1. Computer Ethics by Dr. Bun Yue Professor of Computer Science yue@uhcl.edu http://sce.uhcl.edu/yue/ 2013 yue@uhcl.edu http://sce.uhcl.edu/yue/ CSCI 3333 Data Structures

2. Acknowledgement  Krishani Abeysekera  Charles Moen

3. Ethics Definition  From Wikipedia: “Ethics is a major branch of philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life. It is significantly broader than the common conception of analyzing right and wrong. A central aspect of ethics is "the good life", the life worth living or life that is satisfying, which is held by many philosophers to be more important than moral conduct.”

4. Ethics  Another definition: Ethics is the process of determining right and wrong conducts. Morally right and wrong: good to the society. Good life: good to self.  Tragedy of common goods Tragedy of common goods  Example of ethical values: honesty.

5. Cheating Culture  Cheating is everywhere!  There is a cheating culture (no longer among criminals and hucksters): David Callahan, The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead.

6. Why cheating culture?  Getting ‘ahead’: ‘short cuts’.  Everybody is doing it.  Cheaters ‘win’?  ‘Results’-oriented society.  Low punishment for cheaters.  Peer pressure.  Easy to cheat.  …

7. Cheating Examples  Sports  CEOs  School  …

8. Society Cost of Cheating  Not the moral things to do: high cost to the society. Trust lowers the cost of doing business. Less resources for the common wealth. Not merit based (compared to open source software, OSS, development)  How much will this weight on individuals?

9. Cheating  Morally, not the right thing to do.  Personally, is this the ‘right’ thing to do?

10. Personal ‘Benefits’ of Cheating  Getting ‘ahead’ (if not get caught).  Self perception of ‘smartness’: E.g. Frank Abagnale Jr. in “Catch me if you can”.  …

11. Consideration of Cheating I  What do we mean by ‘getting ahead’? Consider a longer horizon. What are your long term objectives?  Related example: Should I take a lot of easy courses?

12. Consideration of Cheating II  Psychology of ‘the crowd of sheeps’: conformity. Expose yourself to a bigger landscape.  Psychological cost of cheating. Difference among individuals. Cheating => loss of self respect? Most people considered themselves honest: gray area’s rationalization.

13. 13 Computer Ethics  Computer systems are everywhere  As software engineers, systems engineers, or computer scientists we have “significant opportunities to do good or to cause harm” (ACM/IEEE- CS) ‏ Software Engineering

14. Computer Ethics Challenges  Rapidly changing technologies.  Balance of different needs.  Example: music download (Digital Millennium Copyright Act: DMCA)  Balances between: Copyright protection Innovation Fair use Cost …

15. Some Computer Ethical Issues  Replacing humans with computers  Computer Security  Privacy and Confidentiality  Software piracy  Globalization

16. 16 Ethics Training  Even minimal training in ethics helps us make better choices (Harris, J., M. Cummings, and C. Fogliasso, “Ethical Codes and Their Effect on Conduct.” Journal for Computing Sciences in Colleges, October 2002.)  Opposing views: dogmatic, boring, symbolic only. Software Engineering

17. Ethics Thinking  Know the basic of laws related to ethics.  Think about ethical issues!

18. Some food for thought  As an ethical software engineer, why is it important for you to choose the most efficient data structures and algorithms in the programs you write for your clients?

19. Questions?