Book chapter
3. Domain Ethics within ICT
Abstract
In this chapter, we discussed several topics of how domain ethics can be applied within the realm of ICT. Initially, we introduced modern day ethical considerations relating to information, including Freedom of Expression, Access to Information and Right to Education, Data Protection and Regulation, and gender equality [6]. Ethics are ingrained in both how users interact with ICT, and how humans program ICT. For example, in the gender equality section, differences in how ICT corporations permit users to identify their gender may have compounding impacts on how the corporation is perceived in the public view.
In the machine ethics section, domain ethics in ICT were taken beyond modern day and past challenges, and into cutting edge and future dilemmas. Machine ethics is not concerned with the ethical uses of a machine by a human, but on machines following their own ethical decision-making. The focus of machine ethics mainly lies on autonomously acting physical entities such as drones, robots, and autonomous vehicles, and how human ethics can be implemented within these entities. We explored theory on how an ethical machine might be developed, and under which principles it should abide.
”Business ethics is rules, standards, codes, or principles which provide guidelines for morally right behavior and truthfulness in specific situations” [55]. The impact of business ethics can be seen throughout society and has become much more important in recent years, especially as consumers gain an active role in influencing different organizations’ ethics. Ethics are also involved in modeling, as models within organizations are created and designed by humans. Imagine creating a decision-making diagram in which an important business decision has to be made. If the decision model, which forms the groundwork for the decision-making, is unethical, it may lead to an organization making unethical decisions. Therefore, organizations should think more critically about the ethics in the models their systems and business operations are based on.
Ultimately, humans design the intricacies of ICT. Humans, with the aid ofmachines (also developed by humans), control how users use the internet, what they can post on social media, who can access information, how and what kind of data is collected, and how data is permitted to be processed, how machines function and what decisions they make, how businesses and corporations apply ICT, and how conceptual modeling is conducted within those businesses. At each stage, and in every instance in which humans interact with ICT, ethics and morality should be considered, and possible consequences must be thought out to avoid unintended effects.
Knowledge clip
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