You notice that there is a loophole in the security for the Internet, and so you let loose a worm that brings down close to 3,000 computers, because you feel that it would be a good way to point out the weakness of the system (Robert Morris, Jr., at Cornell in 1988):

Hope that a simple rule works.

ChristianityAll things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye so to them; for this is the law and the prophets. Matthew 7:1 ConfucianismDo not do to others what you would not like yourself. Then there will be no resentment against you, either in the family or in the state. Analects 12:2 BuddhismHurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. Udana-Varga 5,1 HinduismThis is the sum of duty; do naught onto others what you would not have them do unto you. Mahabharata 5,1517 IslamNo one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself. Sunnah JudaismWhat is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman. This is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary. Talmud, Shabbat 3id TaoismRegard your neighbor’s gain as your gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss. Tai Shang Kan Yin P’ien ZoroastrianismThat nature alone is good which refrains from doing another whatsoever is not good for itself. Dadisten-I-dinik, 94,5

Hope that a simple rule works. Free software?

Appeal to authority (or “pass the buck”).

Leviticus 25: 45-46: “Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour.”

Appeal to authority. 1 Timothy 6:1-2 : " Christians who are slaves should give their masters full respect so that the name of God and his teaching will not be shamed. If your master is a Christian, that is no excuse for being disrespectful. "

Appeal to authority.

Cecil Rhodes Henry Ford

De Beers Rhodesia

"I contend that we are the first race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race...If there be a God, I think that what he would like me to do is paint as much of the map of Africa British Red as possible..." De Beers Rhodesia

In 1999, he was among 18 included in Gallup's List of Widely Admired People of the 20th Century, from a poll conducted of the American people. Gallup's List of Widely Admired People of the 20th Century

“If fans wish to know the trouble with American baseball they have it in three words—too much Jew.” In 1999, he was among 18 included in Gallup's List of Widely Admired People of the 20th Century, from a poll conducted of the American people. Gallup's List of Widely Admired People of the 20th Century

From Rushworth Kidder, Moral Courage, p. 89

Rationalization: Everyone does it. It’s standard practice. It doesn’t really hurt anyone. This is not my responsibility. I shouldn’t stick my nose in. If I make a stink, I won’t be effective but I’ll get a reputation as a complainer. If I stood up for what I believe, they’d just fire me and get someone else to do what they want.

The context: Using cell phones.

Talk loudly?

The context: Using cell phones. Talk loudly? Text while driving?

“The achievement of his own happiness is man’s highest moral purpose.” - Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness (1961)

John Stuart Mill Jeremy Bentham

Choose the action that results in the greatest total good. To do this, we need to: Define what’s good. Find a way to measure it.

X has written a hit song. You can put the song up on the web and distribute it to all the fans. Millions of people win. One person loses.

An organization dedicated to reducing spam tries to get ISPs in a developing country to stop the spammers by protecting their servers. When this fails, the anti- spam organization puts the ISPs on their blacklist. Many ISPs in the US check that list and refuse to accept mail from blacklisted ISPs. The amount of spam received by a typical US user goes down by 25%. Regular customers in the developing country can’t send to their families.

Foxconn's largest factory worldwide is in Longhua, Shenzhen, where hundreds of thousands of workers (varying counts include 230,000, 300,000, and 450,000 ] ) are employed in a walled campus sometimes referred to as "iPod City“, that covers about 1.16 square miles. A quarter of the employees live in the dormitories, and many of them work up to 12 hours a day for 6 days each week. [16]LonghuaShenzhen ] [16]

Required to exist: Life, Health Maintain fulfillment: Not to be: deceived, cheated, stolen from, have promises reneged on. Increase fulfillment: property, respect,

Should Your Code Be Open Source? Open source code: Allows the industry to make rapid progress because new code can easily be built on top of existing code. Is higher quality. But where’s the competitive advantage? A 2011 report analyzed more than 37 million lines of open source software code and more than 300 million lines of proprietary software code from a sample of anonymous Coverity users. For open source projects, which have an average project size of 832,000 lines of code, the average number of defects per thousand lines of code was.45. For example, Linux 2.6, PHP 5.3, and PostgreSQL 9.1 had defect densities of.62,.20, and.21, respectively. But in propriety codebases, which averaged 7.5 million lines of code, the average defect density was.64.

An example: organ-donation-feature/ /1 organ-donation-scheme-fizzles/

Is it “right” to share music files on the Internet?

New weapons must conform to International Humanitarian Law: Article 36 of the Geneva Conventions, Additional Protocol I of 1977, specifies:Geneva Conventions In the study, development, acquisition or adoption of a new weapon, means or method of warfare, a High Contracting Party is under an obligation to determine whether its employment would, in some or all circumstances, be prohibited by this Protocol or by any other rule of international law applicable to the High Contracting Party.

Conventional (human) soldiers are not generally regarded as weapons.

But, do we agree that a sophisticated robotic soldier is a weapon?

Conventional (human) soldiers are not generally regarded as weapons. But, do we agree that a sophisticated robotic soldier is a weapon? What about a cyborg?