Ethics in today's technology

1. ETHICS OF TECHNOLOGY
Ethics in today’s technology
BENITO T. VILLAREAL III

2. What is Ethics andWhat is Ethics and
Technology?Technology?

3. • Derived from the Greek word “ethos”, which
means “custom”, “habit”, and “way of living”
• Definition: "the discipline and
practice of applying value to
human behavior, resulting in
meaningful conduct.“

4. G.E. MOORE, Principia Ethica
In the vast majority of cases, where we
make statements involving any of the
terms ‘virtue,’ ‘vice,’ ‘duty,’ ‘ought,’
‘good,’ ‘bad,’ we are making ethical
judgments; and if we wish to discuss
their truth, we shall be discussing a
point of Ethics.

5. What is
technology?

8. • It is a power over matter, over life on earth, and over
man himself; and it keeps growing at an accelerating
pace.

12. In his book "The Imperative of
Responsibility," published in 1979, the
German philosopher Hans Jonas pleads
for the extreme emergency to give
ourselves an ethics for technological
civilization based on "the imperative of
responsibility." His theory starts from the
finding that the promise of modern
technology has turned into a threat
of disaster: science confers to man
previously unknown forces, the economy
constantly pushes forward in an
unbridled impulse.

13. Are there philosophical aspects to
technology?
Can ethics outstand technology?

14. • Of course there are and yes. – Jonas
comments that "modern technology
touches on almost everything vital to
man's existence" and therefore, if
there are philosophies of science,
language, history, art, ethics, politics
etc., then how can there not be a
philosophy of technology, since it
plays such an integral role in all of
these.

15. Hans Jonas develops his ethics ofHans Jonas develops his ethics of
technological responsibility alongtechnological responsibility along
five tenets (pp. ix, x):five tenets (pp. ix, x):
1. The altered, always enlarged nature of human
action, with the magnitude and novelty of its
works and their impact on man's global future,"
raises new moral issues. A new reflection on
ethical principles is required.

16. 2. The lengthened reach of our deeds
moves responsibility into the center
of the ethical stage...responsibility is
a correlate of power." Therefore our
responsibility must be proportional to
the scope of the power of technology.
This means that "we need lengthened
foresight, that is, a scientific
futurology."

17. 3. Even the best predictions will fall short.
Consequently, we must apply a "heuristic of fear,
replacing former predictions of hope" which must
"tell us what is possibly at stake and what we
must beware of.“

18. 4. "What we must avoid at all costs is
determined by what we must avoid at
all costs." As religion that gave us the
foundations for this thought is "in
eclipse" today, a philosophy of nature
is to serve as a guide to our
"environmental morality."Technology exponentially increases
man's drain on nature's resources

19. 5. This thinking has to lead us to steps
to limit technology to "ensure the
survival and humanity of man."
These tenets are useful as yardsticks
for thinking about and evaluating
technologies, especially before their
widespread use.

20. He notes the tainting of this aspect by
the manipulation of our utopian dream
by the people who stand to make
money off of it.

21. Problem / Need Technology as Solution Consequences
Food preservation, temperature
control: nontoxic, nonflammable
refrigerant
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC)
Stratospheric Ozone
Depletion
Destruction of crops, illness due to
"pests": agent to kill insects
Synthetic insecticides
Adverse effects on birds
and mammals
Energy for consumer and industry
use: cheap and readily available
source
Wood, coal
Deforestation, global
climate change
Increased food supply: agent to
aid crop growth
Nitrogen and phosphorus
fertilizers
Lake eutrophication
Table shows examples of past problems, technological "solutions,"
and the long term consequences from continued practice of that
technology. Graedel, T. and B.R. Allenby, Industrial Ecology, Prentice-
Hall, 1995. Page 9)

22. • He also says that it is of no
consequence whether this started as
a drive in technology or whether our
learning of its possibilities has
produced a reaction to this effect,
either way it is still a driving force in
technology.

23. • Jonas
evaluates the
chances of
controlling
technological
dangers and
the aptitude of
the political
systems of his
time to prevent
a disaster for
humankind
caused by the
domination of
the
technological
thrust.

25. Backdrops:
- These are full sized
backdrops, just scale them up!
- Can be Copy-Pasted out of
Templates for use anywhere!
www.animationfactory.com