And Technology: Controversies, Questions, And Strategies For Ethical Computing

Chapter one of Ethics and Technology: Controversies, Questions, and Strategies for Ethical Computing by Herman T. Tavani begins by defining cyberethics as the study of moral, legal, and social issues involving cybertechnology, which includes computing and communication devices. Cyberethics is a field that affects not only professionals, but anyone who uses any form of cybertechnology. There are four evolutionary phases of cyberethics. Phase 1 is from the 1950s and 1960s when large mainframe, or stand-alone, computers were in use. Issues with this phase the idea of artificial intelligence and a fear of Big Brother. The 1970s and 1980s, Phase 2, brought along with it mini computers and personal computers that were able to be linked together by private networks. Phase 2 brought concerns with privacy, intellectual property, and computer crime. Phase 3, also known as the Internet era, began in the 1990’s and continues today. Concerns with free speech and anonymity were issues associated with this phase alone with the issues from previous

Claims are used as an argument. The standard form of an argument includes at least two claims, or premises, that aim to establish a conclusion. An argument can either be valid, meaning the premises are sufficient enough to guarantee the conclusion, or invalid, meaning the premises do not guarantee the conclusion. Even though an argument is valid, it still may not be true in the actual world. If this is the case it would make the argument unsound. A valid argument that is true in the actual world would be called a sound argument. Invalid arguments are either inductive or fallacious. Inductive arguments result when the conclusion follows from assuming the truth. It is possible for these types of arguments to still be strong. Fallacious arguments would not have a true conclusion based on assumed true premises. These arguments are always