cyber

• Cyberethics


  The study of moral, legal, and social issues involving cybertechnology
• Cyberethics (as a field of applied ethics)

  • Examines the impact that cybertechnology has for our social, legal, and moral systems
  • Evaluates the social policies and laws that we frame in response to issues generated by the development and use of cybertechnology
• Cybertechnology


  A wide range of computing and communications devices - from standalone computers, to "connected" or networked computing and communications technologies, to the Internet itself
• Cybertechnologies


  • Digital electronic devices
  • Networked computers (including servers, desktops, laptops, etc.)
  • Stand-alone computers
• Networked devices


  • Can be connected directly to the Internet
  • Can be connected to other devices through one or more privately owned computer networks (Local Area Networks (LANs), Wide Area Networks (WANs))
• Cyberethics


  More accurate label than computer ethics or Internet ethics, as it covers a wider range of ethical issues involving cybertechnology
• Subfields of cyberethics


  • Information Ethics
  • Computer Ethics
  • Internet Ethics
• Computer technology emerged in the late 1940s, when some analysts confidently predicted that no more than six computers would ever need to be built
• Phase 1 (1950s and 1960s)


  Computing technology consisted mainly of huge mainframe computers that were unconnected (i.e., stand-alone machines)
• In the 1940s, the meaning of 'computer' shifted from a person who calculated numbers to a calculating machine
• In the 1980s, computers became more than just machines - they became a new kind of medium for communications
• During Phase 1 (1950s and 1960s), ethical/social questions arose about the impact of computing machines as "giant brains" and what that meant for being human
• Questions introduced in Phase 1

  • Can machines think?
  • Should we invent thinking machines?
  • If machines can be intelligent entities, what does this mean for our sense of self?
  • What does it mean to be human?
• Another question raised during Phase 1 concerned privacy threats and the fear of Big Brother
• In Phase 2 (1970s and 1980s), computing machines and communications devices began to converge, generating ethical/social issues around privacy, intellectual property, and computer crime
• Ethical/social issues in Phase 2

  • Privacy concerns were exacerbated because confidential information could easily be exchanged between networked databases
  • Intellectual property issues emerged because personal computers could easily be used to duplicate and exchange proprietary software programs
  • Computer crime emerged because "hackers" could break into the computers of large organizations
• In Phase 3 (1990-present), the availability of Internet access to the general public has increased significantly, raising ethical and social concerns around free speech, anonymity, jurisdiction, and trust
• Ethical/social concerns in Phase 3

  • Free speech: Can Internet users post any message they wish on publicly accessible websites or their own personal web pages?
  • Anonymity: Should Internet users be permitted to post anonymous messages on web pages or navigate the web anonymously or under the cover of a pseudonym?
  • Jurisdiction: Where will Internet crime be prosecuted, given the lack of clear national or geographical boundaries?
  • Trust: Concerns around doing online business (personal and financial information), public vs. private aspects of personal information, social networking sites, and interactive web-based forums
• In Phase 4 (present to near future), "Web 2.0" has made possible the proliferation of social networking sites (SNSs), such as Facebook and Twitter
• As cybertechnology continues to evolve in Phase 4, computers will likely become more and more a part of who or what we are as human beings
• Ambient intelligence


  Enables "smart objects" to be connected via wireless technology
• In Phase 4, computers are becoming less visible as distinct entities, as they continue to be miniaturized and integrated into ordinary objects, and blend unobtrusively into our surroundings
• Cybertechnology is also becoming less distinguishable from other technologies as boundaries that have previously separated them begin to blur because of convergence
• Additional ethical/social concerns associated with Phase 4

  • Autonomous machines and sophisticated robots (used in warfare, transportation, care for the elderly, etc.)
  • Nanocomputing and nano-scale devices
  • Artificial agents (including "soft bots") that act on behalf of humans and corporations
  • AI-induced bionic chip implants (that can cause us to question what it means to be human vs. cyborg)
• There is debate about whether cybertechnology has generated any new or unique ethical issues
• Two points of view on the uniqueness of cyberethics issues

  • Traditionalists argue that nothing is new - crime is crime, and murder is murder
  • Uniqueness Proponents argue that cybertechnology has introduced (at least some) new and unique ethical issues that could not have existed before computers
• Traditionalists correctly point out that no new ethical issues have been introduced by computers, but uniqueness proponents are correct that cybertechnology has complicated our analysis of traditional ethical issues
• Logical malleability


  Computers can be molded in ways that allow for many different kinds of uses, some of which have introduced policy vacuums
• Policy vacuums


  Voids or gaps in our laws and policies
• Conceptual muddles


  Situations where conceptual issues need to be elucidated before clear policies can be formulated and justified
• The early 1980s saw a policy vacuum around the duplication of software programs, which had been made easy by the availability of personal computers
• Before the policy vacuum around software duplication could be filled, a conceptual muddle had to be elucidated: What, exactly, is software?
• Applied ethics


  Examines "practical" ethical issues and analyzes moral issues from the vantage-point of one or more ethical theories
• Three distinct perspectives of applied ethics (as applied to cyberethics)

  • Professional Ethics: the purpose is to identify and analyze issues of ethical responsibility for computer/IT professionals
  • Philosophical Ethics: cyberethics is a field of philosophical analysis and inquiry that goes beyond professional ethics
  • Sociological/Descriptive Ethics: Descriptive (and sociological) investigations report about "What is the case"
• Résumé


  A persuasive summary of your qualifications for employment
• Curriculum vitae (CV)


  Used for academic purposes in the UK (and in other European countries), more akin to the résumé
• Writing a résumé is an ego-building experience: the person who looks so good on paper is you!
• If your skills are in great demand, you can violate every guideline here and still get a good job
• When you must compete against many applicants, these guidelines will help you look as good on paper as you are in person
• How can I encourage the employer to pay attention to my résumé?

  1. Show how your qualifications fit the job and the company

  2. If people do the reading: your résumé may get a few seconds of the reader's attention to decide whether to choose the people for an interview or not

  3. If the résumé is electronically scanned by computer into a job-applicant tracking system, then the employer specifies keywords from the job description, listing the knowledge, skills, and abilities that the ideal applicant would have, sometimes personal characteristics may also be included

  4. The employer receives the résumés that match the keywords, arranged with the most "hits" first, then the employer decides who will be invited for interviews