Moral, social, ethical and cultural opportunities and risks of digital technology
Computers in the workforce
Automated decision making
Artificial intelligence
Environmental effects
Censorship and the Internet
Monitor behaviour
Analyse personal information
Piracy and offensive communications
Layout, colour paradigms and character sets
Ethics
Concerned with our values as a community and how these will impact different groups of people in society
Morals
To do with our personal code of conduct and encompass how we choose to behave, including the decisions we make at the expense of others
With computers becoming an integral part of almost every aspect of our day-to-day lives, it is important that we consider the moral, ethical, environmental, social and cultural implications of these changes
Computers in the workforce
Improve efficiency
Reduce delivery times
Speed up manufacturing processes
Improve customer satisfaction
Reduce unit labour costs
Lower prices for consumers
Reduce strain on workers
Reduce the need to work in a repetitive and tedious environment
Computerisation has hit middle-income manufacturing jobs the hardest
There has been a shift toward low-income service jobs
With increased computerisation, demand for people in computing-related occupations has increased
The Internet becoming accessible to almost everyone has led to a rise in the services being offered exclusively online
Automated decision making
Decisions made by algorithms that have the potential to significantly affect people's lives
Automated decision making is used to determine what different users should be displayed on their social media feeds
This may be based on users' interactions and inferences about their interests based on their connections
Relying entirely on algorithms could result in people being treated unfairly, as these algorithms do not consider extenuating circumstances and are unable to process information with the same consideration of contextual factors that humans are able to provide
Advantages of automated decision making
Improved productivity
More convenient for employers
Hire workers faster
Decisions made faster than humans in driverless cars, potentially saving lives
Algorithms must be thoroughly tested to produce a high-quality piece of software, free of bias against any group of people
Algorithmic decision-making in driverless cars raises ethical questions about how to decide who should be harmed if a scenario arises in which either a pedestrian or the driver must be harmed
Artificial intelligence
The ability of a computer to replicate human intelligence, cognitive ability, and grasp abstract concepts
Expert systems
Replicate the knowledge and experience an expert in a particular subject would have
Made up of a knowledge base which consists of a set of facts and rules which are used to build an inference engine
Neural networks
Replicate biological neural networks
Learn from a set of data and apply this knowledge to new data sets
AI is seen within voice recognition systems which are now common within smart home systems such as Google Home and Amazon's Alexa
Artificial intelligence raises questions about accountability: who is responsible when things go wrong? If AI ever reaches a stage at which it is considered sentient, what rights should it have?
Environmental effects of digital technology
Toxic components like mercury and radioactive isotopes in computer components that can contaminate water supplies
More electricity required to power devices, using up non-renewable fossil fuels and emitting greenhouse gases contributing to global warming
Increased throw-away attitude leading to more e-waste
Technological devices being produced cheaply and widely, they have become affordable for a large proportion of the world population
The downside to affordable technological devices
Effect on the environment
The pressure of keeping up with trends coupled with the affordability means that people now throw away more devices than before
Some computer components
Built of mercury and radioactive isotopes which are toxic and can contaminate water supplies
waste is often shipped to third world countries with lower environmental standards to be disposed which is considered to be immoral and unacceptable
More devices around and processes becoming partially or entirely computerised
More electricity is required to power these devices
Using up our store of non-renewable fossil fuels to power devices emits greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming
The rate of climate change has accelerated over the past year, indicating that we need to be more careful about our consumption and cut down the throw-away attitude when it comes to technological devices
Effects on the planet as a result of our consumption
Impact future generations as well as biodiversity
There has been a push in the UK for renewable energy which counteracts the effects of increased electricity consumption to an extent
Alongside new technologies, there has been a growth in environmentally-friendly technologies
Environmentally-friendly technologies
Smart home systems which use temperature sensors to determine when heating should be switched on and motion sensors to switch off lights when a room is empty
Personal computers and laptops offer 'Sleep' and 'Stand-by' features
Some newly developed car engines are designed to prevent them from idling so reducing emissions
Technology has the potential to offset some of the effects on the environment
Censorship is the act of suppressing the content that people are able to view, publish and access
Some countries use censorship to block out other political opinions
In the UK, ISPs block websites with content associated with terrorism and extremist political beliefs
There is fear that censorship may be used to block out alternative political beliefs
Censorship would not be acting to protect the country but rather to push a certain ideology, which some people consider to be unethical and unacceptable
Many people believe in the idea of a 'Free Internet', where nothing is filtered at all, in line with the principle of freedom of speech
Most people agree that some extent of censorship has become necessary for national security purposes and to filter offensive comments and extremist propaganda