1. A Gift of Fire Sara Baase
Chapter 1:
Unwrapping the Gift
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

2. Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
What We Will Cover
Rapid Pace of Change
New Developments and Dramatic Impacts
Issues and Themes
Ethics
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

3. Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Rapid Pace of Change
1940s: The first computer was built. 1956: First hard-disk drive weighed a ton and stored five megabytes. 1991: Space shuttle had a one-megahertz computer. 2006: Pocket devices hold a terabyte (one trillion bytes) of data. 2006: Automobiles can have 100-megahertz computers onboard.
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

6. Rapid Pace of Change: Discussion Question
What devices are now computerized that were not originally?
Think back 10, 20, 50 years ago.
In addition to automobiles you can prompt the class with the following:
TVs
Clocks and watches
Phones
Cash registers
Cameras
Ovens
Etc.
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

7. Changes & New Developments

9. Changes & New Developments (cont.)
Cell Phones:
Relatively few in 1990s. Approximately five billion worldwide in 2011.
Used for conversations and messaging, but also for:
taking and sharing pictures
downloading music and watching videos
checking and playing games
banking and managing investments
finding maps
Smartphone apps for many tasks, including:
monitoring diabetes
locating water in remote areas
Some states have passed laws prohibiting use of hand-held devices. Recent studies show hands-free devices, while freeing up the hands, do not reduce distractions, particularly among young adult and teenage drivers who often text message while driving.
Cameras in cell phones threaten privacy. Where is the line between capturing news events and evidence of crimes, and voyeurism?
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

10. Changes & New Developments (cont.)
Cell Phones:
Talking on cell phones while driving is a problem
Cell phones can interfere with solitude, quiet and concentration
Cameras in cell phones affect privacy.
Some states have passed laws prohibiting use of hand-held devices. Recent studies show hands-free devices, while freeing up the hands, do not reduce distractions, particularly among young adult and teenage drivers who often text message while driving.
Cameras in cell phones threaten privacy. Where is the line between capturing news events and evidence of crimes, and voyeurism?
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

12. Changes & New Developments (cont.)
Used mainly for security, but raise concerns about user autonomy.

13. Changes & New Developments (cont.) Kill Switches
Amazon had deleted some books from its store and from the kindler of people who had bought them
Apple can remotely delete apps from the users’ phones.
In 2011, a software developer discovered a malicious code in app for Android phones. Google removed the app from its store and from more than 250,000 phones.
Used mainly for security, but raise concerns about user autonomy.

15. Changes & New Developments (cont.)
Social Networking:
First online social networking site was in 1995
Myspace, founded in 2003 had roughly 100 million member profiles by 2006
Facebook was started at Harvard as an online version of student directories
Sites like Second Life ( combine many of the features of social networking sites with the 3-D aspects of video games. What new problems/benefits arise when a person can take on a physical persona (an avatar) that may be completely different from who they are in real life? Some people with physical disabilities can interact with others without revealing their handicap.
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

16. Changes & New Developments (cont.)
Social Networking (cont.):
Businesses connect with customers.
Organizations seek donations.
Groups organize volunteers.
Protesters organize demonstrations and revolutions.
Individuals pool resources through “crowd funding”.
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

18. Changes & New Developments (cont.)
Communication and the Web
In the 1980s, messages were short and contained only text.
People worldwide still use , but texting, tweeting , and other social media are now preferred.
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

19. Changes & New Developments (cont.)
Communication and the Web
Blogs (“Web log”) began as outlets for amateurs wanting to express ideas, but they have become significant source of news and entertainment.
Inexpensive video cameras and video- manipulation tools have resulted in a burst of amateur videos.
Many videos on the Web can infringe copyrights owned by entertainment companies.
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

20. Changes & New Developments (cont.)
Telemedicine Remote performance of medical exams and procedures, including surgery.
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

22. New Developments (cont.)
Collaboration
Wikipedia: The online, collaborative encyclopedia written by volunteers.
Informal communities of programmers create and maintain free software.
Watch-dogs on the Web: Informal, decentralized groups of people help investigate crimes.
Wikipedia’s reliability was brought into question when a major contributor was found to be a 14 year-old boy instead of a scientist with a PhD and years of experience. He got most of his information from other Web sources.
Web Watch-dog sites are controversial. A web site where a woman can publish the names and pictures of men who other women should watch out for has made the news recently.
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

24. New Developments (cont.)
E-commerce Amazon.com started in 1994 selling books on the Web. It has grown to be one of the most popular, reliable, and user-friendly commercial sites. eBay.com facilitates online auctions. Online sales in the United States now total hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Sellers can sell directly to buyers, resulting in a peer-to-peer economy.
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

25. New Developments (cont.)
E-commerce and trust concerns People were reluctant to provide credit card information to make online purchases, so PayPal.com grew out of need for trusted intermediary to handle payments. Encryption and secure servers made payments safer. The Better Business Bureau established a Web site to help consumers see if others have complained about a business. Auction sites implemented rating systems.
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

26. New Developments (cont.)
Free Stuff: programs and accounts, browsers, filters, firewalls, encryption software, word processors, spreadsheets, software for viewing documents, software to manipulate photos and video, and much more Phone services using VOIP such as Skype University lectures
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

27. New Developments (cont.)
Free Stuff: Advertising pays for many free sites and services, but not all. Wikipedia funded through donations. Businesses provide some services for good public relations and as a marketing tool. Generosity and public service flourish on the Web. Many people share their expertise just because they want to.
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

29. New Developments (cont.)
Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics, smart sensors:
AI is a branch on CS that aims to make computers think and perform tasks the same way as human begins.
Researchers realized that narrow, specialized skills were easier for computers than what a five-year-old does: recognize people, carry on a conversation, respond intelligently to the environment.
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

30. New Developments (cont.)
Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics, smart sensors:
Many AI applications involve pattern recognition.
Speech recognition is now a common tool.
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

31. New Developments (cont.)
Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics, smart sensors:
AI is used in complex strategy games like chess, in language translation, voice recognition, face matching, fingerprints matching, etc.
AI is also used in surveillance systems, it may saves people’s lives. How?
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

32. New Developments (cont.)
Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics, smart sensors:
Motion sensing devices are used to give robots the ability to walk, trigger airbags in a crash and cushion laptops when dropped.
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

33. New Developments (cont.)
Tools for Disabled People:
Restoration of abilities, productivity and independence.
Screen readers and scanners enable a blind person to use documents and web-pages like ordinary people.
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

34. New Developments (cont.)
Tools for Disabled People:
Speech recognition help deaf people to understand what others says, by reading their spoken words on a monitor.
People who can’t use their hands can dictate documents to a word processer.
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

35. New Developments (cont.)
Tools for Disabled People:
Prosthetics devices and motion sensors, like artificial arms and legs.
They help a disabled person to walk, set , etc.
Knees have sensors, to control bending and straightening the knee and support body movements.
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

36. New Developments (cont.)
New trends
Chips (smaller than a grain of rice) that stores 5 Megabits and can be read wirelessly.
Where can they be used?
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

37. New Developments (cont.)
New trends
Wear-ware are wearable computers displays in eye glasses, contact lenses and smart sensors in clothing.
What impact do they have?
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

38. New Developments (cont.)
New trends
Tiny flying sensors/ computers that communicate wirelessly.
What impact do they have?
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

39. New Developments (cont.)
New trends
Biological and computer sciences will combine new ways to insert micro- processors or controlled devices on human bodies.
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

40. Change and Unexpected Developments
Discussion Questions
How will we react when we can go into a hospital for surgery performed entirely by a machine? Will it be scarier than riding in the first automatic elevators or airplanes?
How will we react when we can have a conversation and not know if we are conversing with a human or a machine?
How will we react when chips implanted in our brains enhance our memory with gigabytes of data and a search engine? Will we still be human? 19

41. Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Issues and Themes
Analyzing and evaluating the impact of new technology can be difficult.
Some of the changes are obvious, some are not.
Even when benefits are obvious, their costs and side-effects might not be and vice versa.
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

42. Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Issues and Themes
Issues:
Unemployment
Alienation and customer service
Crime
Loss of privacy
Errors
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

43. Issues and Themes (cont.)
Old problems in a new context
Adapting to new technology: thinking in a new way
Varied sources of solutions to problems
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

44. Issues and Themes (cont.)
Global reach of net
Trade-offs and controversy
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

45. Issues and Themes (cont.)
Perfection is a direction, not an option.
There is a difference between personal choices, business policies, and law.
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

46. Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Ethics
What is Ethics?
Study of what it means to “do the right thing”
Assumes people are rational and make free choices
Rules to follow in our interactions and our actions that affect others
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

47. Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Ethics (cont.)
Ethical Views:
Deontological
Utilitarianism
Natural rights
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

48. Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Deontological Theories
Philosopher Immanuel Kant
Emphasize Rules and Duty (despite consequences)
Three ethical ideas:
Universality: ethical rules apply to everyone “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”
Rationality: logic determines ethical behavior
People are not means to ends but ends themselves
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

49. Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Utilitarianism
Focus on consequences
Increase social “utility”, happiness
Two ethical ideas:
Act utilitarianism:
judge an action by its impact
Rule utilitarianism:
define rules with good social outcome “Do not lie”
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

50. Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Natural Rights
Come from nature of humanity
Life
Liberty
Property
Negative rights (liberties)
The right to act without interference
Positive rights (claim-rights)
An obligation of some people to provide certain things for others
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

51. Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Negative Rights:
Liberties
Rights to act without interference
Examples:
Right to life
Right to be free from assault
Right to use your property
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

52. Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Positive rights
Claims rights
Obligation to provide to others
Examples:
Positive right to job: someone must hire you
Positive right to life: someone must pay for your food
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

53. Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Ethics (cont.)
No simple answers
Human behavior and real human situations are complex. There are often trade-offs to consider.
Ethical theories help to identify important principles or guidelines.
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

54. Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Ethics (cont.)
Do organizations have ethics?
Ultimately, it is individuals who are making decisions and taking actions. We can hold both the individuals and the organization responsible for their acts.
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university

55. Ethics Some important distinctions: Right, wrong, and okay
Distinguishing wrong and harm
Separating goals from constraints
Personal preference and ethics
Law and ethics
We can think of acts as either ethically obligatory, ethically prohibited, or ethically acceptable.
Harm alone is not a sufficient criterion to determine that an act is unethical.
The ethical character of a company depends on whether the actions taken to achieve the goal are consistent with ethical constraints.
It can be difficult to draw a line between what we consider ethically right or wrong and what we personally approve or disapprove of.
Ethics precedes law in the sense that ethical principles help determine whether or not we should pass specific laws. A good law will set minimal standards that can apply to all situations, leaving a large range of voluntary choices. Ethics fills the gap between general legal standards that apply to all cases and the particular choices made in a specific case.
36-40

56. Ethics Discussion Question
Can you think of examples of liberties (negative rights) and claim- rights (positive rights) that are at opposition to each other?
This question is the foundation for many issues and controversies discussed in later chapters. One example you can introduce here is the right to freedom of speech versus the need to protect children from materials that are inappropriate for them. Have the class identify who the affected parties are. What are the negative and positive rights for the different parties? Note: the laws pertaining to this issue are discussed in chapter three.
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
Adapted by Enas Naffar for use in Computing Ethics course –Philadelphia university