Ethics deals with moral principles of of right & wrong. Ethics is more concerned with what we ought to do than what we do. Ethical philosophy is exhaustive, encompassing tens of thousands of years of human thought.
As described, ethics is the innate knowledge of right & wrong, as accepted by societies. Morality is living by the principles of right & wrong. It expects sacrificing individual interest for the benefit of the society.
Law translates morality into explicit social guidelines and practices, it stipulates punishments for offenses. It is the job of the authorities
The exponential growth of technology, be it Information & Communication Technology (ICT) or Biotechnology; has created in ethical conundrum in societies, nations and the planet. These technologies & its algorithms are self-regulatory by nature. Corporates and/or individuals, being both the creator and the regulator, it is giving nightmares to societies and governments. The challenge is that algorithms think differently than human beings. Things such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, genomics etc. have not been fully understood by authorities to prepare regulations upon that. Yuval Noah Harari, the famous thought leader and author says that writing code (algorithm) is equal to writing human societies. And, these algorithm makers have no training or knowledge on ethics that stayed in the realms of philosophers whose understanding of technologies are indeed poor.
As in the case of physicians and lawyers, who have to undergo some learning in ethics as part of their studies, no computer technologist, no engineer, no programmer ever undergoes any training in ethics. These professionals who move technology at God’s speed, are neither aware nor sensitised on the application of technology on human beings. The effects of the good and bad part of technology do not bother them much as they code new disruptive technologies with adrenalin pumping excitement and applies it randomly and at times, arbitrarily. The same applies mostly on management professionals too, whose main intent are to proliferate such technologies among masses, in order to monetise it at huge profits.
Most of high-technologies invades into the human privacy. Huge databases of users, that include their specific profiles, created and owned by Social Media platforms, are indeed a threat to the people as these platforms are much more aware of the person’s movement, behaviour, relationship and living habits better than the person himself. And today, technologically, it is also possible to continuously monitor all the people, all the time. Thus human privacy is totally lost, not only that, he had become manoeuvrable by the technology platforms. An example is the experimentation of the tech consulting company, Cambridge Analytica, on the electorate in specific parts of the country during the US election that was won by Donald Trump.
So if a person’s movement and behaviour is monitored and he is mentally made amenable, what would be the effect if a bio hacking happens on him where his body insides also undergo surveillance? It is where computer science combines with biological sciences to totally map out a person’s inside, outside, movement and behaviour. Imagine, what privacy is left of him, then? The beginning of such a biometric surveillance happened during Covid, in offices, airports, rail stations and meeting places, and all of you had undergone this surveillance, be it your temperature mapping or measuring the your breath for microbes and virus, all without you really knowing…….
Just look at this scenario. You are listening to a speech of an activist on your mobile device and he speaks with full anger against the authorities and you are listening to him. As he gets angry, you too are getting angry. And a software that is hacked into your device without your knowledge sends your present state of mind to the security agencies of the authoritarian government that rules your nation. What will happen of you thereafter? Heard of a surveillance software called Pegasus?
So, with the “big brother”, be it your establishment or authorities or government, who is monitoring your inside and outside on 24/7 basis, is there any privacy left out for you to protect? Isn’t it an existential question for you? And, what if your information is sold for commercial purposes or used against you to implicate and incarcerate you?
Thus
we come back to companies that code such disruptive algorithms. In a capital
economy based system, such companies, come what may, would be tempted to
monetise the innovation as have been the case ever since technology exploded
into our lives. However we see some changes happening in the ecosystem with
NGOs & some leading entrepreneurs combinedly have asked for a pause of such
technologies, allowing governments and ecosystem players (industry bodies) to
come out with laws and appropriate ethical code of conduct to regulate them.
For example, we hear that Microsoft, one of the world’s leading tech giants, is
implementing 6 ethical codes of conduct for its employees viz. 1. Protection of
privacy, 2. Transparency, 3. Inclusivity, 4. Fairness - avoiding all sorts of
biases. 5. Safety and Security & 6. Accountability of actions. Microsoft leadership promises that every
engineer/technologist in their system will undergo training on these codes of
conduct and infringing the same will have severe punishment.
It is also important to increase the citizen / civil society activism on these matters where they involve with corporates and organisations who are making & using such technologies, in order to sensitise them and prevent dastardly acts using them. From a philosophical level, the ethics and governance should flow down to practical technology level. Authorities and governments also must work on such ethical issues on a priority basis so that laws, conventions, practices, code of conduct etc. could be made and put in place benefitting nations and trade blocks. On such matters, the involvement of European Union on tech companies indulging in pushing products that harm / affect human beings, imposing huge penalties and blacklisting etc.,is appreciable, even if it is only addressing the tip of the iceberg.
A more enlightened approach is required of governments, corporates & citizenry to curb such ethical issues. Collective wisdom, avoiding parochial nationalism, continuous learning & powerful laws are the key to make the world a better place to live.
