Ethics and Technology

The Fourth Edition of Ethics and Technology introduces students to issues and controversies that comprise the relatively new field of cyberethics. This textbook examines a wide range of cyberethics issues--from specific issues of moral responsibility to broader social and ethical concerns that affect each of us in our day-to-day lives. Recent developments in machine ethics should also cause students to consider questions about conventional conceptions of autonomy and trust. Such topics and many other engaging ethical controversies--both hypothetical and actual cases--are discussed in this widely used and respected text. Updates to the 4th Edition include * New or updated scenarios in each chapter * New sample arguments in many chapters, which enable students to apply the tools for argument analysis covered in Chapter 3 * Newly designed set of study/exercise questions call Unalyzed Scenarios in each chapter, which can be used for either in-class group projects or outside class assignments * Additional review, discussion, and essay/presentation questions at the end of many chapters New Issues Examined and Analyzed include * Ethical and social aspects of Cloud Computing, including concerns about the privacy and security of users' data that is increasingly being stored in "the Cloud" * Concerns about the increasing "personalization" of search results based on queries entered by users on search engines such as Google * Controversies surrounding Wikileaks and the tension it creates between free speech and responsible journalism * Concerns affecting "net neutrality" and whether Internet regulation may be required to ensure that service providers on the Internet do not also unduly control the content delivered via their services * Recent controversies affecting "machine ethics" and the development of "moral machines" or autonomous systems that will be embedded with software designed for making moral decisions * Questions about our conventional notions of autonomy and trust--can machines be autonomous? Can we trust machines to act in ways that will always be in the best interest of humans?