Morality and the Web
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Transcript of Morality and the Web
Morality and the Web
Jeroen van den Hoven
Professor Ethics and Technology
Delft University of Technology
Scientific Director
3TU.Ethics The Hague
The Web is an Epistemic Success Criteria for success of an epistemic practice (Goldman, Thagard, e.a.)
Speed How quick do you get an answer to your question
Power The capability of an epistemic practice to get you answers at all
Economy The cost of getting an answer
Fecundity The number of people the practice can involve and reach at one time
Reliability The ratio of true beliefs to the total number of beliefs acquired re the topic of
a question
Web
Connectivity Communication Interaction Coordination Transaction
ICT
Information Ubiquitous Pervasive Ambient Constitutive Confusing Value laden
ICT Constitutive Technology Not merely Enabling Constitutive
ICT Shapes practices, discourses, institutions
Confused
DemocracyTrustPrivacyPropertyCommunityPersonIntelligenceLifeDemocracyWorkHealthFriendship
IT: more confused
Electronic DemocracyE- TrustInformational PrivacyIntellectual PropertyCyber CommunityDigital PersonArtificial IntelligenceArtificial LifeDigital DemocracyTele WorkE- HealthNet Friendship
Conceptual Vacuum
“New Sort of Community”
“New Sort of Privacy”
“New sort of Trust”
“New sort of Friendship”
Conceptual Vacuum - Policy Vacuum & Design Vacuum
Value Laden Technology
Bias in Search Engines
Torah Compliant (kosher) Search Engine
The Formula that Killed Wallstreet David X. Li's Gaussian copula function as first
published in 2000. Investors exploited it as a quick—and fatally flawed—way to assess risk.
Gamma
The all-powerful correlation parameter, which reduces correlation to a single constant..
Values Built into Systems Interfaces Infrastructures Algorithms Ontologies Code Protocols Integrity constraints Architectures Identity Management Systems Authorization Matrix Procedures Regulations Incentive structures Auction mechanisms Voting mechanism Monitoring and inspection Governance arrangements
Designer is a choice architect
Value Sensitive DesignETHICS AND TECHNOLOGY
ValuesNormsLawsIdeals
CodeArchitecturesinfrastructures
Information SystemsOntologiesStandardsartifacts
ExpressImplement
Evaluate,JustifyAudit
Responsibility
Privacy
Accountability
Agency
Autonomy
sustainability
Computers
Oiltankers
Airplanes
Reactors
Roads
Internet
Electricity Grids
Hospitals
The Web is also a bit of a Moral Success Emancipates Empowers Equalizes Enhances Accountability ………..
Some Moral Problems
Cyberbullying Trolls Happy slapping Anorexia glorification Cybersuicide (pacts) Violent computer games Child Pornograph and Pedophilia
Exculpiating redescriptions
Why did you do it? It was just…..no more than It was virtual…; it all seemed a bit unreal Because I could… It was private… It’s all new Everyone does it, no one told me it was wrong I don’t know I didn’t realize it caused so much grief I got further and further into it I became addicted
The Web and Moral Fog
Added to the conceptual confusion common to new IT (“is this a friend?” Is this “a community”?)
Moral Fog is created by the morally relevant features of the Web jointly
EVIL ONLINE, Dean Cocking & Jeroen van den Hoven, Wiley Blackwell, 2011
Morally relevant features of the Web Cascades (availability, information, reputation) Daily me, informational/moral homogeneity Physical Isolation Domestication of Wrongdoing Anomimity; feeling of anonymity, hiding in the crowd Virtuality Blurred public private boundaries and blurred boundaries of social
spheres; unclear jurisdiction Interpretative flexibility; problem of relevant descriptions Voluntariness of self-presentation; involuntariness in off-line
emotional responses and reactive attitudes is morally significant; reliable signals of moral motivation
Moral Fog
Banality of Moral Wrongdoing Wrongdoing is close, common Wrongdoers exploit ambiguity; Problem of relevant description
Situationism in Ethics
Ethical behaviour to large extent dependent on situational and contextual factors
Milgram Zimbardo Trolley-research
Ethics & Design
We design Large Socio Technical Systems (e.g. SNS)
We make moral mistakes in design; e.g. financial world, safety culture in oil industry.
Ethics is in an important sense situational Moral development, education, guidance and
character formation massively situated in Social Media Environments
We have to (think about) design for moral development and flourishing on the Web