BKETHICS.RVW 930819 Oxford University Press 70 Wynford Drive Don Mills, Ontario M3C 1J9 or 200 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016 USA 212-679-7300 or 2001 Evans Road Cary, NC 27513 919-677-0977 800-451-7556 fax: 919-677-1303 Computers, ethics and society; Ermann/Williams/Gutierrez; 1990; U$17.95 Ethics. Don't talk to me about ethics. Computer industry the size of a planet, security specialists sleeping under every bush, a zillion philosophy students and what do we do? We write a textbook. It's so depressing. I was rather looking forward to this book, it being the only title I had found to address this all important issue. I was a bit chagrined to find that it was, a) a series of articles, rather than a book; and, b) a textbook. I am still waiting for a serious examination of the topic for the working professional. Until then, this, and "Computers Under Attack" (cf BKDENING.RVW) will have to do. As with Denning's work, the book isn't bad as much as it is disappointing. The disappointment arises from the fact that, so far, this is the best we can do. The apparent organization of the material is good. The first section of papers deals with general ethical theory. Unfortunately, the background is somewhat limited, dealing only with utilitarianism, generally simplified to "the greatest good for the greatest number", and some minor variations. (Kant's "Categorical Imperative" is covered, but it can easily be seen as a special case of utilitarianism where "badness" is exponential.) As the material begins to examine generic ethical principles in light of specific problems, the treatment becomes uneven. A treatise on privacy as it relates to monitoring of criminal offenders is first-rate; lucid, readable and almost poetic while casting an insightful new light on the subject. An article on morality and law is heavy and obtuse. (Readers would be advised to have a philosophical dictionary to hand.) A paper on "whistle-blowing' is clear as to the issues, but finally ambiguous as to any answers. The subsection "On the Nature of the Good Life" is instructive primarily as it relates to the authors' biases. Aristotle and Augustine are denigrated even though they pursue a higher abstraction (rationality) and a higher object (God) whereas the more recent writing is lauded even though it becomes inherently undefinable. These guys are big on utilitarianism. The second section, on "Computers and the Ideal Life" is hard to pin down. The best description might be that it raises issues related to the quality of life, and the contribution, or threat, that technology has to various areas. The pieces addressing privacy here are very much poorer than the earlier Charles Fried articles. They seem to agree that privacy is an important issue, and you should be careful. "Quality of Personal Life" is odd, as it deals with computers as persons (and people not at all). Four articles on the quality of work life basically state that technology is changing the way we work. The closest they come to an ethical statement is some anecdotal evidence that women may be being exploited in the workplace. (This, apparently, is a surprise.) The fourth subsection is entitled, "Justice: the Nature and Distribution of Work", but without solid economic analysis it is really only a speculative extension of the previous articles. The final section, "Issues Facing Computer Professionals", is, in fact, primarily concerned with another profession. Aside from the "GNU Manifesto" and two articles on SDI (one for and one against), the remaining articles are almost completely concerned with the law, and ethics are a very distant, second consideration. Much of the material collated here is interesting, and worthwhile background for a course in computer ethics, but it doesn't go anywhere. The quality is very uneven and, ultimately, much of the writing is disappointing. The section and subsection headings often bear only the most tenuous connection to the contents, although related articles to tend to have some commonality. As course reading material, this book could be very useful in the hands of a good instructor. As a resource for those working in the lines...well, I suppose we keep looking and hoping. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKETHICS.RVW 930819 ====================== DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" (Oct. '94) Springer-Verlag