12 - The ethics of IT-artefacts

Summary

Introduction

We act through information technology (IT), are restrained by it, use it to influence people, to express ourselves, and so on. IT has an enormous impact on our (moral) lives. IT is a generic notion that encompasses many things from computers, the components that computers are made of, the software that runs on the computers to hard disks. As these IT-artefacts become more and more sophisticated and embedded in our lives the question arises what the moral status is of these IT artefacts. That they do have moral impact seems self-evident but can they be said to act morally? Do they deserve moral consideration when we humans act? And might it be possible that IT-artefacts can reason morally? The idea might seem far-fetched but it is considered as a topic of philosophical and engineering research. If such a thing is possible, which is far from an established fact, is it something we should want, or rather the opposite, something that should be avoided because it would allow humans to ‘hide’ behind IT-artefacts from their moral responsibility?

The first question of interest is what, if anything, sets IT-artefacts apart from other technical artefacts. Do they require a different moral status? Science and technology studies (STS) have paid ample attention to technical artefacts. STS focuses on the interaction between sciences and technological development, on the one hand, and society on the other. Politics and culture drive to some extent the technological developments. These, in turn, affect society, politics and culture.