CSC 480 Software Engineering

CSC 480 Software Engineering The Social Impact Of Computers

Topics (Social Impact of Computers, 2nd Ed. by Richard S. Rosenberg) • Overview: with a metaphor presenting a framework • Impact on people in general • Impacts on selected sectors • Business, medicine, education, government and the law • Impact on human(e) conditions • Privacy & freedom of information • Employment and unemployment • Business and government • The information society • Ethics and professionalism

Is It Just Another Machine? • Inventions in human history that were prior to the rise of computer • A variety of applications • Smart vehicles • Scientific applications: in biology, astronomy, physics, etc • HDTV • Video games • Social sciences • The Internet

Ways to Discuss the Social Issues • Two approaches • By category • Study major areas of computer applications • Identify and characterize particular problems with regard to each area • By list of social concerns • List areas of social concerns or potential problems • Explore each application to determine whether or not it exemplifies one or more of these problems • A simple metaphor: view the society as a fabric • Social issues are the warp • Computers, technology, and applications are the woof

Application Areas: the Woof • Robotics and industrial automation • Office automation • Telecommunications • Electronic financial transactions • Personal computers • Microprocessors • Email and teleconferencing • AI • Virtual reality • Internet

Social Issues: the warp • Work: impact on the employment of people • Health: impact on long-term health (e.g. from VDTs) • Privacy: proliferation of info (maybe incorrect) and easy access • Centralization of control: only the ones at top may have more accurate info and hence more power • Responsibility: will the use of IT fragment society? • The info society: • Human dignity & self-image: is there a threat to human dignity as machines take up human work?

Social Issues: the warp (cont’d) • Ethics & professionalism: how responsible are computer professionals for their actions? • National interests: • does the future economic well-being of a country depend on its achievements in hi-tech? • should governments play an active role in the market place to ensure that technological leadership is maintained? • Meritocracy: impact on the educated and untrained • Freedom of expression: regulation on a global n/w • Intellectual property: ownership of info in the age of information

Social Issues and Computers

Computers & Human Imagination • Robot in fact and fiction • Computers as creative medium • Music • Visual arts • Film • Multimedia and virtual reality • AI: machines and living things compared • Phylum #1: transmitting muscular forces • Phylum #2: clockworks that work on stored energy • Phylum #3: heat engines that operate on supplied fuels • Phylum #4: machines that operate on the principle of storing and transmitting information

Two Contradicting Views - I • Computers are just tools • We as the inventors and users decide what we shall do with them • They are more complex and have greater potential than other tools but you should never forget that ultimately that is what they are • All statements to the contrary are alarmist

Two Contradicting Views - II • A computer is not just another tool • Computers can carry out activities that previously only people could do • Furthermore, by virtue of their enormous speed and capacity they can give unpredictable results when applied in new area • They already endanger privacy, employment, even freedom • Although previous tools posed some of these difficulties, the computer represents not just most of the same but an obvious quantum jump

IT in the Business World • Managing in a WIRED world: what IT facilitates • Knowledge management • Organizational issues: centralized vs. decentralized • Workflow: automats and tracks the flow of docs and processes through a company • Groupware: collaborative computing, to help people work together more efficiently • Virtual corporation: highly adaptive and flexible • Reengineering: forget how work was done in the age of mass market and deciding how it can be best done now

The Business World: social issues • Reengineering and People • Reengineering = layoffs? • Appropriate use of the Internet • Who should have access to the Internet? • Should any restrictions be imposed on what can access during working hours? • How management should determine if the guidelines are being followed?

Medicine and Computers

Social Issues in Medicine • Dehumanizing patient-physician relationship • On the doctor side: computers will not replace doctors in any foreseeable future • On the patient side: a patient is merely a record in larger information systems • Genetic testing • Have the ability to predict risks of future disease, but no independent test is available to confirm the prediction • Privacy of medical records • HIPPA

Computers and Education • Issues and problems • Impact of CAI (computer-aided instruction) • Quality of the products may be poor as the market grows and the rush to produce software proliferates • It may be difficult to obtain qualified teachers to use them • Gender issues • Views about boys playing video games • Electronic games contain elements of aggression and violence • Electronic games encourage anti-social, “loner” behavior • Boys who play such games are susceptible to neglect other areas of their lives • Women are under-presented in the hard-science, including CS • The “Technological Fix”: simply introducing computers avoids the questions why may not be motivated at school

Privacy & Freedom of Information • One definition of privacy • Privacy is the claim of individuals, groups or institutions to determine for themselves when, how, and to what extent information about them is communicated to others • Three aspects • Territorial privacy • Privacy of person • Privacy in the information context: dealing with gathering, compilation, and selective dissemination of information

Privacy and Information • Police • Welfare • Stores • Organizations • Military • Motor vehicles • Vital statistics • Educational • Financial • Medical • Credit • City government • Employment • Internal revenue • Customs and immigration

Issues and Problems • Caller ID • New surveillance technologies • Advanced microphone • Closed circuit TV cameras (CCTC) • Forward looking infrared, etc • Unregulated databases • The national practitioner databank • Email • Cookies • Privacy legislation

Sample Ethical Issues • Some examples of applications that might have detrimental effects on some segment of society • Introduction of computers to office may cause some employees to lose their jobs or worsen working conditions • CAI causes some teachers to feel threatened (due to lack of training) and concern about the impact on their students • Governments maintain large DB’s w/ all kinds of info about their citizens, which may or may not be strictly controlled • Hackers, computer viruses and worms • Improper use of licensed software • Enormous expenditures on hi-tech medicine (such as CAT, MRI) has limited the amount of money available for preventive medicine, which has a significant impact among the poorer

Sample Ethical Issues (cont’d) • Some examples of applications that might have detrimental effects on some segment of society • A company purchased a new spreadsheet program and several employees make copies to take home so that they can do some work there. The programs are also used by their family and copies are made to share with their friends. • A group concerned about a racist Website urges an ISP to terminate its account. The provider refuses, claiming no responsibility for the content of Web pages on his system. • A worker is refused a new job for which s/he is well-qualified because the employer discovers, via a commercial DB, that s/he has been involved, in a previous job, with a group attempting to limit daily exposure to video display terminals.

Ethics & Professionalism • Professional codes of ethics • The oldest is the Hippocratic oath, for the medical profession, attributed to the Greek physician Hippocrates (460?-370? B.C.) • Features of such a code • A recognition of the responsibilities of individuals • An attempt to create a general recognition and acceptance of ethical behavior • The establishment of readily accessible guidelines • Justification for actions taken in opposition to directives by superiors • Useful in lawsuits that may follow certain actions • A statement to the public at large that the profession is concerned about the actions of its members

Codes of Ethics for Computer Pros • ACM – Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, adopted by the ACM Council on Oct 16, 1992 • IEEE – Code of Ethics concerning computer engineers, endorsed by IEEE Board of Directors in August, 1991 • DPMA (data processing managers association) has a Code of Ethics and Standard Conduct for managers of computer systems and projects • ICCP (institute for certification of computer professionals) offers a voluntary certification program for computer professionals and has a Code of Ethics and Codes of Conduct and Good Practice for certified computer pros • CIPS (Canadian information processing society) adopted a Code of Ethics in 1975 and enhanced in 1982.

Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics • Thou shalt not use a computer to harm other people • Thou shalt not interfere with other people’s computer work • Thou shalt not snoop around in other people’s computer files • Thou shalt not use a computer to steal • Thou shalt not use a computer to bear false witness • Thou shalt not copy or use proprietary software for which you have not paid • Thou shalt not use other people’s computer resources w/o authorization or proper compensation • Thou shalt not appropriate other people’s intellectual output • Thou shalt think about the social consequences of the program that you are writing or the system you are designing • Thou shalt always use a computer in ways that insure consideration and respect for your fellow humans

CSC 480 Software Engineering