1 Confidential report number:483.

TECHNOETHICS

Prepared by: Prateek Bohra Roll number:13000210001 Information Technology, 2nd year, Techno India.

February, 2012.

Technoethics Prepared for:

PAULOMI MUKHERJEE FACULTY OF HU DEPARTMENT TECHNO INDIA.

Approved by:
PIYAL SARKAR H.O.D OF IT DEPATMENT TECHO INDIA, SALT LAKE

Certificate
Certified that this project report Techno Ethics is the bona fide work of Prateek Bohra, student of B.Tech (IT, 2nd year) who carried out the report work under the supervision of Paulomi Mukherjee, HU teacher, Techno India, Salt Lake.

Letter of transmittal:
Respected Madam, In keeping resemblance with our topic, I am submitting the report on Techno Ethics. As we agreed the purpose of this report is to explain the meaning of the term Techno Ethics and throw light on its different aspects and how it affects the lives of people connected to technology and its different streams. One of the main purposes is also to spread awareness about the importance of techno ethics in a world where technological developments are taking place at a great pace. I hope this report meets with your expectations. Respectfully, (Prateek Bohra) SIGNATURE

Acknowledgement
I am indebted to a number of people who have helped, motivated & encouraged me to bring out this report. I am really grateful to our college TECHNO INDIA, our departmental faculties(IT 2nd yr) & HOD & above all our subject(HU-481) teacher for their fruitful assistance without which I would not have been able to present this report so smoothly & conveniently within a limited time allotted to me for this report.

Table of contents
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

9. 10. 11. 12.

Introduction..10-11 Definations.12 History...13-14 Phenomenology.15-18 Technological consciousness19-20 Ethical challenges.21-23 Technoethical enquiry.24-26 Organizational and professional technoethics..27-32 Current issues....33 Future developments, Conclusion...34 Appendix35 Bibliography..36

List of illustrations
1. Ethics..10 2. Mario Bunge..14 3. Heidegger...16 4. CSTEP18 5. Tech influence....20 6. Ethics of sustainability..23 7. Internet...25 8. Facebook.....28 9. Electronic medical records....30 10. Journal of medical informatics...32

Abstract summary
Technoethics is an interdisciplinary research area concerned with all moral and ethical aspects of technology in society. Technoethics examines current social policies and interventions linked with technological advancement and uses; there are more and more technologies arising, that have no regulations and it is important that there are some sort of guidelines on how to use them ethically. Technoethics (TE) views technology and ethics as socially embedded enterprises and focuses on discovering the ethical use of technology, protecting against the misuse of technology, and devising common principles to guide new advances in technological development and application to benefit society. Technology, consciousness and society are intertwined in a relational process of creation that is the key to human evolution. Technology is rooted in the human mind, and is made manifest in the world in the form of new understandings and artifacts. The short term and longer term ethical considerations for technologies do not just engage the creator and producer but makes the user question their beliefs in correspondence with this technology and how governments must allow, react to, change, and/or deny technologies.

Copyright notice
All rights reserved. Except as provided for below, no part of this report may be reproduced or transmitted by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopy, fax or electronically delivery without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the content in any form is prohibited other than the following:1. You may print for your personal and non-commercial use only 2. You may copy the content to individual third parties for their personal use, but only if you acknowledge the report as the source of the material you may not accept with written permission distribute or commercially exploit the content nor may you transmit it or store it in other website or other form of electronic retrieval system.

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INTRODUCTION
Technoethics (TE) is an interdisciplinary research area concerned with all moral and ethical aspects of technology in society. It draws on theories and methods from multiple knowledge domains to provide insights on ethical dimensions of technological systems and practices for advancing a technological society. Technoethics (TE) views technology and ethics as socially embedded enterprises and focuses on discovering the ethical use of technology, protecting against the misuse of technology, and devising common principles to guide new advances in technological development and application to benefit society. Typically, scholars in technoethics have a tendency to conceptualize technology and ethics as interconnected and embedded in life and society. Technoethics denotes a broad range of ethical issues revolving around technology- from specific areas of focus affecting professionals working with technology to broader social, ethical, and legal issues concerning the role of technology in society and everyday life. ETHICS

Technoethical perspectives are constantly in transition as technology advances in areas unseen by creators, as users change the intended uses of new technologies. Humans cannot be

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separated from these technologies because it is an inherent part of consciousness and meaning in life therefore, requiring an ethical model. The short term and longer term ethical considerations for technologies do not just engage the creator and producer but makes the user question their beliefs in correspondence with this technology and how governments must allow, react to, change, and/or deny technologies.

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Definitions
Technoethics (TE) has been defined in a variety of ways over the last decades which highlight different aspects of this emerging field. Galvan defined Technoethics as the sum total of ideas that bring into evidence a system of ethical reference that justifies that profound dimension of technology as a central element in the attainment of a finalized perfection of man. Bao and Xiang described technoethics as the behavioral norm and ethical basis for the global community. The Handbook of Research on Technoethics defined technoethics as an interdisciplinary field concerned with all ethical aspects of technology within a society shaped by technology. It deals with human processes and practices connected to technology which are embedded within social, political, and moral spheres of life. Technoethics examines current social policies and interventions linked with technological advancement and uses; there are more and more technologies arising, that have no regulations and it is important that there are some sort of guidelines on how to use them ethically. As mentioned previously, since its interdisciplinary in nature of TE, it is easier to come up with these, because all disciplines have united to form one large umbrella of philosophies, thus making it easier to understand and study certain technologies and their uses. Researchers no longer have to track all the disciplines to which the technology might be related to, to think of it ethically. And unlike Applied Ethics, which focuses solely on biocentric philosophy. Technoethics unites both techno centric and biocentric philosophies. This gives TE an advantage because it can study both issues simultaneously by giving technology equality in importance, to that of living entities.

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History of techno ethics

With the advent of the industrial revolution, it was easy to see that technological advances were going to influence human activity. This is why they put emphasis on the responsible use of technology. With the spurt in technological advances came technological inquiry. Societal views of technology were changing; people were becoming more critical of the developments that were occurring and scholars were emphasizing the need to understand and to take a deeper look and study the innovations. Associations were uniting scholars from different disciplines to study the various aspects of technology. The main disciplines being philosophy, social sciences and science and technology studies (STS). Though many technologies were already focused on ethics, each technology discipline was separated from each other, despite the potential for the information to intertwine and reinforce itself. As technologies became increasingly developed in each discipline, their ethical implications paralleled their development, and became increasingly complex. Each branch eventually became united, under the term Technoethics, so that all areas of technology could be studied and researched, based on existing, real world examples, and a variety of knowledge, rather than just discipline specific knowledge. This thus enriches the scope of the philosophy, and the ability to study it effectively. The term Technoethics was coined in 1977 by the philosopher Mario Bunge to describe the responsibilities of technologists and scientists to develop ethics as a branch of technology. Bunge argued that the current state of technological progress was guided by ungrounded practices based on limited empirical evidence and trial-and-error learning.

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He recognized that the technologist must be held not only technically but also morally responsible for whatever he designs or executes: not only should his artifacts be optimally efficient but, far from being harmful, they should be beneficial, and not only in the short run but also in the long term. He recognized a pressing need in society to create a new field called Technoethics to discover rationally grounded rules for guiding science and technological progress.

MARIO BUNGE

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Phenomenology and techno ethics:

Phenomenology (Philosophy)-Phenomenology (from Greek: phainmenon "that which appears"; and lgos "study") is a broad philosophical movement emphasizing the study of conscious experience. It was founded in the early years of the 20th century by Edmund Husserl, expanded together with a circle of his followers at the universities of Gttingen and Munich in Germany and spread across to France, the United States, and elsewhere. Phenomenological Approach to Technology James Moor has argued that computers show up policy vacuums that require new thinking and the establishment of new policies. Others have argued that the resources provided by classical ethical theory such as utilitarianism, consequentialism and deontological ethics is more than enough to deal with all the ethical issues emerging from our design and use of information technology. For the phenomenologist the impact view of technology as well as the constructivist view of the technology/society relationships is valid but not adequate (Heidegger 1977, Borgmann 1985, Winograd and Flores 1987, Ihde 1990, Dreyfus 1992, 2001). They argue that these accounts of technology, and the technology/society relationship, posit technology and society as if speaking about the one does not immediately and already draw upon the other for its ongoing sense or meaning. For the phenomenologist society and technology co-constitute

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each other; they are each other's ongoing condition or possibility for being what they are. Heideggers Approach (Pre-Technological Age)

For Heidegger the essence of technology is the way of being of modern humansa way of conducting themselves towards the worldthat sees the world as something to be ordered and shaped in line with projects, intentions and desires a will to power that manifest itself as a will to technology'. Heidegger claims that there were other times in human history, a pre-modern time, where humans did not orient themselves towards the world in a technological way simply as resources for our purposes. However, according to Heidegger this pre-technological age (or

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mood) is one where humans relation with the world and artifacts, their way of being disposed, was poetic and aesthetic rather than technological (enframing). There are many who disagree with Heidegger's account of the modern technological attitude as the enframing of the world. For example Andrew Feenberg argues that Heidegger's account of modern technology is not borne out in contemporary everyday encounters with technology. Hubert Dreyfus Approach (Contemporary Society) In critiquing the artificial intelligence (AI) programme Hubert Dreyfus (1992) argues that the way skill development has become understood in the past has been wrong. He argues, this is the model that the early artificial intelligence community uncritically adopted. In opposition to this view he argues, with Heidegger, that what we observe when we learn a new skill in everyday practice is in fact the opposite. We most often start with explicit rules or preformulated approaches and then move to a multiplicity of particular cases, as we become an expert. His argument draws directly on Heidegger's account in Being and Time of humans as beings that are always already situated inthe-world. As humans in-the-world we are already experts at going about everyday life, at dealing with the subtleties of every particular situationthat is why everyday life seems so obvious. Thus, the intricate expertise of everyday activity is forgotten and taken for granted by AI as an assumed starting point. What Dreyfus highlighted in his critique of AI was the fact

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that technology (AI algorithms) does not make sense by itself. It is the assumed, and forgotten, horizon of everyday practice that make technological devices and solutions show up as meaningful. If we are to understand technology we need to return to the horizon of meaning that made it show up as the artifacts we need, want and desire. We also need to consider how these technologies reveal (or disclose) us.

Technological consciousness

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Technological consciousness is a term that describes the relationship between humans and technology. Technology is seen as an integral component of human consciousness and development. Technology, consciousness and society are intertwined in a relational process of creation that is key to human evolution. Technology is rooted in the human mind, and is made manifest in the world in the form of new understandings and artifacts. The process of technological consciousness frames the inquiry into ethical responsibility concerning technology by grounding technology in human life. The structure of technological consciousness is relational but also situational, organizational, aspectual and integrative. As well, technological consciousness organizes disjointed sequences of experience under an sense of unity that allows for a continuity of experience. The aspectual component of technological consciousness recognizes that individuals can only be conscious of aspects of an experience, not the whole thing. The integrative characteristics of technological consciousness are assimilation, substitution and conversation. Assimilation allows for unfamiliar experiences to be integrated with familiar ones. Substitution is a metaphorical process allowing for complex experiences to be codified and shared with others for example, language. Conversation is the sense of an observer within an individual's consciousness, providing stability and a standpoint from which to interact with the process.

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TECH INFLUENCE

Ethical challenges

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Limitations of human knowledge processes, workplace discrimination, strained work and life balance in technologically enhanced work environments, inequalities in information access for parts of the population, unequal opportunities for scientific and technological development, organizational responsibility and accountability issues, reputation and trust building challenges, intellectual property issues. Information Processing Theory is working memory that has a limited capacity and too much information can lead to cognitive overload resulting in loss of information from short term memory. Limit an organizations ability to innovate and respond for change. Knowledge society is intertwined with changing technology requiring new skills of its workforce. Access to information and knowledge resources within a knowledge society tend to favour the economically privileged who have greater access to technological tools needed to access information and knowledge resources disseminated online and the privatization of knowledge. Inequality in terms of how scientific and technological knowledge is developed around the globe. Developing countries do not have the same opportunities as developed countries to invest in costly large-scale research and expensive research facilities and instrumentation. Negative impacts of many scientific and technological innovations have on humans and the environment has led to some skepticism and resistance to increasing dependence on technology within the Knowledge Society. Doucet calls for city empowerment to have the courage and foresight to make decisions that are acceptable its

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habitants rather that succumb to global consumer capitalism and the forces of international corporations on national and local governments. Scientific and technological innovations that have transformed organizational life within a global economy have also supplanted human autonomy and control in work within a technologically oriented workplace. Rapidly changing landscape of organizational life and recent history of unethical business practices has given rise to public debates concerning organizational responsibility and trust. The advent of virtual organizations and telework has bolstered ethical problems by providing more opportunities for fraudulent behavior and the production of misinformation. Concerted efforts are required to uphold ethical values in advancing new knowledge and tools within societal relations which do not exclude people or limit liberties of some people at the expense of others.

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THE ETHICS OF SUSTAINABILITY

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Areas of techno ethical enquiry:

Techno feminism: Technoethics has concerned itself with society as a general group and made no distinctions between the genders, but must consider technological effects and influences on each gender individually. This is an important consideration as some technologies are created for use by a specific gender and must focus on the individual effects on that gender but still consider the influence on the other gender.. Women are continuously joining the technology field, which is improving and broadening the viewpoints and understanding of the effects of technology on society, more specifically the female experience in society. Information and Communication Technoethics: Information and Communication Technoethics is concerned with ethical issues and responsibilities arising when dealing with information and communication technology in the realm of communication. This involves the consideration of both the changing relationships between humans and technology and the ethics connected with the development and aims of ICTs. Information and Communication Technoethics is related to internet ethics, rational and ethical decision making models and information ethics. A major area of interest is the convergence of technologies. As technologies converge and become more interdependent as well as increase the methods of accessing the same information, they transform society and culture in various ways. Information and Communication Technoethics evaluates whether this convergence creates new ethical dilemmas. Furthermore, it seeks to understand and characterize the need for alterations in ethical frameworks of research structures to capture the essence of the new technologies.

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Educational Technoethics: Technoethical inquiry in the field of education examines how technology impacts the roles and values of education in society. An example of this is the divide created in education between institutions which have access to the internet and the latest technologies, and with them the diversity of audio, visual, and textual material available through the internet, compared with those that do not or possess only outdated equipment. This sort of gap can exist both between the developed and third world as well as between educational institutions within the same countries due to issues of budget and differing priorities. It also considers changes in student values and behavior related to technology.

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Environmental and Engineering Technoethics: Environmental and engineering technoethics is a fairly new brand that is emerging in the field of technoethics. Environmental technoethics originate from the 1960s and 70s' interest in environment and nature. A few examples of areas of concern are: transport, mining, sanitation. Because it is a fairly new area of discipline within technoethics, it focuses on the human use of technologies that may impact the environment.

Organizational and Professional Technoethics

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Focuses on the issue of ethical responsibility for those who work with technology within a professional setting. It is more focused on people in positions who use new technology as a part of their job, for example, engineers, people in the medical profession, etc. According to the Handbook of Research on Technoethics, "Professional technoethics can be understood as identifying and analyzing issues of ethical responsibility for professionals working with technology. Recent advances in technology and their ability to transmit vast amounts of information in a short amount of time has changed the way information is being shared amongst coworkers and managers throughout organizations across the globe. Starting in the 1980s with information and communications technologies (ICTs), organizations have seen an increase in the amount of technology that they rely on to communicate within and outside of the workplace. However, these implementations of technology in the workplace create various ethical concerns and in turn a need for further analysis of technology in organizations. As a result of this growing trend, a subsection of technoethics known as organizational technoethics has emerged to address these issues.

1. Organizational restrictions on social networking One area of technoethics that is growing increasingly popular is organizational ethics and technology. The introduction of

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technology into organizations has fuelled many different questions. Among these many questions is whether or not the technology being used is ethical. Many different case studies have been conducted in organizations around the world. In these case studies, new technology that has been introduced to an organization is examined. During the examination, one ethical question that seems to be a main focus for researchers is whether or not the new technology maintains users privacy.

ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES TILL DATE. One technology that has really grown in popularity in recent years is social networking sites; as many people use sites such as Facebook for personal and professional reasons.

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Organizations all of over the world, including those in the Canadian province of Ontario have begun to block access to Facebook and have led to a criticism of Facebook. For example, in May 2007, Ontario government employees, Federal public servants, MPs and cabinet ministers were blocked from access to Facebook on government computers. Employees trying to access Facebook received a warning message that read "The Internet website that you have requested has been deemed unacceptable for use for government business purposes" The introduction of social networking sites led to use in government offices. With the use of this technology came a fear that government offices would become more vulnerable to viruses and hackers. However, with the government denying the use of these websites in their offices, many ethical questions arise about whether or not denying employees access to something that is readily available to everyone else is an infringement on the employees rights and freedoms as Canadian citizens. This is just one case study of technoethics in organizations that also brings up questions in business ethics as well. 2. Technoethical challenges in medical organizations Another area of organizational technoethics that has been becoming increasingly popular is in the field of medicine. Medical ethics are based on values and judgments in a practical clinical placement where six values are portrayed the most: autonomy, beneficence, nonmalfeasance, justice, dignity, truthfulness and honesty. Many of the issues in medical ethics are due to a lack of communication between the patients, family members, and healthcare team. An asset to medical ethics that has brought attention to its advantages and disadvantages are electronic medical records (EMRs). This is a new way to update, organize and store patients medical records in a database that can be accessible to other doctors by using the network.

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An issue in organizational technoethics in the medical field that is an increasing matter is the privacy issue with electronic medical records. To start, some advantages of EMRs are that they can minimize errors, keep records safe in the database, it is cost efficient, translates into a better treatment for the patients and can even give some control over health records to the patients. On the other hand, EMRs have brought upon some disadvantages mainly around privacy issues. First, it threatens a patients privacy. Having a patients medical history recorded in the database loses the confidentiality between the doctor and patient since anyone who has access to the system is able to retrieve these files.

ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS Moreover, some do not feel their medical records are safe in the database since others are able to get into personal files and potentially change medical records or misuse the information. A group of researchers conducted a study on the privacy issues raised by the use of EMRs. They concluded

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that all electronic systems around us have this one-tomany exchange such as the internet and email just like the EMR system. However, more clarity needs to be provided around patient consent and patient restrictions as well as confidentiality issues. With the issue of privacy at hand, many ethical questions have surfaced on whether this electronic system is safe or a hazard to patients due to the easy access and misuse of a patients information.

JOURNAL OF MEDICAL INFORMATICS

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Current issues

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Digital copyrights are a heated issue because there are so many sides to the discussion. There are ethical considerations surrounding the artist, producer, end user, and the country are intertwined. Not to mention the relationships with other countries and the impact on the use (or no use) of content housed in their countries. In Canada, national laws such as the Copyright Act and the history behind Bill C-32 are just the beginning of the Governments attempt to shape the wild west of Canadian internet activities. The ethical considerations behind internet activities such a peer-to-peer file sharing involve every layer of the discussion the consumer, artist, producer, music/movie/software industry, national government, and international relations. There must also be consideration for the effects that digital laws have had in other countries. Overall, technoethics forces the big picture approach to all discussions on technology in society. Although time consuming, this big picture approach offers some level of reassurance when considering that any law put in place could drastically alter the way we interact with our technology and thus the direction of work and innovation in the country.

Future developments, conclusion:

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The future of Technoethics is a promising, yet evolving field. The studies of e-technology in workplace environments are an evolving trend in Technoethics. With the constant evolution of technology, and innovations coming out daily, technoethics is looking to be a rather promising guiding framework for the ethical assessments of new technologies. Some of the questions regarding technoethics and the workplace environment that have yet to be examined and treated are listed below: Are organizational counter measures not necessary because it invades employee privacy? Are surveillance cameras and computer monitoring devices invasive methods that can have ethical repercussions? Should organizations have the right and power to impose consequences?

Overall, technoethics forces the big picture approach to all discussions on technology in society. Although time consuming, this big picture approach offers some level of reassurance when considering that any law put in place could drastically alter the way we interact with our technology and thus the direction of work and innovation in the country.

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Bibliography

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Wikipedia.com, site url: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technoethics Site url: http://www.eticaepolitica.net/tecnoetica/jmg_technoethics %5Ben%5D.pdf. Site url: http://www.enotes.com/topic/Technoethics. Site url: http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/informationtechnology-and-software-development/9781605669526.
Technoethics and the Evolving Knowledge Society: Ethical Issues in Technological Design, Research, Development, and Innovation By: Rocci Luppicini Publisher: IGI Global.

Book name: