Santa Clara University

Being

      If you were given special abilities and talents, would you have a different level of responsibility? If you were able to do things that you weren’t able to do before, would you be another person? Sounds pretty deep and cause to grab some Tylenol (or the remote) but asking some questions about the people we are becoming as individuals and as members of groups as a result of technologies is critical. New programs and gadgets are changing what is possible to do, to know, and to create; new technologies are changing who we are. Don’t think that this is stuff just for philosophy majors: anyone living and adapting in our new technology-driven world has a responsibility to know, to understand, and to act.

      A solid rule of thumb might be to examine the personal and social implications of incorporating a new technology. Admittedly, understanding and predicting implications with accuracy creates many problems. That is where a second rule of thumb should be triggered; if the possible consequences of a technology are overwhelmingly bad, or seem to be, then development and implementation should wait until more is known.

      The best ethical approach might be one that, like new technologies, democratizes decision making but encourages informed evaluations. Ethics should seek to function like a hi-tech tool that allows billions of decision makers autonomy and judgment but assists in filtering information and guiding action.

      Understanding how technologies function is imperative. If you use a technology, then you should have a basic understanding of how it functions. You wouldn’t get in a  car (hopefully) without understanding how to turn it on, make it stop and turn; the rules of driving itself are also critical. Similarly, when operating a Facebook account, a blog, or a digital character, a certain amount of personal responsibility should exist stressing competence. No informed decision can be made without information. Lest, students end up like US Senator Ted Stevens who famously quipped that the Internet was a truck and that the trucks get stuck in the tubes. Ignorance impairs decision making but does not excuse actions with unethical dimensions.

      In addition to basic responsibilities of operation, the expanded capacity to know and act may increase students’ ethical responsibilities towards other people. Cries for help on profiles or videos of suffering in another country connect students to tragedy and pain. If responsibilities are born and intensified because of proximity, then the Internet’s increase of proximity through expanded communication has increased students’ responsibilities. Ignorance of social problems and ways to act are becoming outdated when the Internet allows users to communicate and rally around a variety of important and emerging ethical problems around the world. Student documentaries, shared in college student Internet forums, highlighting suffering in war torn regions are often catalysts for awareness and action. Facebook groups are routinely used by campus groups to recruit members and organize food and blood drives as well as service trips to other countries.

      The increased capacity for communication, organization, and action creates a new ethical toolkit which itself brings new responsibilities that students must confront and grow into.