Monday, June 5, 2023

We Need a Moral Operating System

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Damon Horowitz reviews the enormous new powers that technology gives us: to know more — and more about each other — than ever before. Drawing the audience into a philosophical discussion, Horowitz invites us to pay new attention to the basic philosophy — the ethical principles — behind the burst of invention remaking our world. Where's the moral operating system that allows us to make sense of it?

Watch:

A Moral Operating System


1. What kind of audience is Damon speaking to? 
2. What kind of power do they have? 
3. “But it brings me back. I think about World War II -- some of our great technologists then, some of our great physicists, studying nuclear fission and fusion -- just nuclear stuff.”  Why does Damon say this? what’s he getting at? 
4. Which philosopher proposed solving moral problems like arithmetic? 
5. Why did Aristotle disagree? 
6. What did Mill think? 
7. What did Kant think? 
8. What is the "banality of evil." 
9. How does Damon suggest creating a moral framework or operating system?  



Discussion 

Does the IT and communications industry have the kind of power Damon claims it does? 
Does it concern you that the Internet is collecting an intimate record of your life? How could this be abused? 
What about Plato’s idea of moral arithmetic? Isn’t it a bit similar to the idea of our moral dilemmas such as the self-driving car scenario? Could a computer actually be a better moral judge than a human? 
What would Aristotle say about the self-driving car scenario? What about Mill or Kant? 
What do you think Damon really means by a moral operating system? 


Debate topic 

Should companies gather personal data about their customers? 

Information privacy is a big and growing issue. Every time you log onto the internet and visit an online retailer, news company, or social media site, companies gather information about you. Actually, they gather information about your offline life too. They constantly buy, sell and sort data about you. This is big business. This collected data helps the algorithms work better so that you can be better profiled by AI for these companies. Should private companies have the right to do this, or should the practice be banned? Why do you think so?  

Before you leap to the conclusion that such a practice is immoral and illegitimate, take a moment to reflect on the possible benefits of AI technology having this amazingly detailed data.  

In groups think or research the positive and negative implications of data collection. 

You can do some online research of you like. 

What can justify the collection of personal data by businesses or even the government? 

What can justify the prohibition of this data collection? 


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