Are computers, moral?

Morality has been a complex construct – both modern religions and science claim to both originate and practice it. In both cases, at the highest level, morality appears to be the adherence to a set of prescriptive rules, regardless of the process by which those rules were established and if such rules were universally and temporally true. The frameworks of modern religions and the standard models of science share many common characteristics including the establishment of rules that do not change quickly. In the case of religions, these rules change much slower than those of science. However, in the case of science, complexity, statistical noise and confirmation biases have compensated for the apparent brisk change of models. Currently, it is fair to characterize both as a compendium of unchanging and prescriptive rules and processes.

In modern religions, any deviation from established rules is categorized as immoral. In the case of science, any process that do not follow established norms such as data gathering, hypothesis testing, peer review and publication, is considered to be immoral. This rigid prescription, combined with confirmation bias, has slowed framework changes in science, rendering it akin to modern religions. The measurement of morality in both types of systems, thus, is similar – it is all about deviations from established rules, processes and metrics.

In this vein, computers are always moral – in that they follow prescriptive rules and processes. Computers, according to the modern definition, are the most moral entities in the world today. The real question is whether such morality enhances humanity and its ability to evolve into next generation societies.