade-off between implicated values

2) Empirical investigations: focus on the human context in which the technological artifact is to be situated, to better evaluate the success of particular designs. These investigations include empirical studies of human behavior, physiology, attitudes, values and needs, of users and other stakeholders, as well as organizational context in which the technology is used.

VSD Methodology

3) Technical investigations: Study how properties of technological artifacts support or hinder human values and how computer systems and software may be designed proactively in order to support specific values that have been found important in the conceptual investigation.

All three investigations are undertaken congruently and are ultimately integrated with each other within the context of a particular case study.

VSD Methodology (cont’d)

How can the value of informed consent be better implemented in the Mozilla browser?

Conceptual investigation of ‘informed consent’: real-world conditions that must be met (disclosure of benefits and risks, voluntariness of choice, clarity of language)

Do existing browsers support these conditions? Which conditions are insufficiently supported?

New design: Users should be given better understanding of cookie uses and benefits and harms, and better ability to manage cookies with minimal distraction.

Example of VSD Case Study

VSD and well-being

Design to maximize tendencies to bring about or sustain well-being values, and minimize tendencies to harm them

Also for virtues

This requires accounting for:

Direct consequences: designing IT artifacts to positively impact users regarding values like bodily pleasure, engagement, achievement, trust, etc.

Replacement effects: taking empirical evidence into account regarding replacement effects and their consequences for value realization

Other indirect consequences