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Book Cover
Book
Author Weckert, John.

Title Computer and information ethics / John Weckert and Douglas Adeney
Published Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 1997

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 MELB  174.90904 Wec/Cai  AVAILABLE
Description xiii, 175 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Series Contributions to the study of computer science, 0734-757X ; no. 4
Contributions to the study of computer science ; no. 4
Contents Ch. 1. The Meaning of Ethics -- Ch. 2. Professional Ethics -- Ch. 3. Freedom, Information, and Images -- Ch. 4. Censorship of the Internet -- Ch. 5. Intellectual Property -- Ch. 6. Privacy -- Ch. 7. Responsibility -- Ch. 8. What Computers Should Not Do -- Ch. 9. Quality of Life and Work -- Ch. 10. Virtual Reality -- Ch. 11. Minds, Machines, and Morality
Summary Computers and information technology have created numerous options for their users. Individuals, governments, and corporations around the world must decide whether a particular technology or application should be used, how it should be employed, and toward what end. Sometimes such decisions may be based on purely economic or personal considerations. For example, a user might feel more comfortable with a particular word processing software, and a company might decide that a particular spreadsheet package meets all of its needs at a lower cost than competing products. But decisions concerning computer and information technology also involve ethical issues. Companies must determine whether it is an ethically correct objective to save money by replacing workers with technology. Courts and governments must decide whether it is ethical to censor communication on the Internet, or require software developers to have liability for social ills caused by use of their products, or for corporations to collect and sell information about individuals and their habits. This volume provides a rigorous but accessible philosophical examination of ethical issues related to computers as information processing machines. Special attention is given to questions of intellectual property, censorship, and privacy, for these issues are continually raised in the popular press and are central ethical concerns. But the book also considers ethical worries about image manipulation, virtual reality, the use of expert systems, and the moral status of "intelligent" machines. Some of the moral questions discussed have not yet arisen in practical situations, but these issues should be examined before they become urgent. While many issues have been omitted, the examinations within the text help show how additional ethical concerns may be approached in the future
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages [163]-170) and index
Notes Also issued online
Subject Computers -- Moral and ethical aspects.
Information technology -- Moral and ethical aspects.
Author Adeney, Douglas.
Bernard Hames Collection
LC no. 96036528
ISBN 0313293627 (alk. paper)