Technoethics

Technoethics (TE) is an interdisciplinary research area concerned with all moral and ethical aspects of technology in society. It draws on theories and methods from multiple knowledge domains to provide insights on ethical dimensions of technological systems and practices for advancing a technological society. Technoethics (TE) views technology and ethics as socially embedded enterprises and focuses on discovering the ethical use of technology, protecting against the misuse of technology, and devising common principles to guide new advances in technological development and application to benefit society. Typically, scholars in technoethics have a tendency to conceptualize technology and ethics as interconnected and embedded in life and society. Technoethics denotes a broad range of ethical issues revolving around technology- from specific areas of focus affecting professionals working with technology to broader social, ethical, and legal issues concerning the role of technology in society and everyday life. Technoethical perspectives are constantly in transition as technology advances in areas unseen by creators, as users change the intended uses of new technologies. Humans cannot be separated from these technologies because it is an inherent part of consciousness and meaning in life therefore, requiring an ethical model. The short term and longer term ethical considerations for technologies do not just engage the creator and producer but makes the user question their beliefs in correspondence with this technology and how governments must allow, react to, change, and/or deny technologies.

Definitions

• Technoethics (TE) has been defined in a variety of ways over the last decade which highlight different aspects of this emerging field. Galvan defined Technoethics as the “sum total of ideas that bring into evidence a system of ethical reference that justifies that profound dimension of technology as a central element in the attainment of a ‘finalized’ perfection of man.” Bao and Xiang described technoethics as the behavioral norm and ethical basis for the global community.”. The Handbook of Research on Technoethics defined technoethics as “an interdisciplinary field concerned with all ethical aspects of technology within a society shaped by technology. It deals with human processes and practices connected to technology which are embedded within social, political, and moral spheres of life”. Technoethics examines current social policies and interventions linked with technological advancement and uses; there are more and more technologies arising, that have no regulations and it is important that there are some sort of guidelines on how to use them ethically. As mentioned previously, since its interdisciplinary in nature of TE, it is easier to come up with these, because all disciplines have united to form one large umbrella of philosophies, thus making it easier to understand and study certain technologies and their uses. Researchers no longer have to track all the disciplines to which the technology might be related to, to think of it ethically. And unlike Applied Ethics, which focuses solely on bio-centric philosophy. Technoethics unites both technocentric and bio-centric philosophies. This gives TE an advantage because it can study both issues simultaneously by giving technology equality in importance, to that of living entities.
• Technoethics and the Evolving Knowledge Society continues to state, "...it attempts to provide conceptual grounding to clarify the role of technology to those affected by it and to help guide ethical problem solving and decision making in areas of activity that rely on technology."

• Ethics: there are many different definitions of ethics depending on the context and conditions of use. However, for the purposes of technoethics, it is appropriate to use the philosophical definition of ethics. This definition states that ethics brings the issues of what is ‘right’, what is ‘just’, and what is ‘fair'. This definition is essential to ethics involving technology because ethics describe moral principles influencing conduct and the study of ethics is rooted in what people do and how they believe they should act in the world. It focuses on values and actions of individuals within society.

• Technology is the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment; drawing upon such subjects as industrial arts, engineering, applied science, and pure science. There are two sub categories that help narrow the scope of technology and help determine what aspects of technology are being discussed. These sub categories are called Teckné and Tecknik:

• Techné is the set of principles, or rational method, involved in the production of an object or the accomplishment of an end, the knowledge of such principles or method. This form of technology was acknowledged during the early Greek and Roman period. Most forms of technology at this time were art and poetry.

• Technik was established in the 19th and 20th centuries. It was created to help engineers describe the totality of processes, tools, machines, and systems employed in the practical arts and engineering.

History of Technoethics

The first traces of Technoethics (TE) can be seen in Dewey and Pearce’s Pragmatism. With the advent of the industrial revolution, it was easy to see that technological advances were going to influence human activity. This is why they put emphasis on the responsible use of technology. With the spurt in technological advances came technological inquiry. Societal views of technology were changing; people were becoming more critical of the developments that were occurring and scholars were emphasizing the need to understand and to take a deeper look and study the innovations. Associations were uniting scholars from different disciplines to study the various aspects of technology. The main disciplines being philosophy, social sciences and science and technology studies (STS). Though many technologies were already focused on ethics, each technology discipline was separated from each other, despite the potential for the information to intertwine and reinforce itself. As technologies became increasingly developed in each discipline, their ethical implications paralleled their development, and became increasingly complex. Each branch eventually became united, under the term Technoethics, so that all areas of technology could be studied and researched, based on existing, real world examples, and a variety of knowledge, rather than just discipline specific knowledge. This thus enriches the scope of the philosophy, and the ability to study it effectively.

Though the ethical consequences of new technologies have existed since Socrates's attack on writing in Plato's dialogue, Phaedrus, the formal field of Technoethics had only existed for a few decades. Technoethics is a rapidly expanding research area that evolved during the 1970s and 1980s from the confluence of a variety of disciplines and disciplinary subfields which viewed Science and Technology as socially embedded enterprises. It developed as a grounding framework for a rapidly emerging body of scholarship dealing with the interconnection of technology and ethics embedded in society. It has roots in Science and Technology Studies (STS), philosophy of technology, and various sub-areas of Applied Ethics which focus on technology. The term Technoethics was coined in 1977 by the philosopher Mario Bunge to describe the responsibilities of technologists and scientists to develop ethics as a branch of technology. Bunge argued that the current state of technological progress was guided by ungrounded practices based on limited empirical evidence and trial-and-error learning. He recognized that “the technologist must be held not only technically but also morally responsible for whatever he designs or executes: not only should his artifacts be optimally efficient but, far from being harmful, they should be beneficial, and not only in the short run but also in the long term.” He recognized a pressing need in society to create a new field called ‘Technoethics’ to discover rationally grounded rules for guiding science and technological progress.

Key scholarly contributions linking ethics, technology, and society can be found in a number of seminal works: The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of Ethics for the Technological Age (Jonas, 1979), On Technology, Medicine and Ethics (Jonas, 1985), The Real World of Technology (Franklin, 1990), Thinking Ethics in Technology: Hennebach Lectures and Papers, 1995-1996 (Mitcham, 1997), Technology and the Good Life (Higgs, Light & Strong, 2000), and Readings in the Philosophy of Technology (Kaplin, 2004), and Ethics and technology: Ethical issues in an age of information and communication technology (Tavani, 2004.). This resulting scholarly attention to ethical issues arising from technological transformations of work and life has helped given rise to a number of key areas (or branches) of technoethical inquiry under various research programs (I.e., computer ethics, engineering ethics, environmental technoethics, biotech ethics, Nanoethics, educational technoethics, information and communication ethics, media ethics, and Internet ethics).

Historical framing – 4 main periods:

1. Greek civilization defined technology as “techné”. Techné is “the set principles, or rational method, involved in the production of an object or the accomplishment of an end; the knowledge such as principles of method; art. “Second nature” is significant because it connected social development and technological activity in the world with the internal workings of human nature. It placed technology at the center of human meaning and social progress.
2. Modern conceptualization of technology as invention materialized in the 17th century in Bacon’s futuristic vision of a perfect society governed by engineers and scientists in Saloman’s House, to raise the importance of technology in society
3. In the 19th-20th century – German term “technik”. Technik is the totality of processes, machines, tools and systems employed in the practical arts and Engineering. Webber popularized it when it was used in broader fields. Mumford said it was underlying a civilization. Know as: before 1750: Eotechnic, in 1750-1890: Paleoethnic and in 1890: Neoethnic. Place it at the center of social life in close connection to social progress and societal change. Mumford says that a machine cannot be divorced from its larger social pattern, for it is the pattern that gives it meaning and purpose.
4. Rapid advances in technology provoked a negative reaction from scholars who saw technology as a controlling force in society with the potential to destroy how people live (technological determinism). Heidegger warned people that technology was dangerous in hat it exerted control over people through its mediating effects, thus limiting authenticity of experience in the world that defines life and gives life meaning. It is an intimate part of the human condition, deeply entrenched in all human history, society and mind.

Rationale for Technoethics

• "The rise of technologies in diverse areas of human work and life have created new ethical dilemmas found in niche areas within multiple disciplines and fields".
• Technoethics has a relational orientation to both technology and human activity allowing it to bring together diverse areas of ethical inquiry across all areas of human activity involving technology under a unified framework".
• Technoethics attempts "to clarify the role of technology in relation to those affected by it and to help guide ethical problem-solving and decision making in areas of activity that rely on technology".

Significant Technoethical Developments In Society

Throughout the last few decades, there have been many concrete examples that have illustrated the need to consider ethical dilemmas in relation to technological innovations. The following consists of a short list of examples of technological innovations that had more or less an impact on technoethics.

1950s

First satellite Sputnik 1 orbits the earth, DNA double helix structure discovered, the Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant is the first nuclear power plant to be opened, the American nuclear tests take place.

1960s

First manned moon landing, ARPANET created which leads to the later creation of the Internet, industrial pollution become major issues after Cuyahoga river catches fire and environmental acts are created, birth control pill, first heart transplantation completed, Telstar communications satellite is launched, rise of feminism in society and women entering the workforce.

1970s

The energy crisis, further manned and unmanned moon landings, the green revolution is underway along with second wave feminism as women continue to enter the workforce, C (computer language) is created for computer programming, 1970s recession, Supercomputers and the Personal Calculator enter the mass market.

1980s

Personal computers enter the home on a large scale, the Bhopal disaster, the Chernobyl disaster, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and video games become part of popular culture.

1990s

Mass use of the internet, Napster and the rise of online piracy and file sharing, Gulf War oil spill, Y2K, beginning of email, instant messaging, pagers, cell phone, MP3 player, CD burner, satellite phone, Linux, Java programming language created, Human Genome Project begins, Dolly the sheep is the first cloned mammal, Hubble telescope, Genetically Modified food, and Mars Pathfinder landing.

2000s

Web 2.0, Electronic commerce, Dot-com bubble, Robotics, Telerobotics, Wireless internet, social networking, Text messaging, YouTube, Wikipedia, Cyber bullying, Large Hadron Collider, Climate change, Global warming, Mars Exploration Rover.

Phenomenology and Technoethics

Phenomenology (Philosophy)-Phenomenology (from Greek: phainómenon "that which appears"; and lógos "study") is a broad philosophical movement emphasizing the study of conscious experience. It was founded in the early years of the 20th century by Edmund Husserl, expanded together with a circle of his followers at the universities of Göttingen and Munich in Germany and spread across to France, the United States, and elsewhere, often in contexts far removed from Husserl's early work.

Phenomenological Approach to Technology

James Moor has argued that computers show up policy vacuums that require new thinking and the establishment of new policies. Others have argued that the resources provided by classical ethical theory such as utilitarianism, consequentialism and deontological ethics is more than enough to deal with all the ethical issues emerging from our design and use of information technology. For the phenomenologist the ‘impact view’ of technology as well as the constructivist view of the technology/society relationships is valid but not adequate (Heidegger 1977, Borgmann 1985, Winograd and Flores 1987, Ihde 1990, Dreyfus 1992, 2001). They argue that these accounts of technology, and the technology/society relationship, posit technology and society as if speaking about the one does not immediately and already draw upon the other for its ongoing sense or meaning. For the phenomenologist society and technology co-constitute each other; they are each other's ongoing condition or possibility for being what they are. For them technology is not just the artifact. Rather, the artifact already emerges from a prior ‘technological’ attitude towards the world (Heidegger 1977).

Heidegger’s Approach (Pre-Technological Age)

For Heidegger the essence of technology is the way of being of modern humans—a way of conducting themselves towards the world—that sees the world as something to be ordered and shaped in line with projects, intentions and desires—a ‘will to power’ that manifest itself as a ‘will to technology'. Heidegger claims that there were other times in human history, a pre-modern time, where humans did not orient themselves towards the world in a technological way—simply as resources for our purposes. However, according to Heidegger this ‘pre-technological’ age (or mood) is one where humans’ relation with the world and artifacts, their way of being disposed, was poetic and aesthetic rather than technological (enframing). There are many who disagree with Heidegger's account of the modern technological attitude as the ‘enframing’ of the world. For example Andrew Feenberg argues that Heidegger's account of modern technology is not borne out in contemporary everyday encounters with technology

Hubert Dreyfus Approach (Contemporary Society)

In critiquing the artificial intelligence (AI) programme Hubert Dreyfus (1992) argues that the way skill development has become understood in the past has been wrong. He argues, this is the model that the early artificial intelligence community uncritically adopted. In opposition to this view he argues, with Heidegger, that what we observe when we learn a new skill in everyday practice is in fact the opposite. We most often start with explicit rules or preformulated approaches and then move to a multiplicity of particular cases, as we become an expert. His argument draws directly on Heidegger's account in Being and Time of humans as beings that are always already situated in-the-world. As humans ‘in-the-world’ we are already experts at going about everyday life, at dealing with the subtleties of every particular situation—that is why everyday life seems so obvious. Thus, the intricate expertise of everyday activity is forgotten and taken for granted by AI as an assumed starting point. What Dreyfus highlighted in his critique of AI was the fact that technology (AI algorithms) does not make sense by itself. It is the assumed, and forgotten, horizon of everyday practice that make technological devices and solutions show up as meaningful. If we are to understand technology we need to ‘return’ to the horizon of meaning that made it show up as the artifacts we need, want and desire. We also need to consider how these technologies reveal (or disclose) us.

Phenomenology, Ethics and the Virtual World

There seems to be at least one information technology theme that has attracted some sustained attention from phenomenologists (especially with regard to its ethical implications)—the phenomenon of virtualization or virtuality. The term ‘virtuality’ is used here to refer to the mediation of interaction through an electronic medium between humans and humans as well as between humans and machines. The World Wide Web (or Cyberspace as it is known in cultural discourse) is the most evident example of the virtualization of interaction

The proponents of the virtualization of society (and its institutions) argue that virtuality extends the social in unprecedented ways (Fernback 1997, Rheingold 1993a, 1993b, Turkle 1995, 1996, Benedikt 1991, Horn 1998). They argue that it opens up an entirely new domain of social being. For example Rheingold (1993a) argues that it offers “tools for facilitating all the various ways people have discovered to divide and communicate, group and subgroup and regroup, include and exclude, select and elect.

Turkle suggests that cyberspace makes possible the construction of an identity that is so fluid and multiple that it strains the very limits of the notion [of authenticity]. People become masters of self-presentation and self-creation. There is an unparalleled opportunity to play with one's identity and to ‘try out’ new ones. The very notion of an inner, ‘true self’ is called into question. An individual can literally decide to be who they wish to be. For example, the obese can be slender, the beautiful can be plain and the ‘nerdy’ can be elegant.

The claims by Rheingold, Turkle and others are certainly bold. If they are right then virtuality may indeed represent entirely new possibilities for humans to relate, extend, and express themselves, which should be encouraged, especially for those that have become excluded from the traditional domains of social relations, due to disability.

Phenomenologists would suggest that these responses are all important but they assume something more primary—i.e., the conditions that render such acts as the presentation of the self, ongoing communication and sharing meaningful and significant in the first instance. They might suggest that these social acts are all grounded in an already presumed sense of community. They might further argue that social interaction, community and identity (as we know it) are phenomena that are local, situated and embodied, which is characterized by mutual involvement, concern and commitment (Dreyfus 2001; Borgmann 1999, Ihde 2002, Introna 1997, Coyne 1995, Heim 1993). In other words that these phenomena draw on an implied sense of involvement, place, situation, and body for its ongoing meaning.

Borgmann (1999) argues that the unparalleled opportunity of virtuality suggested by Turkle comes at a cost. To secure the charm of virtual reality at its most glamorous, the veil of virtual ambiguity must be dense and thick. Inevitably, however, such an enclosure excludes the commanding presence of reality. Hence the price of sustaining virtual ambiguity is triviality.Indeed such fluid and multiple identity is only feasible as long as it is “kept barren of real consequences”

Dreyfus (1999, 2001) argues, in a similar vein that without a situated and embodied engagement there can be no commitment and no risk. They argue that in such an environment moral engagement is limited and human relations become trivialized. Ihde (2002) does not go as far as Borgmann and Dreyfus in discounting the virtual as ‘trivial'. Coyne (1995) argues that the proximity of community has nothing to do with physical distance. He argues that proximity is rather a matter of shared concerns—i.e., my family is ‘close’ to me even if they are a thousand miles away and my neighbors may be ‘distant’ to me even if they are next door.

Technological Consciousness

Technological consciousness is a term that describes the relationship between humans and technology. Technology is seen as an integral component of human consciousness and development. Technology, consciousness and society are intertwined in a relational process of creation that is key to human evolution. Technology is rooted in the human mind, and is made manifest in the world in the form of new understandings and artifacts. The process of technological consciousness frames the inquiry into ethical responsibility concerning technology by grounding technology in human life.

The structure of technological consciousness is relational but also situational, organizational, aspectual and integrative. Technological consciousness situates new understandings by creating a context of time and space. As well, technological consciousness organizes disjointed sequences of experience under a sense of unity that allows for a continuity of experience. The aspectual component of technological consciousness recognizes that individuals can only be conscious of aspects of an experience, not the whole thing. For this reason, technology manifests itself in processes that can be shared with others. The integrative characteristics of technological consciousness are assimilation, substitution and conversation. Assimilation allows for unfamiliar experiences to be integrated with familiar ones. Substitution is a metaphorical process allowing for complex experiences to be codified and shared with others — for example, language. Conversation is the sense of an observer within an individual's consciousness, providing stability and a standpoint from which to interact with the process.

Ethical challenges

Limitations of human knowledge processes, workplace discrimination, strained work and life balance in technologically enhanced work environments, inequalities in information access for parts of the population, unequal opportunities for scientific and technological development, organizational responsibility and accountability issues, reputation and trust building challenges, intellectual property issues.

• Information Processing Theory is working memory that has a limited capacity and too much information can lead to cognitive overload resulting in loss of information from short term memory.
• Limit an organization’s ability to innovate and respond for change.
• Knowledge society is intertwined with changing technology requiring new skills of its workforce. Cutler says that there is the perception that older workers lack experience with new technology and that retaining programs may be less effective and more expensive for older workers. Cascio says that there is a growth of virtual organizations. Saetre & Sornes say that it is a blurring of the traditional time and space boundaries has also led to many cases in the blurring of work and personal life.
• Norris says access to information and knowledge resources within a knowledge society tend to favour the economically privileged who have greater access to technological tools needed to access information and knowledge resources disseminated online and the privatization of knowledge.
• Inequality in terms of how scientific and technological knowledge is developed around the globe. Developing countries do not have the same opportunities as developed countries to invest in costly large-scale research and expensive research facilities and instrumentation.
• Negative impacts of many scientific and technological innovations have on humans and the environment has led to some skepticism and resistance to increasing dependence on technology within the Knowledge Society. Doucet calls for city empowerment to have the courage and foresight to make decisions that are acceptable its habitants rather that succumb to global consumer capitalism and the forces of international corporations on national and local governments.
• Scientific and technological innovations that have transformed organizational life within a global economy have also supplanted human autonomy and control in work within a technologically oriented workplace.
• Rapidly changing landscape of organizational life and recent history of unethical business practices have given rise to public debates concerning organizational responsibility and trust. The advent of virtual organizations and telework has bolstered ethical problems by providing more opportunities for fraudulent behaviour and the production of misinformation. Concerted efforts are required to uphold ethical values in advancing new knowledge and tools within societal relations which do not exclude people or limit liberties of some people at the expense of others.

Emergence of Technology Through an Ethical Lens

Technoethics is an emergence from a consolidation of technology and ethics that has spread from specialty areas within philosophy and other areas. It involves the ethical aspects of technology within a society that is shaped by technology. Ethics describes moral principles influencing conduct and behaviour. The study of ethics is rooted in what people do and how they believe they should behave in the real world. In turn, ethics focus on the values and actions within a society. This brings up a series of social and ethical questions regarding new technological advancements and new boundary crossing opportunities. Before moving forward and attempting to address any ethical questions and concerns, it is important to review some of the major ethical theories to develop a perspective foundation.

• Utilitarians have the assumption of the greatest happiness principle. This means that they align the good with that which brings the greatest amount of happiness to the greatest number of people. They focus on the outcome of actions as opposed to the intentions.

• Duty Ethics note the obligations that one has to society and follow the universal rules. These people focus on the rightness of actions instead of the consequences, focusing on what individual should do.

• Rights perspective focus on an approach that feels that their obligations are based on the assumptions owned by the individual from the collective group in which they belong. The concept of social contracts are used to ensure that individual rights are upheld in society.

• Virtuous perspective would lead one to feel that human character and efforts lead to the good life. All people are born with certain virtues that need to be developed. People's behaviours and habits can benefit society as a whole.

• Relationship Ethics consider that care and consideration are both derived from human communication. Ethical communication is the core of healthy relationships.

Areas of Technoethical Inquiry

Technofeminism

Technoethics has concerned itself with society as a general group and made no distinctions between the genders, but must consider technological effects and influences on each gender individually. This is an important consideration as some technologies are created for use by a specific gender and must focus on the individual effects on that gender but still consider the influence on the other gender. Examples include the Birth control, abortion, fertility treatments, and Viagra.

Women are continuously joining the technology field, which is improving and broadening the viewpoints and understanding of the effects of technology on society, more specifically the female experience in society.

Information and Communication Technoethics

Information and Communication Technoethics is “concerned with ethical issues and responsibilities arising when dealing with information and communication technology in the realm of communication”. This involves the consideration of both the changing relationships between humans and technology and the ethics connected with the development and aims of ICTs. Information and Communication Technoethics is related to internet ethics, rational and ethical decision making models and information ethics. A major area of interest is the convergence of technologies. As technologies converge and become more interdependent as well as increase the methods of accessing the same information, they transform society and culture in various ways. Information and Communication Technoethics evaluates whether this convergence creates new ethical dilemmas. Furthermore, it seeks to understand and characterize the need for alterations in ethical frameworks of research structures to capture the essence of the new technologies.

Educational Technoethics

Technoethical inquiry in the field of education examines how technology impacts the roles and values of education in society. An example of this is the divide created in education between institutions which have access to the internet and the latest technologies, and with them the diversity of audio, visual, and textual material available through the internet, compared with those that do not or possess only outdated equipment. This sort of gap can exist both between the developed and third world as well as between educational institutions within the same countries due to issues of budget and differing priorities. It also considers changes in student values and behavior related to technology. These include issues such as accessing inappropriate material in schools or online plagiarism using material copied directly from the internet or purchasing papers from online resources and passing them off as the student's own work.

Environmental and Engineering Technoethics

Environmental and engineering technoethics is a fairly new brand that is emerging in the field of technoethics. Major changes took place in North America with the industrial revolution around the 18th and 19th century; which gave rise to a demand for expertise, specifically the engineer expertise. A need for a code of professional ethics came about out of necessity to improve engineering standards with all the societies that had been created. As engineering began to branch out in the 1980s and 1990s, ethics related to it also spread. Environmental technoethics originate from the 1960s and 70s' interest in environment and nature. A few examples of areas of concern are: transport, mining, sanitation. Because it is a fairly new area of discipline within technoethics, it focuses on the human use of technologies that may impact the environment.

Organizational and Professional Technoethics

Focuses on the issue of ethical responsibility for those who work with technology within a professional setting. It is more focused on people in positions who use new technology as a part of their job, for example, engineers, people in the medical profession, etc. According to the Handbook of Research on Technoethics, "Professional technoethics can be understood as identifying and analyzing issues of ethical responsibility for professionals working with technology.

Organizational Technoethics

Recent advances in technology and their ability to transmit vast amounts of information in a short amount of time has changed the way information is being shared amongst co-workers and managers throughout organizations across the globe. Starting in the 1980s with information and communications technologies (ICTs), organizations have seen an increase in the amount of technology that they rely on to communicate within and outside of the workplace. However, these implementations of technology in the workplace create various ethical concerns and in turn a need for further analysis of technology in organizations. As a result of this growing trend, a subsection of technoethics known as organizational technoethics has emerged to address these issues.

Changes to organizational structure

Organizational technoethics “focuses on how technological advances are redefining organizations and how they operate within an evolving knowledge economy”. This new focus on knowledge and information within organizations has changed the way they function on a daily basis and has made it apparent that “as knowledge-intensive work gradually becomes the cornerstone of this economy, understanding its control practices is consequential to organizational effectiveness, worker satisfaction and ethical conditions of organizational governance." With this “knowledge intensive work” at the forefront of most organizations, the efficient transmission of this knowledge and information now becomes a major priority to be carried out in the workplace. The introduction of the Internet in the workplace allowed employees to transmit information electronically not only to others in their own office but those in other countries as well. Technology began to facilitate the rapid exchange of information for these organizations and thus contributed to a structural change in how they operate. These changes prompted researchers to delve deeper into the issues surrounding organizational technoethics in how technology was shaping the workplace, whether positively or negatively, and the ethical issues that may arise.

The use of ICTs within organizations have given way to a new kind of office setting where physically being in the office is not mandatory to get the job done. This recent trend coined by many as the virtual workplace involves several workplaces that are connected through technology and are not hindered by physical restraints. Telecommuting, the hot desk, and virtual teams are the three major types of virtual workplaces that have been made possible through the use of technology and have changed the way many organizations communicate and transmit information.

New ethical challenges

The increasing use of ICTs in the workplace has presented organizations with new ethical challenges. It has been argued that ICT use in organizational settings can contribute to counterproductive behaviour and deviancy as the line between personal and professional lives becomes blurred Usually this behaviour consists of non-sanctioned use of ICTs during work hours, such as updating personal blogs, playing games, doing personal banking online, and using email for non-work related activities.

In response to these popular misuses of technology in the workplace, some organizations have implemented workplace surveillance technologies and content-control software to monitor and restrict employees’ activities online.

ICT use in medical organizations has also given rise to new ethical dilemmas, such as the use of electronic medical records. These have created privacy concerns relating to potential breaches of doctor-patient confidentiality as well as concerns with information storage.

1. Organizational restrictions on social networking

One area of technoethics that is growing increasingly popular is organizational ethics and technology. The introduction of technology into organizations has fuelled many different questions. Among these many questions is whether or not the technology being used is ethical. Many different case studies have been conducted in organizations around the world. In these case studies, new technology that has been introduced to an organization is examined. During the examination, one ethical question that seems to be a main focus for researchers is whether or not the new technology maintains user’s privacy.

One technology that has really grown in popularity in recent years is social networking sites; as many people use sites such as Facebook for personal and professional reasons. Organizations all of over the world, including those in the Canadian province of Ontario have begun to block access to Facebook and have led to a criticism of Facebook. For example, in May 2007, Ontario government employees, Federal public servants, MPPs and cabinet ministers were blocked from access to Facebook on government computers. Employees trying to access Facebook received a warning message that read "The Internet website that you have requested has been deemed unacceptable for use for government business purposes" The introduction of social networking sites led to use in government offices. With the use of this technology came a fear that government offices would become more vulnerable to viruses and hackers However, with the government denying the use of these websites in their offices, many ethical questions arise about whether or not denying employees access to something that is readily available to everyone else is an infringement on the employees’ rights and freedoms as Canadian citizens. This is just one case study of technoethics in organizations that also brings up questions in business ethics as well.

2. Technoethical challenges in medical organizations

Another area of organizational technoethics that has been becoming increasingly popular is in the field of medicine. Medical ethics are based on values and judgments in a practical clinical placement where six values are portrayed the most: autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, dignity, truthfulness and honesty. Many of the issues in medical ethics are due to a lack of communication between the patients, family members, and healthcare team. An asset to medical ethics that has brought attention to its advantages and disadvantages are electronic medical records (EMRs). This is a new way to update, organize and store patients’ medical records in a database that can be accessible to other doctors by using the network.

An issue in organizational technoethics in the medical field that is an increasing matter is the privacy issue with electronic medical records. To start, some advantages of EMR’s are that they can minimize errors, keep records safe in the database, it is cost efficient, translates into a better treatment for the patients and can even give some control over health records to the patients. On the other hand, EMR’s have brought upon some disadvantages mainly around privacy issues. First, it threatens a patient’s privacy. Having a patient’s medical history recorded in the database loses the confidentiality between the doctor and patient since anyone who has access to the system is able to retrieve these files.

Moreover, some do not feel their medical records are safe in the database since others are able to get into personal files and potentially change medical records or misuse the information. A group of researchers conducted a study on the privacy issues raised by the use of EMR’s. They concluded that all electronic systems around us have this one-to-many exchange such as the internet and email just like the EMR system. However, more clarity needs to be provided around patient consent and patient restrictions as well as confidentiality issues. With the issue of privacy at hand, many ethical questions have surfaced on whether this electronic system is safe or a hazard to patients due to the easy access and misuse of a patient’s information.

Future of Organizational Technoethics

Organizational ethics and technology is a hot-bed for discussion. Whether it is about the maintenance of worker’s privacy or the censoring of social network sites, organizations are striving to find a way to balance both their worker’s agency and their productivity. It seems the fluid nature of the Internet is forcing the hand of companies to allow their workers some benefits to access the sites they normally would outside of the office, while at the same time maintaining a strict policy to not abuse any privileges meted out. The medical field has brought on a new technology that hopes to effectively and systematically ease the process of updating, storing, and organizing patient’s records in a manner that suits both the patients and the doctors that treat them.

With the advent of electronic medical records (EMR), the field of Medical Ethics has also seen an influx in ethical discourse. While the technology is different from social media per se, the efforts to protect the worker’s (or patient’s) privacy is similar and equally paramount to their survival. Patients will look to online databases to ensure that their information is both correct and secure, while trying to maintain the pseudo-ageless “doctor-patient confidentiality,” even with full knowledge that their information is accessible worldwide with the click of a button.

Looking ahead to how EMR advances, and whether or not organizations will always feel the need to block social network sites all depends on how they continue to be used as people become more complacent with the technology. There will always be instances of ethical debates concerning technology within an organizational context, as the only things that seem to change are the technologies surrounding them. With the knowledge based society growing constantly, it will be interesting to see how future generations tackle the same ethical concerns that populate our organizational discourse today.

Current Issues

Digital copyrights are a heated issue because there are so many sides to the discussion. There are ethical considerations surrounding the artist, producer, end user, and the country are intertwined. Not to mention the relationships with other countries and the impact on the use (or no use) of content housed in their countries. In Canada, national laws such as the Copyright Act and the history behind Bill C-32 are just the beginning of the Government’s attempt to shape the “wild west” of Canadian internet activities. The ethical considerations behind internet activities such a peer-to-peer file sharing involve every layer of the discussion – the consumer, artist, producer, music/movie/software industry, national government, and international relations. There must also be consideration for the effects that digital laws have had in other countries. (insert some examples). Overall, technoethics forces the “big picture” approach to all discussions on technology in society. Although time consuming, this “big picture” approach offers some level of reassurance when considering that any law put in place could drastically alter the way we interact with our technology and thus the direction of work and innovation in the country.

Recent developments

Despite the amassing body of scholarly work related to technoethics beginning in the 1970s, only recently has it become institutionalized and recognized as an important interdisciplinary research area and field of study. In 1998, the Epson Foundation founded the Instituto de Tecnoética in Spain under the direction of Josep Esquirol. This institute has actively promoted technoethical scholarship through awards, conferences, and publications. This helped encourage scholarly work for a largely European audience. The major driver for the emergence of technoethics can be attributed to the publication of major reference works available in English and circulated gloabally. The "Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics included a section on Technoethics which helped bring it into mainstream philosophy. This helped to raise further interest leading to the publication of the first reference volume in the English language dedicated to the emerging field of Technoethics. The two volume Handbook of Research on Technoethics explores the complex connections between ethics and the rise of new technologies (e..g., life-preserving technologies, stem cell research, cloning technologies, new forms of surveillance and anonymity, computer networks, Internet advancement, etc.). This recent major collection provides the first comprehensive examination of technoethics and its various branches from over 50 scholars around the globe. The emergence of technoethics can be juxtaposed with a number of other innovative interdisciplinary areas of scholarship which have surfaced in recent years such as technoscience and technocriticism.

Future Developments

The future of Technoethics is a promising, yet evolving field. The studies of e-technology in workplace environments are an evolving trend in Technoethics. With the constant evolution of technology, and innovations coming out daily, technoethics is looking to be a rather promising guiding framework for the ethical assessments of new technologies. Some of the questions regarding technoethics and the workplace environment that have yet to be examined and treated are listed below:

• Are organizational counter measures not necessary because it invades employee privacy?
• Are surveillance cameras and computer monitoring devices invasive methods that can have ethical repercussions?
• Should organizations have the right and power to impose consequences?

See also

• Applied Ethics
• Bioethics
• Computer Ethics
• Cyberethics
• Digital Rights
• E-Democracy
• Engineering ethics
• Ethics of technology
• Information ethics

• Information Privacy
• Information society
• Information technology
• Legal Ethics
• Media ethics
• Philosophy of technology
• Technology and society
• Technocriticism
• Women and technology

External links

Journals

• International Journal of Technoethics
• Journal of Technology, Knowledge, and Society
• Journal of Social Work Ethics and Values
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy

Organizations

• European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies
• Ethics and Emerging Sciences Group
• W. Maurice Centre for Applied Ethics
• United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO

Case studies and scholarly articles

• On Media Ethics:

From the Indiana University School of journalism, an article about frame-working in the news media surrounding terrorism, and the ethical principles behind such broadcasts.

• http://journalism.indiana.edu/uncategorized/ethics-frames-terrorism/

• Iposion & Iwaste:

A case study that looks at the environmental effects of Apple’s technology designs and it’s harmful effects. In particular, the toxin referred to as PVC plastic Polyvinyl Chloride is discussed as it is in most of Apple’s products.

• http://web.archive.org/web/20080704074059/http://www.greenmyapple.org/itox.html

Videos

• An ABC episode ( parts 1, 2, 3) on YouTube about the legal and ethical issues on the social media platforms such as Twitter & Facebook, and the prevalent associated problems with a child's usage of them. Ex- bullying
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLU3rdESvas&feature=related

• At this May 24 Future Tense event—sponsored jointly by Arizona State University, New America Foundation, and Slate magazine—a wide range of experts from the military, private sector and academia explored how these technologies will inevitably migrate to consumer markets and the broader culture, and what their impact will be.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT8PMQm2Iv8

• Nanotechnology:

An interesting YouTube video discussing the ethical implications of implanting nanotechnology into humans.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jExkLS_onuY

Other

• The Technoethics Trap. Inc. Magazine
• About Cyberethics
• Virtue Ethics
• Ethical Dilemmas in Information Technology: A Scenario Collection
• The Technological Citizen
• Bill C-32
• Canada’s Bill C-32: Copyright that can stifle creativity

Further reading

• Borgmann, A. (1984). Technology and the character of contemporary life: A philosophical inquiry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Coyne, R., 1995, Designing information technology in the postmodern age: From method to metaphor. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
• Dreyfus, H.L., 1999, “Anonymity versus commitment: The dangers of education on the internet,” Ethics and Information Technology, 1/1, p. 15-20, 1999
• Gert, Bernard. 1999, “Common Morality and Computing,” Ethics and Information Technology, 1/1, 57-64.
• Heidegger, M., 1977, The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays, New York: Harper Torchbooks.
• Ihde, D. 1990, Technology and the Lifeworld: From garden to earth. Bloomington and Indianopolis: Indiana University Press.
• Jonas, H. (1979). The imperative of responsibility: In search of ethics for the technological age. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
• Jonas, H. (1985). On technology, medicine and ethics. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
• Levinas, E., 1991, Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
• Luppicini, R., (2008). The emerging field of Technoethics. In R. Luppicini and R. Adell (eds.). Handbook of Research on Technoethics (pp. 49–51). Hershey: Idea Group Publishing.
• Luppicini, R., (2010). Technoethics and the Evolving Knowledge Society: Ethical Issues in Technological Design, Research, Development and Innovation. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
• Mitcham, C. (1994). Thinking through technology. University of Chicago Press.
• Mitcham, C. (1997). Thinking ethics in technology: Hennebach lectures and papers, 1995-1996. Golden, CO: Colorado School of Mines Press.
• Mitcham, C. (2005). Encyclopedia of science, technology, and ethics. Detroit: Macmillan Reference.
• Tavani, H. T. (2004). Ethics and technology: Ethical issues in an age of information and communication technology. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
• Turkle, S. 1996, “Parallel lives: Working on identity in virtual space.” in D. Grodin & T. R. Lindlof, (eds.), Constructing the self in a mediated world, London: Sage, 156-175