From mainframe through personal computer to Internet, the electronic computer has transformed information and human communication in unanticipated ways that are giving birth to what has been variously termed cyberspace, virtual reality, or hyper-reality. To live in this new milieu, however, requires not virtual but real ethics, grounded in practical and public reflection on the new techno-life world.
Responsibility Extends Beyond Specialized Domains
It s not necessary to argue that the ethical problems of technology are unique to suggest that those issues are significant. Even if not unique, modern technologies multiply, extend, and intensify the consequences of human action. By enlarging technological power to the point where it can destroy whole cities and by shrinking technical ability to levels of genetic and atomic structures, modern technology extends humanity s impact on time and space as never before. Technology has moved far beyond being used by human beings who remain outside of it. Today, technology encompasses and carries humanity into new realms of experience. But it does not carry society beyond the realm of ethics. Mankind does not live in order to make and use technologies; Mankind makes and uses technologies in order to improve the quality of the life he lives.
Given the medical, industrial, and computer technologies available today, society can work to assess the benefits and risks, submitting technology to the principles of justice, or leave it in the hands of profit oriented market forces. There is a sense, however, that society cannot avoid being ethical in the ways it decides to use science and technologies. To claim that turning over decisions about what technologies to have and how to use them to an “invisible guiding hand” is, in itself, making an ethical decision. No matter the design and use of medical technologies, no matter what the decision on how to treat the environment, no matter what is done with computers, an ethical, not just a technical, impact will be felt by society.
Although some technical professionals and many professional ethicists have recognized this as truth, it is a truth that requires a wider appreciation. This is necessary to support public participation in discussions where more specialized reflection is required. Decisions about how to practice medicine, protect the environment, and construct the information superhighway can be made in one of three ways:
1. We can assume that the problems are so complex that they must be left to the experts, that is, to scientists, engineers, and their ethics counselors.
2. We can insist that these problems must be handled by the public, within the boundaries of traditional values, even though the public often lacks adequate technical knowledge or sufficient reflection on the ethical issues involved.
3. We can strive to create an informed public that works with technical professionals and their ethics counselors to reach an informed consensus.
The first option is intelligent but undemocratic. The second is democratic but unintelligent. What we must do is strive for the third way, an intelligent democracy that integrates cultures of expertise into a self-reflective public. Only this can set the stage for realizing the full promise of the applied ethics of technology.
Notes
1 T. Beauchamp, & N. E. Bowie, Ethical Theory and Business, (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall). 1996 210
2 Ruin, Joseph Eby Importance of Business Ethics New Straits Times, December,1997, B4
3 Mitcham, Carl Technology and Ethics: From Expertise to Public Participation. The World & I, vol. 11, 1996, March, 314.
4 Ruin, B4
5 Ruin, B5
6 David Freudberg, The Corporate Conscience: Money, Power & Responsibility, American Management Association, 1986, 73
7 Quinn et al, 22
8 Snoeyenbos, Almeder, and Humber, Business Ethics, (New York, Prometheus Books, 1983) 210-228
9 Quinn et al, 22
10 Gilbert Kline, Ethical Considerations in the Business Aspects of Health Care, (Washington, DC, Georgetown Press, 1995) 222
11 The Greening of American Business: Making Bottom Line Sense of Environmental Responsibility, ed. Thomas F. P. Sullivan (Rockville, MD, Government Institutes, 1992) 34
12 Richard S. Rosenberg, The Social Impact of Computers, (Boston, Academic Press, 1992) 98
13 H. B. Acton, The Morals of Markets and Related Essays, (IN, Liberty Fund) 1993, 163-165
14 Rosenberg, 47
Seal Straugh
Notes (cont.)
15 Kline, 36
16 Kline, 101
17 G. Kolata, “A Controlled Trial to Improve Care for Seriously Ill Hospital Patients, ” Journal of the American Medical Association 274:20 (29 Nov. 1995): 1,591- 98
18 Kolata, 1591- 98
19 Sullivan, 133-138
20 Matthew Turner, Managing Extinctions and Biodiversity , Working Papers, University of Toronto 04-98, http://wusu.edu
21 Sullivan, 217
22 Joseph Weizenbaum, Computer Power and Human Reason (San Francisco: Freeman, 1976), 6
23 Weizenbaum, 38.
24 Weizenbaum, 41-44.
25. Weizenbaum, 78
26 Carl Mitcham, Thinking Through Technology: The Path Between Engineering and Philosophy, (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1994) 314.
27 Robert Pool, “Turning an Info-Glut into a Library,” Science 7 Oct. 1994,Copyright 1996 News World Communications, Inc., 22
28 Mitcham, 219
29 Pool, 23
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Beauchamp, T., & Bowie, N. E. (1996). Ethical Theory And Business. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall).
David Freudberg, 1986, The Corporate Conscience, (New York, American Management Association)
Carl Mitcham, 1994, Thinking Through Technology: The Path Between Engineering and Philosophy, (Chicago, University of Chicago Press)
Joseph Weizenbaum,1976, Computer Power and Human Reason (San Francisco: Freeman)
H. B. Acton,1993 The Morals of Markets and Related Essays, (IN, Liberty Fund)
Snoeyenbos, Almeder, and Humber,1983, Business Ethics, (New York, Prometheus Books
Gilbert Kline, 1995 Ethical Considerations in the Business Aspects of Health Care, (Washington, DC, Georgetown Press)
Richard S. Rosenberg, 1992 The Social Impact of Computers, (Boston, Academic Press)
Papers and Periodicals
Mitcham, Carl (1996, March). Technology and ethics: From expertise to public participation. The World & I, vol. 11
Ruin, Joseph Eby (1997, December). Importance of business ethics. New Straits Times.
Robert Pool, 1994 “Turning an Info-Glut into a Library,” Science
7 Oct., Copyright 1996 News World Communications, Inc
G. Kolata, 1995 “A Controlled Trial to Improve Care for Seriously Ill Hospital Patients” Journal of the American Medical Association 274:20
Matthew Turner, Managing Extinctions and Biodiversity , Working Papers, University of Toronto 04-98, http://wusu.edu
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