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author | elioat <elioat@tilde.institute> | 2023-08-23 07:52:19 -0400 |
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committer | elioat <elioat@tilde.institute> | 2023-08-23 07:52:19 -0400 |
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diff --git a/js/games/nluqo.github.io/~bh/four.html b/js/games/nluqo.github.io/~bh/four.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1faf496 --- /dev/null +++ b/js/games/nluqo.github.io/~bh/four.html @@ -0,0 +1,197 @@ +<HTML> +<HEAD> +<TITLE>Abstracts for Four Papers I'm Gonna Write Someday</TITLE> +</HEAD> +<BODY> +<H1>Abstracts for Four Papers I'm Gonna Write Someday</H1> +<CITE>Brian Harvey<BR>University of California, Berkeley</CITE> + + +<P>Copyright (C) 1989 by Brian Harvey. Permission is hereby granted to anyone +to reproduce this paper, provided that it is reproduced in its entirety, +without editing, and including this notice. + + +<H2>I. A Professional Ethics Course Wouldn't Have Helped Robert Morris</H2> + +<P>In recent months everyone with an axe to grind has been using the November +Internet Worm as a grindstone. Security freaks call for more security; +freedom freaks call for less security; decentralists call for less reliance +on computer systems; antimilitarists call for less military reliance on +computers; manufacturers of security devices call for people to buy their +products. Regrettably, some people at CPSR meetings are jumping on the +bandwagon and using this incident to argue for professional ethics classes. + +<P>I'm all for professional ethics classes. But I don't think such a class at +Cornell would have prevented this incident. Such classes should, and +generally do, examine issues that are morally difficult for professionals +working in the field. What would an ethics course for computer scientists +be about? Probably a major focus, for example, would be on the extent of +military funding of computer science research. This is a question of real +importance not only for working professionals but for the graduate students +who would be enrolled in the course, who may not like working on weapons +research but who do want research assistantships. If 80% of all computer +science research is funded by the DoD, this poses a problem for antiwar +computer scientists. + +<P>Would a computer science ethics course deal with privacy? Probably, but +I hope not at the level of simple exhortations to respect it. If I were +teaching such a course, I'd begin by calling the assumptions about +privacy into question. For example, let's say the police want to build +a spiffy data base system to keep track of criminals. What's so bad about +that? I do think it's bad, often, but I don't think it's obvious why. I +think that the answer requires a lot of specific historical knowledge about +the political role of the police in the United States, and the recurring +real abuses of police power. + +<P>If you asked Robert Morris whether computer professionals should respect +people's privacy, I bet he'd say yes, sincerely. He would then go on to +say that the Internet worm wasn't an invasion of privacy, but "just a joke." +I propose to take this claim seriously. I argue that the relevant ethical +issue is this: Playing practical jokes on one's friends is different from +playing practical jokes on strangers. It's not that one is always okay and +the other always not okay, but the standards are different. Practical jokes +are about trust and testing trust. The degree of trust one can expect from +friends is higher than the degree it's reasonable to expect from strangers. +This would be a terrific issue to raise in an ethics class for 12-year-olds. +(I'm not being sarcastic; when I was a 12-year-old I attended a school with +required ethics classes.) It's unlikely that a teacher of graduate students +would think to raise it. + +<P>I believe it is a serious problem in our society that adolescence commonly +lasts into the mid-20s and beyond. The reasons have to do with a lack of +serious adult values, the commercial glorification of youth, a tight economy +in which adult life often truly is bleak and joyless, state-sponsored +lotteries, and many other things. Professional ethics classes, though, do +not address this problem. + + +<H2>II. Moral Dilemmas are not Ethics</H2> + +<P>The model for professional ethics courses is medical ethics courses. The +latter often revolve around dilemmas, that is, around issues that are +genuinely controversial among honest, well-motivated doctors. Abortion, +euthanasia, whether to offer an honest diagnosis if you think it'll hurt +the patient's health: all of these questions in which life and death are +literally at stake are no easier for ethical philosophers than for medical +practitioners. + +<P>The purpose of a medical ethics course is not to encourage doctors to be +ethical. That is taken for granted, as a precondition of the course. +Nor is the purpose of the course to call attention to obscure ethical +questions. Every medical student knows about these questions, as does +everyone who reads newspapers. The purpose of the course is to provide +the students with knowledge of the range of arguments that have been made +about the difficult questions, so that they do not begin their careers with +one-sided views out of ignorance of alternatives. + +<P>In computer science our situation is not like that of the medical profession. +Among our colleagues the very idea of social responsibility is open to +question. "First, do no harm" is not controversial among doctors, but +some computer programmers are perfectly comfortable building the tools for +arbitrageurs and other social parasites. "Suppose your employer orders you +to release a product known to have bugs because the deadline is approaching..." +This is an ethical dilemma? It wouldn't be, in a profession with a sense of +ethics. + +<P>The medical ethics course is useful as an adjunct to the real ethical +education of medical students, which happens in hospital wards. Everyone +involved understands that the course is an adjunct. Everyone understands +that ethics is about empathy, human respect, and courage more than it's +about intellectual resolution of moral puzzles. + +<P>In computer science, solving puzzles is central to our work. It is all too +easy to see social responsibility as just another kind of puzzle, to be +solved by the same techniques of formal reasoning we use with other puzzles. +A dilemma-based computer ethics course too easily lets us off the hook. +Instead our ethics courses must be about ethics! That is, they must force +students to confront the existence of good and evil, to choose between +selfishness and community spirit. Very few computer scientists explicitly +choose evil, but many prefer to pretend that there is no choice to make. + + +<H2>III. There Is Nothing that Everyone Needs to Know about Computers</H2> + +<P>I have been arguing for several years with people who believe that to be +employable, one must be "computer literate" -- skilled in some aspect or +other of computer use. In the context of social responsibility there +seems to be a different argument, asserting that one cannot be an effective +citizen in a democracy without a technical understanding of the political +issues involving computers. How will people know which way to vote on +Star Wars, if they don't understand programming methodology? + +<P>This version of the "computer literacy" argument is also nonsense. It's +a losing battle. Computers are not the only technology that comes to the +attention of voters. Freon, oil spills, nuclear power, genetic engineering, +the prime interest rate, the use of standardized tests that may or may not +discriminate against some group in college admissions, research on animals, +potential AIDS drugs, biochemical versus psychodynamic approaches to mental +illness, teaching foreign-born students in English or in their native +languages, what the Founding Fathers really meant about bearing arms: are +the voters to be "literate" about all of these? + +<P>How, in fact, do I decide to believe the scientists who tell me that people +evolved from animals, and not the ones who tell me that nuclear power is +safe? I have no technical knowledge about either issue. Supposing that I +were forced to take "biology literacy" and "nuclear power literacy" courses; +how would I decide whether or not to trust the teachers of those courses? +The answer is that my beliefs are based on nontechnical aspects of the +issues. For example, I know that there is money to be made in nuclear power, +but I don't see anyone profiting from the theory of evolution. I know that +the supposedly neutral Nuclear Regulatory Commission conspired with the +plant owners to withhold information about the Three Mile Island failure; +I don't know of any such scandal among evolution theorists. I know that +the nuclear power industry got Congress to pass a law exempting them from +civil damage suits, and I understand what this means about their own +confidence in their operations. I know that the spokespeople for evolution +include exemplary human beings like Stephen Jay Gould, who also finds time +in his schedule to work against racism; those who speak for nuclear power +are more likely to be sleazeballs who also argue for nuclear weapons. + +<P>What the voters need is "political literacy": knowing how to read the +newspaper without technical knowledge of the subject under discussion. +They need the intellectual weapon of class analysis. They need the +commitment to remember last year's scandals to help them understand +this year's. They need the sophistication to understand dialectical +tension, in which two contradictory views can both be aspects of the +truth, without dissolving into relativism, in which everything and nothing +is true. + + +<H2>IV. Ethics is Learned in the Laboratory</H2> + +<P>What is the policy about game-playing at your school's computer lab? +Some students want to play computer games. Other students (perhaps the +same students at another time) want to get their assigned work done. Does +some adult facility manager decide the rule? (No games 8am to 11pm, let's +say.) Then, do paid adult staff members police the rule? Or are students +part of the process of setting the rule and enforcing it? + +<P>What happens when a student shows an interest in developing system +software? Is s/he encouraged? Given access to source files? Allowed +to install the new version for general use? Or informed that students +can't be trusted to write software lest it be full of trapdoors? + +<P>Is the computer lab always open? Is it closed at night because there's no +money for staff to prevent equipment theft? Is there a way students could +organize cooperatively to staff the lab? Are they encouraged to do so? + +<P>When one student complains about another student violating the privacy of +his or her files, how is the issue resolved? (What about faculty or staff +violating the privacy of student files? Is that an issue?) + +<P>The computer lab is the best place to begin professional education in +social responsibility. The crucial point is to build a sense of +community. Faculty should be part of this community also, but decisions +about things like game policy should be truly democratic. It's the students +who face the consequences, and they can understand the issues. + +<P>(I guess I am arguing for Carol Gilligan's relationship-based view of +moral development, as against Lawrence Kohlberg's rule-based view, which +is embodied in the presentation of moral dilemmas in ethics classes.) + +<P><ADDRESS> +<A HREF="index.html"><CODE>www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bh</CODE></A> +</ADDRESS> +</BODY> +</HTML> |