Morality and Ethics: Technological Challenges

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Moral Defined: Relating to, dealing with, or capable of making the distinction between right and wrong in conduct.

Ethics Defined: The study of the general nature of morals and of the specific moral choices to be made by a person; moral philosophy.

I do not find any mention of technology, or any other man made categories or things in these definitions. It would appear to my blue collar brain that ethics and morality were not connected to anything except the "idea" of what's right or wrong. So to say that technology like the internet for example causes moral issues is fundamentally wrong. The internet does not know if it's right or wrong, it's how we choose to use it within our own "ideas" of what's acceptable that raises ethical questions.

From the perspective of history almost any use of a product or technological innovation can be made into a moral issue. A good illustration of this is the button which developed in the late medieval period. On the surface the button seems harmless enough, yet the Old Order Amish felt it was wrong to wear buttons because they were not mentioned in the Bible. Wearing or not wearing buttons became a moral issue for them. It had nothing to do with the button itself.

Take another example of using a monitoring device or software to track people's cell phones. Is it more ethical for the 911 operator to track your exact location when you call vs. a suspicious husband trying to locate his wife? Is it ethical for a single parent to know the exact location of their children and what they are saying and texting on their phones? Is it ethical for the owner of a company to know if his employees are spending time on their phones while they are clocked in for work; or sharing his hard earned secrets with the competition?

I believe you need the I Tend to your own garden and draw of your own conclusions, but let's not blame the technology That Allows us to Accomplish That so : many things were not possible before. Technology does not cause any moral or ethical issues, remember they are "our" ideas of what's right or wrong, how we choose to use the tools available to us within that framework will guide our way.

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