1.5.2. Moral and Ethical Issues

• Effects on businesses of computers becoming part of the workforce


  • Higher productivity
  • Lower unit costs
  • Lower costs of renting
  • Lower labour costs
• Uses of automated decision-making


  • Targeted feeds (social media)
  • Application processes (jobs, mortgages, loans)
  • Power distribution systems
  • Driverless cars
  • Stock trading
  • Plant automation systems
• Artificial intelligence


  The ability of a computer to replicate human intelligence, cognitive ability and grasp abstract concepts
• How expert systems work


  1. Expert systems consist of a knowledge base made up of a set of facts and rules

  2. This is used to build an inference engine which is interrogated to find diagnoses
• Applications of AI


  • Neural networks
  • Expert systems
  • Voice recognition
• Negative environmental effects of computers

  • Toxic e-waste contaminating water
  • E-waste in third world countries
  • Greenhouse gases from greater electricity consumption
  • Reduced biodiversity
  • Impact of climate change on future generation
• Ways in which technology can be used to protect the environment

  • Smart home systems (sensors)
  • Sleep and Stand-by features on devices
  • Smart engine designs
• Censorship


  The act of suppressing the content that people are able to view, publish and access
• Free Internet


  The idea of an Internet where nothing is filtered at all, in line with the principle of freedom of speech
• Censorship is used within schools to prevent pupils from accessing unsuitable material and to maintain high productivity and prevent distractions
• Arguments in favour of surveillance systems


  • Useful for social security purposes and detecting crime
  • Needed to trace and punish criminal activity
• Data mining


  The process of analysing large data sets to uncover hidden trends
• Things web designers must take into account when designing a website


  • Colour paradigms
  • Layout
  • Character set