TEACHING ETHICS

WITH A RESEARCH-BASED PERSPECTIVE

Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic
Professor in Computer Science at Mälardalen University and
Professor of Interaction Design at Chalmers University of Technology

Web pages:
http://gordana.se/ Personal
http://www.gordana.se/work/presentations.html

Chalmers University of Technology

https://www.chalmers.se/en/staff/Pages/gordana-dodig-crnkovic.aspx

Mälardalen University
http://www.es.mdh.se/staff/37-Gordana_Dodig_Crnkovic

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Introduction
During more than twenty years, since 2001, I have been teaching students of Computer
Science, Engineering, Interaction Design and occasionally Economics, in the following
courses:
2001-2014 “Professional ethics” at Mälardalen University (Bachelor, MSc and PhD) and
2014-2017 “Research Ethics and Sustainable Development” at Chalmers University of
Technology (PhD, Chalmers).

Even other courses that I have been teaching have important parts dedicated to ethics:
“Emerging trends and Critical Topics in Interaction Design” (Chalmers)
“Human-centered design” (BSc & MSc, Chalmers)
“Research Methods in Natural Sciences and Engineering” (PhD & MSc, MDH)
“Advanced Computational Thinking and Writing Research Toolbox” (2009-2012, MDH)
“Computational Thinking and Writing Research Toolbox” (20012-2013, MDH)
“Information - Knowledge - Science – Ethics” (in Swedish) (2013-2015, MDH)

I have regular guest lectures in Professional Ethics, Ethics of Computing, Ethics of AI,
Design Ethics, Ethics for Cognitive Scientists, Robotic Ethics and Ethics of Autonomous
Cars for different classes of computer science and engineering students.

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In this talk I present lessons learned, illustrated by concrete examples from my courses,
sketching briefly future possibilities.

In developing my courses, I have similar approach to the one presented by Peter Bowden in
the following:

“The course was based on the assumption that identifying the major ethical issues in the
discipline, and subsequently presenting and analysing them in the classroom, would provide
the future professional with knowledge of the ethical problems that they were likely to face on
graduation. The student has then to be given the skills and knowledge to combat these
concerns, should he/she wish to. These findings feed into several components of the course,
such as the code of ethics, the role of a professional society or industry association and the
role of ethical theory. The sources employed to identify the issues were surveys of the
literature and case studies.”

Peter Bowden (2010) Teaching ethics to engineers – a research-based perspective.

European Journal of Engineering Education 35(5):563-572 DOI: 10.1080/03043797.2010.497549
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Ethics Publications in Collaboration with my Students

● Holstein, T., Dodig-Crnkovic, G., & Pelliccione, P. (2021). Steps Towards Real-world Ethics for Self-
driving Cars: Beyond the Trolley Problem. In Steven John Thompson (Ed.), Machine Law, Ethics,
and Morality in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. IGI Global
● Dodig-Crnkovic, G., Holstein, T., & Pelliccione, P. (2021). Future Intelligent Autonomous Robots,
Ethical by Design. Learning from Autonomous Cars Ethics. https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.08122
● Holstein, T., Dodig-Crnkovic, G., & Pelliccione, P. (2020). Real-world Ethics for Self-Driving Cars. In
Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE ’20) Poster
Track. https://ethics.se
● Holstein, T. Dodig-Crnkovic G. (2018) Avoiding the Intrinsic Unfairness of the Trolley Problem.
Avoiding the Intrinsic Unfairness of the Trolley Problem, FairWare '18: Proceedings of
the IEEE/ACM International Workshop on Software Fairness, Gothenburg, May 2018, pp. 32-37.
doi: 10.23919/FAIRWARE.2018.8452918 https://dblp.org/db/conf/icse/fairware2018.html
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3194770.3194772
● Holstein, T. Dodig-Crnkovic G. and Pelliccione P. (2018) Ethical and Social Aspects of Self-Driving
Cars, http://arxiv.org/abs/1802.04103
● Johnsen A.*, Dodig-Crnkovic G., Lundqvist K., Hänninen K., Pettersson P. Risk-based Decision-
making Fallacies: Why Present Functional Safety Standards Are Not Enough. MARCH2017
International Workshop on decision Making in Software Architecture @ ICSA 2017 Gothenburg,
Sweden. 04.04.2017. Published in: Software Architecture Workshops (ICSAW), 2017 IEEE
International Conference. DOI: 10.1109/ICSAW.2017.50

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Ethics Publications in Collaboration with my Students

● Dodig-Crnkovic G. and Çürüklü B. Robots - Ethical by Design, Ethics and Information

Technology 2011, Volume 14, Number 1, pp. 61-71.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/f432g33181787u63/fulltext.html
● Irfan Šljivo, Elena Lisova, Sara Afshar (2017) Agent-Centred Approach for Assuring Ethics in
Dependable Service Systems. 2017 IEEE World Congress on Services (SERVICES), Legal, Social
and Ethical Aspects of Services Science. pp. 51-58
● Dodig-Crnkovic, G. and Sapienza, G.*, Ethical Aspects of Technology in the Multi-Criteria
Decision Analysis. IACAP conference, Ferrara, June 14-17, 2016.
● Sapienza, G.*, Dodig-Crnkovic, G. and Crnkovic, I. Inclusion of Ethical Aspects in Multi-Criteria
Decision Analysis. Proc. WICSA and CompArch conference. Decision Making in Software
ARCHitecture (MARCH), 2016 1st International Workshop. Venice April 5-8 2016. DOI:
10.1109/MARCH.2016.5, ISBN: 978-1-5090-2573-2. IEEE
● Jägemar, M.* and Dodig-Crnkovic, G. Cognitively Sustainable ICT with Ubiquitous Mobile
Services - Challenges and Opportunities. In Proceedings of the 37th International Conference
on Software Engineering - ICSE '15, Vol. 2. IEEE Press, NJ, USA, 531-540.
● Thekkilakattil, A.* and Dodig-Crnkovic, G., Ethics Aspects of Embedded and Cyber-Physical
Systems In IEEE Proceedings of COMPSAC 2015: The 39th Annual International Computers,
Software & Applications Conference, Symposium on Embedded & Cyber-Physical
Environments (ECPE). Taichung, Taiwan - July 1-5, pp. 39-44, 2015. DOI:
10.1109/COMPSAC.2015.41
● Backhaus P.* and Dodig-Crnkovic G., Wikileaks and Ethics of Whistle Blowing, Proceedings
IACAP 2011. The computational Turn: Past, Presents, Futures?, p 332, Mv-Wissenschaft,
Münster, Århus University, Danmark, Editor(s): Charles Ess and Ruth Hagengruber, July 2011 5
Ethics Publications in Collaboration with my Students

● Çürüklü B., Dodig-Crnkovic G., Akan B., Towards Industrial Robots with Human Like Moral
Responsibilities, 5th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, Osaka,
Japan, March, 2010
● Georgieva M.* and Dodig-Crnkovic G., Who Will Have Irresponsible, Untrustworthy, Immoral
Intelligent Robot?, Proceedings IACAP 2011. The Computational Turn: Past, Presents, Futures?, p
129, Mv-Wissenschaft, Münster, Århus University, Danmark, Eds.:Charles Ess and Ruth
Hagengruber, July 2011
● Ceren Ahiska* (2010) Computer-Mediated Human Manipulation and Uniqueness of Computer
Ethics - http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/comphil/2009/CAP-FINAL/CerenAhiska-final.pdf -
Presented at ECAP 2010
● Robert Gawrylczyk* (2010) Should Robots That Interact With Humans Look Like Humans? -
http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/comphil/2009/CAP-FINAL/GawrylczykRobert_final.pdf Presented
at ECAP 2010
● Dodig-Crnkovic G. and Anokhina M*., Workplace Gossip and Rumor: The Information Ethics
Perspective, Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference ETHICOMP 2008, Living, Working
And Learning Beyond Technology, T W Bynum, M C Calzarossa, I De Lotto and S Rogerson,
(Editors)
● Dodig-Crnkovic G., Horniak V*., Ethics and Privacy of Communications in the e-Polis, Information
Security and Ethics: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications Edited By: Hamid Nemati,
2008
● Dodig-Crnkovic G., Horniak V.*, Ethics and Privacy of Communications in the e-Polis,
Encyclopedia of Digital Government, Idea Group Reference, July 25, 2006
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 Ethics Publications in Collaboration with my Students

● Dodig-Crnkovic G., Horniak V.*, Togetherness and Respect - Ethical Concerns of Privacy in Global
Web Societies. Special Issue of AI & Society: The Journal of Human-Centred Systems and Machine
Intelligence, on "Collaborative Distance Activities: From Social Cognition to Electronic
Togetherness”, CT. Schmidt Ed., Vol 20 No.3, 2006
● Dodig-Crnkovic G., and Thomas Larsson*, Game Ethics - Homo Ludens as a Computer Game
Designer and Consumer. International Journal of Information Ethics, Special Issue on The Ethics of E-
Games, Vol. 4 - December 2005
● Dodig-Crnkovic G. and Horniak V.*, Good to Have Someone Watching Us from a Distance? Privacy
vs. Security at the Workplace. Ethics of New Information Technology, Proceedings of the Sixth
International Conference of Computer Ethics: Philosophical Enquiry, CEPE 2005, July 17- 19, 2005,
University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands; Brey P, Grodzinsky F and Introna L, Eds.
http://cepe2005.utwente.nl/
● Magnus Larsson, Predicting Quality Attributes in Component-based Software Systems, PhD Thesis,
Mälardalen University Press, Sweden, ISBN: 91-88834-33-6, 2004 (Chapter on ethics aspects)
● Stig Larsson, Improving Software Product Integration, Licentiate Thesis, Mälardalen University Press,
Sweden, ISBN 91-88834-65-4, 2005 (Chapter on ethics aspects)

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Doctoral Symposium @is4si conference 2017 –
Papers written by my students based on their course essays

● Hamid Reza Faragardi (2017) Ethical Considerations in Cloud Computing Systems.

Proceedings. 1. 166. 10.3390/IS4SI-2017-04016.
● Tobias Holstein (2017) The Misconception of Ethical Dilemmas in Self-Driving
Cars. Proceedings. 1. 166. 10.3390/IS4SI-2017-04016.
● Markus Wallmyr (2017) Exploring interaction design with information intense
heavy vehicles. Proceedings. 1. 166. 10.3390/IS4SI-2017-04016.
● Salome Maro (2017) The automotive domain - From Multi-disciplinarity to
Transdisciplinarity. Proceedings. 1. 166. 10.3390/IS4SI-2017-04016.
● Hawa Nyende (2017) Predicting pregnancy complications in low resource contexts
- A case study of maternal healthcare in Uganda. Proceedings. 1. 166.
10.3390/IS4SI-2017-04016.
● Göran Smith (2017) Ethical aspects of pursuing participatory research as an
industrial doctoral student. Proceedings. 1. 166. 10.3390/IS4SI-2017-04016.
● Daniel Kade (2015) Ethics of Virtual Reality Applications in Computer Game
Production. Philosophies 1 (1), 73-86

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Doctoral Symposium @is4si conference 2017 –
Papers written by my students based on their course essays

● Hawa Nyende (2017) Predicting pregnancy complications in low resource contexts

- A case study of maternal healthcare in Uganda. Proceedings. 1. 166.
10.3390/IS4SI-2017-04016.
● Göran Smith (2017) Ethical aspects of pursuing participatory research as an
industrial doctoral student. Proceedings. 1. 166. 10.3390/IS4SI-2017-04016.
● Daniel Kade (2015) Ethics of Virtual Reality Applications in Computer Game
Production. Philosophies 1 (1), 73-86
● Linda Sebek (2013) Assistive Environment: The Why and What. APA Computing
and Philosophy journal

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Articles From The Course Computing And Philosophy
Computing and Philosophy course started in 2004nas Swedish National Course, developed as a
result of collaboration in a research network PI (Torbjörn Lager, Joakim Nivre, Jan Odelstad,
Björn Lisper, Peter Funk, Jan Gustafsson, Ulla Ahonen-Jonnarth, Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic).
Participants from different universities (Blekinge, Dalarna, Mälardalen, Skövde, Uppsala) have
taken part in the course. They have presented their research papers at the Mini-conference.
Several articles written for the course have been accepted for international conferences and
published otherwise.
Afterwards, several years, the CAP course was held in collaboration with the University of Illinois
Springfield (Peter Boltuc) with guest lecturers Luciano Floridi, Erik Sandewall, Lars-Göran
Johansson, Vincent Müller and others).

Thomas Larsson Ethics of the Hyperreal

Magnus Johansson When Simulations Become Reality
Kim Anttila Ethics in the Computer Profession
Mikael Sandberg Gender Distribution Normalization in the Computer Game
Development Arena
Omar Bagdadi Is Big Brother a Human Necessity?
Virginia Horniak Privacy of Computing – An Ethical Analysis

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Articles From The Course Computing And Philosophy

Christina Björkman (2005) Feminist Theory in Computer Science - Chapter as a part

of the PhD thesis, Crossing Boundaries, Focusing Foundations, Trying Translations:
Feminist Technoscience Strategies in Computer Science
https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A837505&dswid=1692

Two MSc students presenting at ECAP-2010 conference:

Ceren Ahiska (2010) Computer-Mediated Human Manipulation and Uniqueness of
Computer Ethics, http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/comphil/2009/CAP-
FINAL/CerenAhiska-final.pdf. ECAP-2010 conference

Robert Gawrylczyk (2010) Should Robots That Interact With Humans Look Like
Humans? http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/comphil/2009/CAP-
FINAL/GawrylczykRobert_final.pdf ECAP2010 conference

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EXPERIENCES FROM MY TEACHING OF ETHICS

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AN EXAMPLE OF AN INTRODUCTORY LECTURE
FOR PHD STUDENTS IN SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
WITH FOCUS ON AUTOMATION - August 2018

Ramaswamy S., Joshi H. (2009)

Automation and Ethics.
In: Nof S. (eds) Springer Handbook
of Automation. Springer, Berlin,
Heidelberg
Topics with ethics relevance which students
identified in the questionnaire
– technology aspects
Data-related Sustainability-related
● Data provenance (attribution, background) ● Fuel economy, lower emissions, reduced
● Data confidentiality take-off and landing noise
● Data privacy ● Environmental contributions of battery
● Public understanding of technology and production, use and disposal
protection of private data ● Environmental impact of massive electronic
● Data quality, property and equality production
● Data-driven approaches ● Increasing demand of rare elements
● Reproducibility of real time datasets ● Lack of life cycle assessment
● Data is never ”neutral” ● Rebound effect
● Data collection influences behavior ● Digital sustainability?
● Data-streching used in political purpose
● security and reliability of the IoT devices
● ”Surplus data” from screening of patients
that can reveal much more
● Transparency vs. quality 14
Topics with ethics relevance you identified
- methodology aspects
● Values ● OPEN SCIENCE
● The method ● Simulation compared to real experiments
● Epistemic problems related work - ● Making connection between qualitative and
acknowledging its limitations quantitative information
● Reducing reality into a model, with loss of ● Application of the complex system in
depth and variety of perspectives? Landscape studies
● Marginalizing the designer in the design ● Reproduciblility
process? ● System's performance almost always
● Level of transparency is acceptable for an evaluated in isolation [QUESTION OF
automated tool? INTERPRETATION OF RESEARCH
● Should we rely on automated tools if we RESULTS]
consider the intrinsic limits of the learning ● Authors do not verify their results thoroughly
process? enough, or they hide complications
● Data-driven development methodology ● THE REVIEW PROCESS IS NOT DOUBLE-
● genetic discrimination BLIND
● genetic modification/engineering ● Presentation of results (overemphasizing of
● Tradeoff between safety and innovation their importance)
● Value of an intervention compared to other
applications
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Topics with ethics relevance students
identified - social aspects
● Professional societies/organisations and
● Cultural diversity ● Codes of Ethics
● Professional conduct ● Popular presentation of research and public
● Gender equality opinion about research
● Quality of life ● Informing the politics about possibilities and
● Impact of technology on society at large challenges of research
● Is the purpose of the analysis relevant enough
to expose the users to privacy loss?
● Designing technology that could reduce the
need for human employees?
● Entrusting the machine to define culturally
relevant spaces for our cities?
● Legal issues related to copyright
infringement
● Involving stakeholders/users
● Trust between stakeholders?

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 Topics that interest me currently:
Ethics of AI

https://citp.princeton.edu/event/ai-and-ethics/ 17
 Topics that interest me currently:
Ethics in autonomous cars

https://webcasts.weforum.org/widget/1/china2018?p=1&pi=1&th=1&id=a0W0X00000CIawBUAT&auto=1
Decisioon making by algorithms

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Topics that interest me currently:
Gender issues in ICT

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Ethical issues move technology forward

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 CACM August 2018
● INFORMATICS EUROPE AND ACM EUROPE COUNCIL Regulating Automated Decision Making
● CERF'S UP Traceability -workshop on cybersecurity was how to preserve the freedom and
openness of the Internet while protecting against the harmful behaviors
● LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Encourage ACM to Address U.S. Election Integrity
● In the spirit of Moshe Y. Vardi's call for ACM to ". . . be more active in addressing social
responsibility issues raised by computing technology," we urge the ACM U.S. Public Policy
Council to undertake a study of the technological …CACM Staff
● BLOG@CACM Assessing Responsibility for Program Output
● We lack an easy way to indicate that algorithms do not make decisions and are not biased;
programmers do, and are. Robin K. Hill
● Animals Teach Robots to Find Their Way
● Navigation research demonstrates bio-machine symbiosis. Chris Edwards
Electronics Are Leaving the Plane Stacking chips and connecting them vertically
● Broadening the Path for Women in STEM - Organizations work to address 'a notable absence of
women in the field.'Esther Shein
● GLOBAL COMPUTING Designing Sustainable Rural Infrastructure Through the Lens of
OpenCellular
● EDUCATION Providing Equitable Access to Computing Education
● Seeking the best measures to reach advantaged and less-advantaged students equally. Mark Guzdial, Amy
Bruckman
● COLUMN: KODE VICIOUS Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud

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https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2018/8
The topic is huge – Introduction to Ethics
What this lecture can do is to open the window with a view

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mercolino/3424888900 22
 Facing Grand Challenges
“The global community is facing Grand Challenges. The European
Knowledge Society must tackle these through the best analysis,
powerful actions and increased resources. Challenges must turn into
sustainable solutions (…) ” The Lund Declaration, 2009 [1]

Natural challenges: Global warming, Insufficient supplies of energy,

water and food, Ageing societies, Public health, pandemics, Security,
Environmental degradation

Unintended consequences of technology: AGI (artificial general

intelligence), Nano-technology, Biotechnology/Bioinformatics, Autonomous
machinery and control: Big data, Internet of things – internet of everything,
Intelligent cities, Autonomous cars, Autonomous intelligent software as
control physical systems, information systems etc.
…
The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (University of Cambridge; http://cser.org

Education of new generations of engineers often focus on training abstract skills without careful consideration of
the role of embeddedness of technology into context.
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Responsible Research and Innovation

Global challenges and opportunities prompted

Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), defined as:

“a transparent, interactive process by which societal actors and

innovators become mutually responsive to each other with a view
to the (ethical) acceptability, sustainability and societal desirability
of the innovation process and its marketable products (in order to
allow a proper embedding of scientific and technological advances
in our society).“
Von Schomberg

Education of future engineers should follow!

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 Facing Grand Challenges:
The University of the Future

The transformation of “ivory

tower” context-independent to
socially-aware paradigm in increasingly
information-rich knowledge-based societies.

The triple helix model connects:

–ACADEMIC
–INDUSTRY/BUSINESS
–GOVERMENT

Inspired by biology: THE TRIPLE HELIX

https://inquiryumn.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/triple-helix.png
Gene, Organism, and Environment by Richard Lewontin

25
 Science with and for society
work programme
Societal challenges for the 2020 are formulated in the Science with and
for Society work programme, meant to

“help build effective cooperation between science and society, to recruit

new talent for science and to pair scientific excellence with social
awareness and responsibility”

This new approach encourages all stakeholders (involved citizens,

researchers, business, policy makers, etc.) to interact throughout the
research and innovation process and to coordinate and align both the
process and its outcomes with societal values and needs, in accordance
with Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI).

Societal values and needs: sustainability, safety, privacy, equity, diversity,

etc.

https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/h2020-section/science-and-society 26
Organizational adaptation in the era
of complexity and continuous change
A necessity of defining social/organizational responsibility in addition to
customary personal responsibility [7].

We should take into account both intended and unintended

consequences of research and technology in a preferably anticipatory
and learning process that will in the first place prevent incidents and
accidents and in the worst case mitigate their consequences, [8-13].

Contemporary global society is organized in networks of networks of

interacting agents. Each individual belongs to a variety of networks,
which define their different roles as stakeholders in various aspects of
research and technology. In this context complexity and trans-
disciplinarity /inter-disciplinarity comes as an important aspect of
research and development.

Values, priorities, actions are negotiated by stakeholders, globally.

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 Educating engineers for the future

We are educating engineers that will solve future problems

Future is already at our doors: it comes in form of

digitalisation that is going to radically change our
technology and society

Choices are made all the time in the design and

engineering and sensitivity to consequences of choices is
needed – involves moral judgment.

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Terminological clarification:
Ethics and Morality

The terms ethics and morality are often used interchangeably

- indeed, they usually can mean the same thing, and in
everyday conversation there isn't a problem with switching
between one and the other.

However, there is a distinction between them in philosophy!

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 Ethics and Morality, etymology

Morality and ethics have the same roots, mores which means
manner and customs from the Latin and etos which means custom
and habits from the Greek. (Robert Louden, Morality and Moral
Theory)

Strictly speaking, morality is used to refer to what we would call

moral conduct while ethics is used to refer to the formal study of
moral conduct.

Ethics is also often called moral philosophy.

30
 Ethics and Morality, in short

● MORALITY - PRACTICE: first-order set of beliefs and practices about

how to live a good life.

● ETHICS - THEORY: a second-order, conscious reflection on the

adequacy of our moral beliefs.

In a presentation at Chalmers in October 2015, ethicist Prof. Ibo van de Poel

from TU Delft in the Netherlands suggested that the students need to
develop the following ”moral competences”:

- Moral sensibility
- Moral analysis skills
- Moral creativity
- Moral judgment skills
- Moral decision-making skills
- Moral argumentation skills 31
 Societal normative systems

LAW
LAW

ETHICS
ETHICS

MORAL

MORAL

32
 Ethics as continuum
- An ongoing conversation

● World changes constantly, and we have to interpret/construe it

over and over again.

● We come back to ideas again and again, finding new meaning

in them.

● Professional discussions of ethical issues in journals.

See http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/e/ethics.htm Ethics

33
What to expect from Ethics

Functions of theory:
● Describe (What?)
● Explain (Why?)
● Prescribe (How?)
● Support (Yes, we can!)
● Open new possibilities and insights
● Wonder – move on exploring ethical aspects

34
On what ethical basis do people
typically make moral decisions?

- Divine Command Theories

- Utilitarianism (Consequentialism)
The action is best, which procures the greatest happiness for the
greatest number…
- Virtue Ethics
Maximize virtue, minimize vices

35
On what ethical basis do people
make moral decisions?

● The Ethics of Duty (Deontological* Ethics)

● Immanuel Kant’s Moral Theory. The categorical imperative: --
“Act so that the maxim [determining motive of the will] may be
capable of becoming a universal law for all rational beings."
● Ethical Egoism
● Ayn Rand, The Ethics of Selfishness
Well known for her novels, especially, Atlas Shrugged
● “Macciavelism” – "The end justifies the means"
Nicollo Macchiavelli (The Prince) - rationalization of war

* ‘deon’ = duty 36
On what ethical basis do people
make moral decisions?

● The Ethics of Natural and Human Rights –

all people are created ...with certain basic rights
● Social Contract Ethics (We agree to be civil to one another under
threat of punishment from a government established for this
purpose. [Plato, Republic. Thomas Hobbes])
● Evolutionary Ethics – Being social increases our chances to
survive

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POLICY VACUUMS
Ethics of present-day technology and
developing society – example of Computer Ethics
“A typical problem in computer ethics arises because there is a policy
vacuum about how computer technology should be used. Computers
provide us with new capabilities and these in turn give us new choices
for action. Often, either no policies for conduct in these situations exist
or existing policies seem inadequate. A central task of computer ethics
is to determine what we should do in such cases, i.e., to formulate
policies to guide our actions. Of course, some ethical situations
confront us as individuals and some as a society. Computer ethics
includes consideration of both personal and social policies for the
ethical use of computer technology.”

Moor, J, 1985. “What is Computer Ethics”, Metaphilosophy 16(4): 266-

75.http://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/~rogaway/classes/188/spring06/papers/moor.html
The question of values

Too often, new technology

develops with little attention
to its impact upon human
values

39
VALUES AND ETHICS IN KNOWLEDGE
PRODUCTION

Based on the article:

Nancy Tuana (2015)

Coupled Ethical-Epistemic Analysis in Teaching
Ethics. Critical reflection on value choices.
CACM VOL. 500 NO. 12. Pages 27-29

http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2015/12/194630-coupled-ethical-epistemic-analysis-in-teaching-ethics/abstract
40
 ETHICAL-EPISTEMIC* ANALYSIS
How values and priorities affect knowledge production

“Computer experts aren’t just building and manipulating

hardware, software, and code, they are building systems that
help to achieve important social functions, systems that
constitute social arrangements, relationships, institutions.
computer experts can facilitate and constrain behavior, and
materialize social values.”
Deborah Johnson

Values serve as a guide to action and knowledge.

Epistemology-the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge.
41
 Values in knowledge production

KNOWLEDGE

VALUES VALUES

SCIENCE
INFORMATION

VALUES VALUES

DATA
42
 VALUES

V a l u e s serve as a g u i d e t o a c t i o n a n d
k n o w l e d g e . They are relevant to all aspects of scientific
and engineering practice, including discovery, analysis, and
application.

Cognitive scientists have found v a l u e s to be integral parts of

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
research.

TUANA. COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM | DECEMBER 2015 | VOL. 58 | NO. 12 43

 TYPES OF VALUES

Various types of values can be involved in decision making and

reasoning:

- ethical values (the good of society, equity, sustainability)

- aesthetic values (simplicity, elegance, complexity), or
- epistemic values (predictive power, reliability,
coherence, scope).
- economic values, etc.

44
 Code of conduct for research integrity basic
principles - values
Reliability in ensuring the quality of research, reflected in the design, the
methodology, the analysis and the use of resources.

Honesty in developing, undertaking, reviewing, reporting and communicating

research in a transparent, fair, full and unbiased way.

Respect for colleagues, research participants, society, ecosystems, cultural

heritage and the environment.

Accountability for the research from idea to publication, for its management
and organisation, for training, supervision and mentoring, and for its wider
impacts

The European Science Foundations Code of Conduct for Research Integrity

https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/hi/h2020-ethics_code-of-conduct_en.pdf45
Values related to risks

● Reliability
● Safety
● Security
● Privacy
● Human well-being

Peter Neumann (1994) Computer-Related Risks. Addison-Wesley ACM Press Series

46
VALUES IN RESEARCH
– THE CHOICES WE MAKE
● The selection of research topics. What is a good basis for
( We get involved with existing research. Or we get funding for a specific
research. Or we choose freely. Why is this research worth our time and effort?)

● Choice of approach, methodology, tools. What are the values

of a model, hypothesis, or theoretical explanation in providing
convincing explanation?

● Judgment of the support for a research result. What values of

evidence constitute robust evidence?

● How are ethical aspects of research taken care of?

47
 REQUIREMENT FOR TRANSPARENCY OF
VALUES
Transparency of values is essential for trustworthiness and
credibility of research. It is central to transdisciplinary
research such as e.g., the National Science Foundation’s
Sustainability Research Network on Sustainable Climate
Risk Management (SCRiM, http://scrimhub.org).

Coupled ethical-epistemic analysis helps to identify new

and refined research topics, and inform modeling for multi-
objective, robust decision making.

48
 Ethical IT innovation: a value-based system
design approach

Sarah Spiekermann:

IEEE P7000
The first global
standard process for
addressing ethical
concerns in system
design

https://www.crcpress.com/Ethical-IT-Innovation-A-Value-Based-System-Design-
Approach/Spiekermann/p/book/9781482226355#googlePreviewContainer 49
STAKEHOLDERS AND DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
World seen in different light

What if we could see in any wavelength of the electromagnetic

spectrum, from gamma-rays to radio waves? How would the world
appear to us?
50
 STAKEHOLDERS IN AN ACADEMIC RESEARCH PROJECT

International
Academic research
community Professional
Research Organizations
Communities Societies

Academia Financing
bodies
Family, PhD Research
Relatives, Student group
Friends
(Private Sphere)
PhD
Advisors Society at Large

Nature
 STAKEHOLDERS IN AN INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH PROJECT

Industry
(Other firms)
Clients Profession
Consumers (Societies)

Engineering firm
Family,
Relatives, Engineer Colleagues
Friends Society at Large
(Private Sphere)

Managers
Nature
HUMAN COGNITIVE BIASES

53
 The informational model of moral action - Floridi

(Set of) 1./2. Objects (Agent - Patient) 4. Shell (Subjective Info-frame encapsulation)

activates information affects

A1 process
2 P
5
5 3

6
7

5. Factual information 7. Infosphere 3. Message 6. Envelope

(Moral Situation)
 The informational model of moral action - Floridi
Moral action = information process

Stimuli Operations
Actions Functions
Procedure
agent interaction patient
messages methods

data structures constituting the nature of the entity in question (state of

the object, its unique identity, and attributes)

Floridi, L. A defence of informational structural realism. Synthese 161, 219–253 (2008).

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-007-9163-z

Floridi's informational structural realist basis for info-computational modelling of cognizing agents. Gordana
Dodig-Crnkovic Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence
Volume 27, 2015 - Issue 1: Inforgs and the Infosphere: Themes from Luciano Floridi’s Philosophy of Artificial
Intelligence
Ethical sensitivity

Why must scientists become more ethically sensitive than

they used to be? John Ziman 1998

“Academic science” vs. “Industrial science”

Academic science basically individualistic, following
Merton norms (1942) Science as free “speech community.”

“The only constraint—an immensely powerful one in practice—was

that the results of their research would be closely scrutinized by
other members of one of the innumerable specialized research
communities that partition the scientific world.” [PEER REVIEW]

56
“Mode 1” and “Mode 2” research
Mode 1, classical academic
Mode 2, collaboration with industry and society,
usually undertaken as a succession of projects, each
justified in advance to a funding body whose
members are usually not scientists.
Important feature of “mode-2” science is that it is
largely the work of teams of scientists, often
networked over several different institutions.
Where, then, do the ethical responsibilities lie?

OPEN QUESTION: HOW DO WE INVOLVE ALL IMPORTANT STAKEHOLDERS

AND HOW TO NEGOTIATE COMMON SOLUTIONS? (THINKING IN TERMS OF
COMPLEX SOCIO-TECHNOLOGICAL NETWORKS)

57
ETHICS IN RESEARCH

The state of the art in today’s research

and society

Peer Review, by AJC1, Flickr.com 58

 Domains of research Ethics

Is it true?
1. Scientific integrity
Society
Is it fair?
“MacroEthics” 2. Collegiality
Scientific 3. Protection of human
Subject community subjects
4.Animal welfare
“MicroEthics”
5. Institutional integrity
“MezoEthics”
Is it wise?
6. Social responsibility

Kenneth D. Pimple (2002) “Six Domains of Research Ethics. A Heuristic Framework for the Responsible Conduct of
Research”. Science and Engineering Ethics 8 , 191-205
59
 Micro – Meso – Exo – Macro Domains

You will recognize this domain-based view in the analysis of many

different types of problems – organization of society, sustainability of
cities, ecology, economics, ethical aspects etc.
Source: American Psychological Association website 60
 Complexity aspects relating
Micro – Meso – Exo – Macro
levels of analysis – example of city

A holarchy, in the terminology of Arthur

Koestler, is a connection between holons,
where a holon is both a part and a whole. The
term was coined in Koestler's 1967 book The
Ghost in the Machine.

61
http://www.newsociety.com/Books/I/Integral-City
EXAMPLE OF DOCUMENTS ADDRESSING
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Future Intelligent Autonomous Systems

The IEEE Global Initiative for Ethical Considerations

in Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems

http://standards.ieee.org/develop/indconn/ec/autonomous_systems.html

Prioritizing human well being in the age of artificial

intelligence: https://youtu.be/z5yZU8tp9W8 (5:56)

62
EXAMPLE OF DOCUMENTS ADDRESSING
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The European Science Foundations Code of Conduct for Research Integrity

https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/hi/h2020-ethics_code-of-conduct_en.pdf
63
PROFESSIONAL ETHICS COURSE
AT MÄLARDALEN UNIVERSITY
SWEDEN

64
PROFESSIONAL ETHICS COURSE
7.5 ECTS

Mälardalen University, Sweden

Gordana Dodig Crnkovic

Mälardalen University, Sweden
http://www.es.mdh.se/staff/37-Gordana_Dodig_Crnkovic
https://www.mdh.se/staff?id=gdc01

65
 LECTURES
Professional Ethics in Science and Engineering, CD5590

Teacher and examiner: Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic , [email protected]

Time & Place: Monday & Thursday, 13:15 - 15:00, Classroom V220 (V222 on 11-27 and 12-05)

DATE TOPIC
GETTING STARTED. Course Preliminaries.
3 Nov Introduction. Administrivia.
L1 Identifying Moral Issues
Basic Moral Orientations
METHODS AND TOOLS OF ANALYSIS OF ETHICAL
6 Nov ARGUMENT
L2 Philosophical Foundations of Ethics
Ethical Relativism, Absolutism and Pluralism
The Ethics of Conscience
10 Nov The Ethical Egoism
L3 The Ethics of Duty
The Ethics of Respect

66
 The Ethics of Consequences: Utilitarianism
13 Nov
The Ethics of Rights
L4
The Ethics of Justice
17 Nov The Ethics of Character
L5 The Ethics and Gender

PROFESSIONAL AND ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES

20 Nov
Codes of Ethics. Whistle Blowing
L6/E1
In-class activity: CASE STUDIES (Jessica, Karin, Henrik)
Beehives

24 Nov ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS

L7/E2 In-class activity: CASE STUDIES (Teresa, Said)
Beehives

27 Nov GUEST LECTURE BY PETER FUNK

L8 AI and Ethics

01 Dec GUEST LECTURE BY KERSTI MALMSTEN

L9 Nursing and Medical Ethics

67
 04 Dec PRIVACY AND CIVIL LIBERTIES
L10/E3 In-class activity: CASE STUDIES (Virginia, Jörgen)
Beehives

GUEST LECTURE BY MONIKA EIBORN

05 Dec
Nuclear Non-proliferation and Ethics
L11 Nucleus 02 2003 side 39

RISKS IN TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE

08 Dec PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE
L12/E4
In-class activity: CASE STUDIES (Jonas, Balaji, Artur)
Beehives

11 Dec INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

L13/E5 In-class activity: CASE STUDIES (Magnus, Jens)
Beehives

12 Dec COMPUTER GAMES AND ENTERTAINMENT

L14/ E6 In-class activity: CASE STUDIES (Thomas, Kim)
Beehives

15 Dec
COURSE WRAP-UP
L15

TAKE-HOME
RESEARCH PAPER + CLASS NOTES
EXAM
68
RESEARCH ETHICS & SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
CHALMERS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
SWEDEN
69
 Chalmers University of Technology & University of Gothenburg

Research Ethics & Sustainable Development

3.0 ECTS

GFOK025

Day 1 Part 1 – Course Introduction

Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic
 Learning Outcomes
The aims of this course are to:
1) understand the nature and range of ethical issues in
research and sustainable development;
2) understand what is meant by sustainable development and
potential implications for research, in particular in the own
research project;
3) familiarize with a framework for decision making when faced
with ethical issues and
4) appreciate the complex relation between science and
society.
 Assessment of the Outcomes

A successful completion of this course will be judged on the

following:
1. Attendance and preparation for the in-class discussions.
2. Writing an essay describing ethical and sustainability aspects of the PhD
research project (or equivalent) of the participant. It is based on the
interviews with at least two stakeholders.
3. Participation in a peer review seminar in which you give feedback on
other graduate students essays and receive feedback on your own essay.
4. Group work preparing presentations for the Mini-conference.
5. A Mini-conference with “lightning talk” presentations of individual essays,
common group conclusions and the subsequent class discussion.
 Course Overview

Problems & Principles Assignmen

Day 1 Course intro & Ethics (Gordana) t and
Sustainable Development (Magdalena) readings

Science and Society Assignmen

Day 2 Research Policy (Sven) t and
Publishing Ethics & Societal Aspects readings
of Technology (Guest lectures)
 Course Overview

Peer Review Meeting Essay

Day 3
for SD-RE Essays SD-RE
(Class in Review Groups)

Preparation for
Day 4 Group Meetings the Mini-
(Class, preparation for Mini-conf.) conference
 Course Overview

“Lightning talk”
individual
Day 5
Mini-conference presentations;
group conclusions
(Class, Gordana)
followed by the
1 2 3 4 | 5 6 7 8 class discussion
EXAMINATION FORMS IN MY
ETHICS COURSES

● INDIVIDUAL CLASS-NOTES – WHAT DID I FIND INTERESTING IN THIS

LECTURE – STUDENTS OWN REFLECTIONS

● IN-CLASS PRESENTATION OF A CHOSEN TOPIC (students choose

topic from their research or for undergrads, topics that interest them)

● RESEARCH PAPER, WITH THE AIM TO PRESENT AT A CONFERENCE

OR PUBLISH IN A JOURNAL

● PRESENTATION ON THE MINI-CONFERENCE (IN CLASS)

76
CHALLENGES AND
THE FUTURE PROSPECTS
● In the beginning, it was not easy to develop a course on ethics for
students of computing and engineering. There was “no place” for
yet another course in the curriculum. There was no feeling of
urgency which gradually formed with recent huge advances of AI.

● We hope with this project to change the situation and encourage

and support colleagues by exchange of experiences and resources
for course development

● In the future, given impressive development of intelligent, nano-,

bio-, neuro- medical- and other emerging technologies that can
radically change our personal lives and the whole civilization, in
which computing professionals are heavily involved, it is of central
importance that professionals contribute to our common
knowledge about features and possibilities of emerging
technologies.

77
SOME CONCLUSIONS
What I find important is
● Relevance of ethics for students own context
● Applicability and generalizability of approaches from what is learned
● Humble teaching attitude – no preaching and no besserwisser (know-all) style
● Using authority/power with utmost care
● Ethics is not about being perfect but being as good as reasonably possible, given human
cognitive constraints
● Introducing students to the world of research and real-world ethics
● Cultivating analytic-synthetic thinking, logic argument
● Respect for different positions/traditions/cultures, stakeholders
● Arguing for necessity of understanding the subject-matter (technology) in order to make
informed judgements
● Topics good to be chosen by students/discussed with students
● Interdisciplinarity/Transdisciplinarity center-stage
● Keeping in mind – we are educating for the FUTURE – identifying seeds of future
developments and adressing their promises and challenges
● T-SHAPED ENGINEERS – deep in technology, broad in humanities (Barry Bohm)

78
 SOME CONCLUSIONS
● Bringing in guest lecturers with relevant experiences
team-work, networking
● Sharing experiences in peer-review meetings & group work

Experiences from the course

”Research Ethics and Sustainable
Development” at Chalmers

79
REFERENCES

References in full text can be found on my web page:

http://gordana.se/

80