Society, Ethics, and Technology

by Morton Winston, Ralph Edelbach, Ralph D. Edelbach

This anthology presents a variety of historical, social, and philosophical perspectives on technological change and its social consequences, stressing the manner in which technological innovation creates new ethical problems for human civilization. Providing a strong foundation in both theoretical and applied ethical matters, SOCIETY, ETHICS, AND TECHNOLOGY encourages students to critically engage anew the social effects of the technology that surrounds them in their daily lives.

Genres: Nonfiction, College, Textbooks, Philosophy, School, Technology

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Alejandro Teruel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the fifth edition (2014) of this book in 2022. According to the preface written by Morton Winston:

This book aims to provide students with an understanding of the profound role that science and technology play in shaping modern society, as well as the social and environmental issues that arise from technological change. As in earlier editions, our primary goal has been to empower readers to become better informed “technological citizens,” and to participate in the ongoing conversations concerning the impact of new technologies on the ways we live and work in the twenty-first century.

In the section How to use this book the authors indicate:

This book is designed for use in standard fifteen-week undergraduate Science, Technologt, and Society (STS) course. Courses of that type are intended to provide an interdisciplinary bridge beween the humanities, particularly ethics, the social sciences, and the natural sciences and engineering by developing a framework for analyzing the social, environmental, and ethical implications of contemporary science and technology. A principal goal of these courses is to empower students to think critically about contemporary technological issues [...] and to learn to accept the social responsibilities of educated citizens in a global technological society.

The book probably works best for undergraduate engineering and science students although most of it should present no difficulty to social science students. It is an introductory collection of readings divided into two parts. The first part, Perspectives on Technology, is divided into three chapters: Historical Perspectives, Social/Political Perspectives, and Ethical Perspectives, each containing four readings. The second part, Contemporary Technology and the Future is divided into six chapters, each containing three readings except for the last chapter which contains four readings. The chapter are Security and Surveillance, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Nanotechnology, Internet and Social Media, Biotechnology, and Energy and the Environment. An introduction (Children of Invention Revisited) and two appendices (Technology and Ethics in the News, and Codes of Ethics round off the book.

In general the readings are relevant, interesting and appropriate for the target audience. The book falls short in providing “...a framework for analyzing the social, environmental, and ethical implications of contemporary science and technology, as promised in the How to Use this Book section. The introductory chapter by Morton Winston defines the scope of technology as consisting of six aspects:

(1) skills, techniques, human activity-forms, or sociotechnical practices; (2) resources, tools and materials; (3) technological products or artifacts; (4) ends, intentions, or functions: background knowledge; and (6) the social contexts in which the the technology is designed, developed, used, and disposed of. [My emphasis]

but these categories are far too weak to provide more of a preliminary work scheme. While Winston's section on Techno-optimism versus Techno-pessimism provide some key insights, such as

Another feature of technological change is the way in which it produces winners and losers in society. If technology is a source of power over nature, it is also a means by which some people gain advantge over others.

which leads naturally in the section on Technology and Ethics to what Winston calls a “technique of ethical decision making”, a very simple form of pseudo-consequentialist-based stakeholder analysis consisting of the following steps:

1. Identify all stakeholders -that is all individuals whose interests might be affected by a decision;

2. Identify all possible courses of actions that one might follow;

3. Review all arguments for each option, developing pros and cons in terms of their potential risks and rewards for all stakeholders;

4. Then, after having carefully worked through such deliberations, make a rational choice about which of the available options has the strongest set of moral reasons behind it. [...] Moral reasons are those that involve moral principles governing such notions as fairness, justice, equality, duty, obligation, responsibility, and various kinds of rights.

In my opinion, tools, techniques and concepts required for ethical analysis are not well set out in this book, especially when one takes into account key strands in the philosophy of technology and sociotechnical analysis, not to mention the frameworks for value-based or value-sensitive analysis and design developed after the book was published, such as those developed by Batya Friedman, the European Union's Responsible Research and Innovation project, and Sarah Spiekermann amongst others. The introductory chapter also include a shallow, somewhat biased and very debatable overview of the history of technology and society and a very lightweight and incomplete introduction the the UN's Millenium Development Goals -the UN's later Sustainable Development Goals came out in 2015, after the book was published.

The first chapter of the book (Historical Perspectives) includes four readings: James Burke's “Something for Nothing””(1996), Ruth Schwartz Cowans' “Industrial Society and Technological Systems”(1997), Arthur Donovan's “Containerization and Globalization: An Innovation and its Impact”(2011), and Rosalind Williams' “History as Technological Change” (2202). James Burke's “Connections” style is always fun to read but honestly provides little to the goals of the book. Ruth Schwartz Cowans' chapter from her book “A Social History of American Technology” provides a much better background to the history of technology as it covers the impact of 19th and early 20th century technology and business innovation in telegraphy, railroads, petroleum, telephony, and electricity. Particularly interesting are the business setups for those technologies. Arthur Donovan's case study in containerization is a timely remainder of how certain, uncomplicated technical innovations (flatbed containers standarized for trucks, railroads and ships) can spark a number of complementary technological and business innovations that can completely transform an industry -in this case the cargo transportation industry. Rosalind Williams'chapter from her book “Retooling: A historian confronts technological change”, adds very little to the previous readings.

The second chapter of the book (Social/Political Perspectives) contains four readings: Richard Sclove's “I'd Hammer out Freedom: Technology as Politics and Culture”(1995), Andrew Feenberg's “Democratic Rationalization”(2010), Sheila Jasanoff's “Technologies of Humility: Citizan Participation in Governing Science”(2005) , and Judy Wajcman's Äddressing Technological Change: The Challenge to Social Theory” are welcome and important inclusions, particularly the first three readings -Judy Wajcman's reading presents the weakest of the visions but makes up for it with some excellent examples. Among the first three excellent readings, I found that Andrew Feenberg's reading covering topics such as the limits of democratic theory, dystopian modernity and the question of whether such a thing as technological determinism exists, the possible meanings of technological indeterminism, on interpreting technology, technological hegemony and the social relativity of efficiency, really outstanding -the reader must not be put off by the rather mysterious sounding topic titles.

The third chapter of the book (Ethical Perspectives) includes four more readings: Han Jonas'”Technology and Responsibility: Reflections on the New Task of Ethics” (1974). Michael Davis' “Constructing the Professional Responsibility of Engineers” (2012), David Strong's “Technological Subversion” (1995), and Deborah G. Johnson and Thomas Powers' ”Ethics and Technology: A Program for Future Research” (2005). The first two readings are on the meaning and implications of responsibility for technology -Michael Davis analysis of nine different meanings of responsibility for technology is particularly fine and well worth reading in conjuction with writings on Responsible Research and Innovation, and Han Jonas'older (1974) reflections on the ethics of inmortality and self-genetic manipulation still make extremely valid points. David Strong's congent questionings of the goals of technology provides much needed food for thought from a very different perspective t that of most of the other readings in the book. In spite of my admiration for Deborah Johnson's work and writings on ethics, Deborah Johnson and Thomas Powers', I found their included reading extremely disappointing and clumsily argued – in fact I would suggest skipping all this reading except for the excellent section entitled “The Moral Evaluation of Computers”. In spite of the excellent analysis on engineering responsability, in my opinion this chapter falls very short of the book's goals.

In the second part of the book, six topics are selected as case studies.

The first chapter of the second part of the book covers Security and Surveillance.and includes: Max Boot's jingoistic “The Consequences of the Information Revolution”(2006), Noel Sharkey's “The Automation and Proliferation of Military Drones and the Protection of Civilians”(2011), Jay Stanley's “Bigger Monster, Weaker Chains” (2005), and James Stacey Taylor's outrageous “In Praise of Big Brother” (2005). Several of the readings tend to focus on a view somewhat skewed towards the United States but this bias is carried to uncomfortable and even hubristic, extremes in the first reading of this chapter on military technology, which should have been paired with a more balanced view from outside the US. The reading on armed drones is also disturbing although I confess, very much of an eye-opener for someone more used to reading about non-weaponized uses of drones. Jay Stanley's survey is more in the nature of a manifesto against excessive uncontrolled surveillance and is not to be missed. As for James Stacey Taylor's “In Praise of Big Brother”, which I have yet to decide whether its breath-taking cynicism is meant seriously or as a ploy to provoke furious rejoinders, is to put it mildly, a very polemical inclusion and must be treated with extreme careand analysis in the classroom.

The second chapter on contemporary technologies is on artificial intelligence and robs and includes the journalistic and rather weak article by Abigail Tucker “Birth of a Robot” (2012), Fiorella Operto's “Ethics in Advanced Robotics”, and Stephen Baker's “Final Jeopardy” (2011). These readings, while interesting, are very dated since they shy away from addressing important ethical and social issues about the use of AI and robots, an area which has exploded since the book's publication.

The third chapter covers nanotechnology with Ray Kurzweil impossible, frighteningly over-optimistic and evangelizing “Neuroscience, Nanotechnology, and ethics: Promise and Peril”(2006), the much more serious and analytical “Emerging Nanomaterial Governance Systems: The State of Play”(2011) by Lynn Bergeson with its excellent coverage of regulatory initiatives and possible frameworks for the development and use of nanotechnology, as well as liability for nanotechnology products and their possible impacts on insurance, Armin Grunwald's “Nanotechnology – A New Field of Ethical Inquiry” (2006), an interesting and detailed analysis that suggests that nanotechnology introduces few new types of ethical problems, while managing not to downplay its risks.

The fourth chapter on Internet and Social Media includes Nicholas Carr's provocative “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, Rebecca MacKinnon's “Corporate Censorship”(2012) -an excellent introduction to the meaning, importance and challenges to net neutrality-, and Andrew, Craig and Jon Flanigan's complementary “Technical Code and the Social Construction of the Internet”(2010) -an excellent inclusion and perhaps the only reading to include a value-driven analysis of a technology. This is another area, particularly as regards to Social Media, whic has exploded, not only in terms of ethical questions but also in terms of social scandals, to the point where Nicholas Carr's questions, though valid, fall far short of attending current worries about the role and impact of new social media tecnologies.

The fifth chapter, on BioTechnolog includes Francis Fukuyama's “Our Posthuman Future”(2002), Leon Kass' “Preventing a Brave New World”(2001), and Michael Sander's “The Case against Perfection”(2004). Fukuyama's reading is exasperating -he has the annoying habit of setting out a shallow argument based on platitudes, only to reverse course when the reader is on the verge of stopping reading. Its repetitiveness is not at all helpful. However his analysis of possible regulatory issues (mainly confined to his section on “Can technology be controlled”) is very good. In the reading by Leon Kass a number of interesting and original points about the twin roles/relationships of the clone as child and as brother of his original and above all about the psychological and ethical problems arising from the social and family expectations for the cloned individual. Sandel writes an interesting but strangely unconvincing essay on the ethics of artificially introducing genetical enhancements in humans as regards to their musculature, memory capacity, and height as well as sex selection. Sanders considers such enhancements to be disturbing, but when he attempts to articulate his reasons for this feeling, comes up with a theory on the importance of “giftedness”, that is the sense that we should be humble, grateful and accepting for those physical or intellectual gifts, natural genetic lottery has bequeathed us and our children. This is not a very convincing theory and I for one would love to know whether Sandel later revised his theory and arguments or whether there are other more convincing arguments to be made.

The sixth chapter in on energy and the environment and includes Robert Kates'”The Nexus and the Neem Tree” (2000) which provides a semblance of an incomplete framework for sustainable development foused on reducing hunger and preserving the natural environment (“preserving life support systems”in Kates' terms) -which fall far short in terms of the UN's later 17 Sustainable Development Goals (2015). The chapter also includes Dona;d Aitken's excellent “Global Warming” (2009) which marshalls all the important arguments and facts supporting the Global Warming hypothesis, a hypothesis that one would have hoped has made convincing political inroads in 2022 -but in spite of much pertinent and excellent work, is still (!!!) unfortunately and very frustratingly being contested. David Fridley's “Nine Challenges of Alternative Energy”is an excellent reading which clarifies some key aspects of the feasibility and scalability of alternative energy sources -a must read, as is the final reading, written by Lester Brown on “Stabilizing Climate: An Energy Efficiency Revolution” (2009) on feasible, scalable and down to earth energy-reduction strategies.

Finally a word about the two appendices are in order. Appendix A (Technology and Ethic in the News) is, in general, an excellent collection of short newspaper articles and references to further readings that can be used to set projects or student essays in topics such as globalization, medical technology, nanofood risks, the environmental impact of electric cars, the impact of water scarcity on nuclear power generation, the impact of AI on employment, genetically modified food, and organisms, the possible impact of information technology on personal identity, censorship on the Internet, privacy and surveillance, nuclear power plant risks , and nanomaterials coatings. Appendix B includes two codes of ethics, the NSPE Code of Ethic for Engineering and the United Nations Global Compact -this appendix appears to be an afterthought, at the very least references to a host of other ethics codes shuld have been included.

In my opinion, the book also fails to distinguish between three very different audiences: engineering students, natural sciences students and social sciences students. The book is more geared to engineering students even though it fails to provide enough knowledge about ethics to help them rise to key challenges technology poses to present day society -and I feel that the book's stated goal “...to learn to accept the social responsibilities of educated citizens in a global technological society” is far too weak for such an audience. There is a dearth of material on research ethics, which leaves the science students too high and dry.

To sum up, the collection of readings is quite interesting and well worth examining. However the book adheres to what I would call the first generation of Technology, Ethics and Society books, more focused on interesting readings or cases but with very little material on tools or techniques for identifying, analyzing, discussing,, planning, and implementing, and evaluating actions to deal with current and future technological risks. In many cases the selected readings can still be useful but an instructor basing his course on this book will have to be willing to do a great deal of work to flesh out a workable and teachable framework for the students.

[Kas Roth · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was well done. I enjoyed many of the lectures and I have a lot of things I want to look up, read and discuss now. :) A wonderful course.