Translated material
Three uncomfortable questions about cyberetics
If you created an “ethical meter”, then you would have tore the jackpot. It would be bought by Uber and hundreds of other companies that have paid a reputation in wars for morality. Julia Kalenkova’s journalist Julia Kalenkova told what cyber eches are, what the superman has to do with her and why it is worth reconsider the third season of the Black Mirror.
Why do you need special ethics if there is ordinary?
Cyberetics focuses on the behavior of people using the computer. Even a simple interaction of a person and machine, for example, computing tasks, gives rise to a lot of questions. Is it possible to intervene in the work of other users if the network is open to everyone? Who should think about the possible negative consequences of programs - a developer or customer? In addition, there will be a dozen more technical, moral, legal, social, political and philosophical issues. They can be conditionally divided into groups:
- Code for professionals and ordinary users whose work is related to the use of computer technology;
- Protection of digital rights: copyright, rights to personal life and freedom of speech;
- Legal problems regarding computer crimes.
The First Computer Ethics Code was developed in 1979 with the participation of the Institute of Engineers in Electrical and Electronics ( Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers , Ieee). His first article says: "The members of the agreement must take responsibility for their actions." The standard of professional cooperation calls to be responsible to employers, clients, society and their colleagues. This is due to the understanding that engineers, scientists and technologists determine the quality and living conditions of people in the information society.
Ethics is an endlessly expanded responsibility towards everything living. Albert Schweitzer
The German doctor, theologian and musicologist Albert Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Prize of the World (1952) for missionary activities. In his famous speech, he noted the lack of research of the essence of man himself in world science. Thanks to the achievements in the field of science and technology, “man has become a superman”, but did not receive “superhuman sanity”. It was because of the lack of sanity of achieving science and practice that he was used for evil, and not for good, the thinker believed.
“We are approaching to unify the decisions that it used to be an ethical choice of each individual person. This creates quite large risks and difficulties, ”said Ivan Ninenko , a member of the Future Foundations Expert Council. In his opinion, we had an idea that a person is a certain Moral Agent. He has the ability to distinguish the right from the wrong one and bear responsibility for his own actions. In other words, a person has authorship in relation to the choice of a moral act.
Okay, who studies the Cyberetics and why?
Ivan Ninenko cited a simple example of an “invisible” ethical problem. You dispose of personal data and personal time at your discretion. However, Facebook meets you with a “smart tape”: the social network itself decides what news and photos to you to show you now and what information is available to your friends about you. “You can hide some kind of content, but, by and large, what exactly you will see, determines the Facebook algorithm. And what goals he pursues - an internal corporate story Facebook, ”the expert summarizes.
How ethical to intervene in the personal space of the user, and most importantly - who should give an answer to this question? Unprofitable scientists are often not devoted to the nuances of media communications, and corporations that control, on the contrary, are too subjective, as they pursue marketing goals.
Therefore, independent organizations studying the issues of cyberoetics work around the world: Association for Computer Machinery, uniting about 83,000 specialists, the International Center for Information Ethics ( International Center For Information Ethics ), a non -profit human rights organization of the Electronic Fund Borders ( Electronic Frontier Foundation ). The latter, by the way, was created to protect the rights of rights laid down in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence of Rights in connection with the emergence of new communication technologies.
In Russia, Future Foundation is exploring the ethics of technology. The organization is working on humanitarian and technological initiatives aimed at the formation of the image of the future.
Technologies are ethically neutral, their presence only expands our selection space. Apparently, the technologies that can be invented will be invented, but we can actively influence how comfortable this new world will be. It is not worth the question of whether we will live there - we will. The question is what values we will lay in our lives with these technologies, in interaction with them. From the history of Future Foundation
The founder of the project Peter Levich is sure: people often resist the new. He talks about this in the cycle of lectures “ Ethics of New Technologies ”, explaining what ethical problems arise in connection with the development of genetic editing, unmanned vehicles and other technologies.
So, what questions are faced with specialists in cyberetics.
- Do I need to publish personal information about other people on the Internet, for example, online statuses or current location?
- Do I need to protect users from false information?
- Who owns digital data (music, films, books, web pages), and what do users have the right to do with them?
- How available can gambling and pornography on the network be?
- Is the Internet access to the main right of everyone?
Obviously, this is only part of the problems that the digital society is faced with, and their list is constantly updated.
What do I need to know about cyberetics?
The complexity of ethical questions is that the answers lie in the subjective plane. There is no document prohibiting a lie for good (unless, of course, this does not contradict the laws). By regulating such issues, the state has every chance to go to extremes. The social loan system adopted in China has become a resonance precedent . Once it was the anti-utopia of George Orwell, and currently reality. Today we are watching the next episode of the Black Mirror (“ Nysk ”), and tomorrow we give each other grades.
China openly declares that the government has the right and forms a target function. Under the target function in this case, we mean an algorithm that determines the behavior for which a person receives positive and negative points.
“In China, people with a low social rating lose their right, for example, to travel airplanes and high -speed trains. At the same time, if we look at the opposite pole of the globe, in America the state is less interfering with the digital world. There, by and large, these target functions are formed by corporations. And the main function is to hold the user attention. So Facebook attracts the best psychologists in order to keep attention on the pages of the social network, ”says Ivan Ninenko. “And Amazon will advise a person what to buy,” the expert continues. “A“ good ”person in this sense turns out the one who spends money properly.”
Thus, forming your ethical principles in the digital world, you, firstly, take responsibility for your actions, and secondly, take into account the actions of third-party participants in the process.