"Under a Population Registration Act passed by the South African Parliament in 1970, the government will computerize the record system to maintain apartheid..." (Lundell, 1971) (Mowshowitz p 185)
b. New Poor
When society assumes that the "normal" individual will have access to computer stored information, what about those individuals who don't? New classes of "haves" and "have nots"--those with access to certain information, and those without.
Used in diagnosis, monitoring vital signs, keeping life-support systems going.
b. Replacing Human Workers
"You Too Can Be Replaced by a Machine." Can Society beocme over-dependent on machines? Is this an abuse of technology, rather than a proper use of its features?
c. Alienation and Impersonalization
Recent studies have shown that many office personal are intimidated by computers, and there is an increase in stress in trying to keep up with the speed of the machine. Many lonely people continue to go to bank tellers instead of using automatic tellers because they crave human contact. Is the type of efficiency that computers breed, the type of society we want--cold and impersonal?
d. Vital Links in Military
Should the human link be eliminated in defense systems? Who should ultimately push the "button" (assuming that the button should ever be pushed). The movie War Games gives a senario about not being able to stop a computer with "artificial intelligence" from deploying all missiles.
e. Computer Aided Instruction (CAI)
POSITIVE: Students can progress at their own pace, free from the sometimes repressive overview of teachers (as is sometimes perceived by certain types of students).
NEGATIVE: Human contact is eliminated--the computer lessons are only as good as the programmer. Thus, it is possible that a poorer educational experience can take place.
f. Computer Aided Design (CAD)
g. Artificial Intelligence
h. New Psychological Profiles.
Computers and computer-related machines (video games) are producing a group of individuals who seem to be more at home interacting with machines than with other human beings. What can be done to change this phenomenon?
What is the difference between "hackers" and "programmers"? How can programmers avoid becoming compulsive and self-serving, doing the minimal rather than providing complete checks within the code?
b. Crime via computer--bank fraud
c. Software pirates--legal questions
d. Security questions.
What about monitoring activities? Do we have an absolute right to privacy? (There exists a certain civil right to privacy against government invasion, but this does protection does not automatically apply to employers in the workplace.) The question can be raised in monitoring activities: "Whom are we protecting? Against whom are we protecting?"
In all these issues, societal norms must achieve a balance between preserving a good (public value), and preventing possible abuse. An old general principle is that laws/society should allow as much freedom as possible, but have as many/few laws as necessary.
Data Accuracies: What about the question of inaccuracies in data bases? These issues pertain to items such as credit ratings, or crime records? What happens to an individual if there is inaccurate information in a police database and a person is falsely arrested?
Proving Programs Correct: How much testing of software is reasonable before its release? Testing software proves that the software works only for the input that was tested! Can you trust all programs?
This page is maintained by Dennis C. Smolarski, S.J.
dsmolarski@math.scu.edu
© Copyright 1997, 1998 Dennis C. Smolarski, SJ, All rights reserved.
Last changed: 5 December 1998.