Jennifer ODell

Coeckelbergh, M. (2011). From killer machines to doctrines and swarms, or why ethics of military robotics is not (necessarily) about robots. Philosophy & Technology, 24(3), 269-278. doi: 10.1007/s13347-011-0019-6 This article delves into whether or not Military use of Robotics is ethical it pertains to Kantian ethical theories. He utilizes a plethora of sources to support his theories. The author asks the all-important questions as a Kantian, such as, are the robots used in combat being utilized as a means to an end. He inquires that if one group develops soldier Robots, than all groups can develop soldier Robots. Coeckelbergh attempts to disseminate the use of robots as a means to an end by examining the militarys use of drones. Drones are human controlled robots that are already in place; however, he speculates the future use of smart robots and ethical use there in. The caveat to the article is his discussion of the use of systems, networks and swarms as future warfare, and he states In a network, activity is not about single, atomistic agents exercising their agency in single action. Instead, agency is distributed, collective, and emergent. (Coeckelbergh) In others words, Robots are only the vessel, the control is in the system, nodes, and network. The real battle will be fought in cyberspace. This article addresses ethical use of such practices of robots and cyber warfare, as well as the changing face of military campaigns.

Taddeo, M., & Vaccaro, A. (2011). Analyzing Peer-to-Peer Technology Using Information Ethics. Information Society, 27(2), 105-112. doi:10.1080/01972243.2011.548698 Taddeo and Vaccaro convey that P2P networks can be greatly debated, however, they choose to disseminate utilizing information perspective because it weighs ethical information and implications on the environment. Their main focus is not the unethical and legal implications of P2P as it pertains to copyright protection, but the positive affects as a whole on society. P2P is a growing tool used in businesses, and University as a means to communicate and education. Some of the growing concern address in the article is the affects of the environment and society as a whole. The example given pertained to bandwidth, local networking, and packets being downloaded consecutively causing a lag in the flow of information. Some P2P architect are implementing an unstructured P2P eliminating a central network, thus reducing traffic backup as it pertains to the network. This article demonstrates the need to foster policy for P2P to create ethical transmission of information as well as provide alternative P2P networks to prevent sluggish networks impeding the distribution of information.

Goodman, K. (2010). Ethics, information technology, and public health: new challenges for the clinician-patient relationship. Journal Of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 38(1), 58-63. doi:10.1111/j.1748-720X.2010.00466.x

Dr. Goodman, a Professor of Medicine and Philosophy, as well as the Director of the bioethics program at the University of Miami, addresses the ethical challenges facing medical professionals growing use electronic medical records. Dr. Goodman provides hypothesis with evidence-based research to support his claims. He addresses key components effecting positive outcomes with patient data collection, research data, sharing of collected data without societal bias, as well as improved ethical information technology education. Goodman sees data collection and sharing as an imperative for society as a means to improve overall healthcare outcomes. He does address the need to prevent unethical sharing of patient information. Goodman states that an increase in privacy rights can inhibit public health and scientific studies. He believes that medical information can be places into a database without patient identifies as a means to protect patient privacy will improving health care.

Brooks, R. (2010). The development of A code of ethics: An online classroom approach to making connections between ethical foundations and the challenges presented by information technology. American Journal of Business Education, 3(10), 1-13.

Brooks takes a hard look at Information Technology and the need for implementation of Ethic education for IT professionals. He acknowledges the group CPSR (Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility) as this group believes that it is imperative that IT professional has a firm understanding of just how powerful the profession truly is. Brooks utilizes data to support his claims from several sources that have been addressing the need form improved IT ethics. Many topics of concern are security, intellectual property rights, the right to privacy, and electronic and employee monitoring. Another area of growing concern is the need to education the youth at a very young age on computer ethics, to create improved business IT ethics for the future. Some basics values addressed are stealing, lying, and cheating that has become even easier with the use of computers. The idea here is to promote ethics education early promotes strong code of ethics leading to improved future for ones self and for society as a whole.

Agni Dika, Mentor Hamiti, Challenges of implementing the ethics through the use of information technologies in the university, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, Volume 15, 2011, Pages 1110-1114, ISSN 1877-0428, 10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.03.247.

Dika and Hamiti address the need for on going ethical education and training at Universities to assist in creation of Information Technology Code of Ethics. The authors stress the need for improved ethical standard as it pertains to all students from use of e-mail accounts, interactive computer lectures, multimedia resources, distances studies, and copyright infringement. The article cites several sources to support their claims while provided detailed description for practical guide for real world environment. Dika and Hamiti concentrate on the challenges facing the rapidly growing IT environment, but are unable to establish a code of ethics as it relates to universities.