Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
James Moor
James Moor is the Daniel P. Stone Professor in Intellectual and Moral
Philosophy at Dartmouth College. He is also the editor-in-chief of the
philosophical journal
Minds andMachines
, and he has served as president
of the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology.
Professor Moor has written extensively on computer ethics,
the philosophy of artificial intelligence, the philosophy of mind, the
philosophy of science, and logic. His publications include “Why We
Need Better Ethics for Emerging Technologies,”
Ethics and Information Tech-
nology,
Vol. 7, No. 3 (2005), pp. 111-119. He and Terrell Bynum coedited
The Digital Phoenix: How Computers Are Changing Philosophy
(Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publishers, 1998,
and revised edition, 2000) and
Cyberphilosophy: The Intersection of Computing and Philosophy
(Oxford: Basil
Blackwell Publishers, 2002).
In 2003 Dr. Moor received the Making a Difference Award from the Association for Computing
Machinery's Special Interest Group on Computers and Society. In 2006 he received the Barwise
Prize for his work in philosophy and computing from the American Philosophical Association. He
holds a PhD in history and philosophy of science from Indiana University.
What stimulated your interest in studying the philosophy of technology?
My interest developed initially through a fascination with computing. The philosophy of computing
is a combination of logic, epistemology, metaphysics, and value theory—the complete philosophical
package wrapped up in a very practical and influential technological form. Who wouldn't be interested
in that? Many standard philosophical issues are brought to life in a computer setting. Consider a simple
example: In the
Republic,
Plato tells a story about the ring of Gyges in which a shepherd finds a ring
that, when he wears it and turns it, makes him invisible. Being a clever but rather unethical shepherd,
he uses the power of the ring to take over the kingdom, including killing the king and marrying the
queen. Through this story Plato raises a deep and important philosophical question: Why be just if one
can get away with being unjust? Today the Internet offers each of us our own ring of Gyges. Agents on
the Internet can be largely invisible. The question for us, echoing Plato, is why be just while using the
Internet if one can get away with being unjust?
What distinguishes ethical problems in computing from ethical problems in other fields?
Some have argued that the ethical problems in the field are unique. This is difficult to show, because
the problems involving computing usually connect with our ordinary ethical problems in some way.
Nevertheless, what makes the field of computer ethics special and important, though probably not
unique, is the technology itself—the computer. Computers are logically malleable machines in that
they can be shaped to do any task that one can design, train, or evolve them to do. Computers
are universal tools, and this explains why they are so commonplace and culturally transforming.
Because they are used in so many ways, new situations continually arise for which we do not have
clear policies to guide actions. The use of computing creates policy vacuums. For instance, when
wireless technology first appeared, there were questions about whether one should be allowed to
access someone else's wireless system, for example, when driving down the street. Should such access
be considered trespassing? Ethical rights and duties of novel situations are not always clear. Because
computers are universal tools and can be applied in so many diverse ways, they tend to create many
more policy vacuums than other technologies. This is one respect in which the ethical problems in
