COSC 130 – Fundamentals of Cybersecurity & Privacy

Week 3 Lecture Notes

Computer Ethics & Professional Code of Conduct
Lecturer: Ljiljana Brankovic

1. Overview & Context

This lecture continues from Week 2's ethical frameworks (virtue ethics, deontology,
consequentialism, principalism, human rights, and risk ethics) and focuses specifically on
computer ethics and professional codes of conduct for ICT professionals.

Key themes covered:

• Origins of computer ethics — tracing roots to Aristotle
• Norbert Wiener's foundational work in cybernetics and its ethical implications
• The rise of AI and its parallels to historical concerns
• Methodology for resolving computer ethics problems
• Professional Codes of Conduct (ACM and IEEE)

2. Motivating Ethical Dilemma

The lecture opens with a realistic scenario to frame the relevance of the content:

Scenario Your software team has built a great app, but testing has not been completed. Your
manager instructs you to deliver it on Friday to meet the deadline. What do you do?

Possible courses of action:

• Deliver on time as instructed
• Refuse — the code isn't ready
• Deliver but document all risks in writing (e.g. via email to your manager)
• Escalate to senior leadership
• Seek advice from a professional society

This is a genuine ethical dilemma with no clear 'right' answer — every option has pros and cons.
Today's lecture provides frameworks to help navigate situations like this.
3. Origins of Computer Ethics — Aristotle
3.1 Aristotle's View of Animals and Humans
Aristotle (384–322 BC), the father of virtue ethics, provides the philosophical foundation for
computer ethics. His model of animal behaviour maps remarkably well onto modern computing:

Aristotle's Concept Computing Equivalent

Sense organs collecting Input layer / sensors
environmental input
Information processing Processing / algorithms
according to physiology
Memory storage in complex Data storage / memory
animals
Pattern recognition & learning Machine learning / AI
Decision making (practical & AI decision systems
theoretical reasoning)

Key distinctions Aristotle makes:

• Plants vs. Animals: Animals can perceive and respond to their environment; plants
largely cannot.
• Simple vs. Complex Animals: Simple animals react immediately with no stored memory;
complex animals store information to shape future behaviour.
• Humans as the most sophisticated animals: Possess both theoretical reasoning
(acquiring knowledge) and practical reasoning (performing actions with excellence).

What is ethical/good for Aristotle: Whatever helps an organism flourish and reach its full
potential — for humans, this means excelling through learning, variety, and practical action.

4. Norbert Wiener & Cybernetics

4.1 Background
Norbert Wiener was a professor of mathematics at MIT in the 1950s, and the founder of
cybernetics — the scientific study of control and communication in animals and machines. His
views closely parallel Aristotle's but are framed through an information-processing lens.

4.2 Core Features of Life-Imitating Automata

Wiener argued that a machine truly imitating life must possess all of the following:
 • Effector organs — the ability to perform tasks (equivalent to arms, legs)
• Sense organs — ability to interact with and collect data from its environment (e.g.
photoelectric cells, thermometers)
• Self-monitoring — records its own performance
• Feedback capability — adjusts future behaviour based on past performance
• Central decision organs — a 'brain' that determines what to do next (i.e. a processor)
• Memory storage — stores information for future decisions

Note Wiener's model of life-imitating machines in the 1950s essentially described what we
now call intelligent autonomous systems and AI agents.

4.3 Wiener on Human Nature

Wiener shares Aristotle's view on human flourishing but frames it differently:
• Humans are information-processing entities — defined entirely by their physiology (no
soul or extra dimension)
• Humans must have variety and possibility to flourish — repetitive, mechanical existence
destroys human potential
• Repetitive work is degrading — a person condemned to perform the same function
repeatedly won't even be a good 'ant', let alone a good human being

4.4 Wiener's Four Principles of Justice

Wiener (named by Bynum) established principles to define conditions necessary for human
flourishing:

Principle Description
Freedom Every human being has the liberty to develop the full measure of human
possibilities within them. Denying variety and possibility prevents flourishing.
Equality What is just for person A and person B remains just when their positions are
interchanged. Fairness must be symmetric.
Benevolence Humans can flourish only by supporting one another. Goodwill between
people — extending to all of humanity — is essential.
Minimum Any constraints that society or government must impose should produce no
Infringement of unnecessary infringement of freedom. Only what is truly necessary for
Freedom society's functioning is permissible.
5. Computing Machines, AI, and Ethical Implications
5.1 Wiener's Vision of Computing (1948–1950)
• Computing machines are unique control systems — fundamentally different from all
other technologies
• Foresaw a world surrounded by smart devices constantly collecting and providing data
(essentially predicting IoT)
• Recognised unprecedented social potentiality — technology can be used for both good
and evil
• Society is defined by its internal messages and communications — computing will
transform communication and therefore transform society itself

5.2 The AI Challenge — Then and Now

Wiener's 1948/50 warnings about automation apply directly to today's AI boom:

Wiener's As machines replicate human intellectual capacity, society faces a choice: accept
Warning widespread cognitive obsolescence, or deliberately rebuild civilisation around values
beyond commerce and labour.

His Industrial Revolution analogy:

• First Industrial Revolution: Machines devoured physical labour — no wage for a labourer
could compete with a steam shovel
• Computer Revolution (Second IR): Similarly bound to 'devour human brain' — at least in
simpler, more routine decisions
• Just as physical labour lost value, cognitive labour risks losing value

His proposed solution: Build new social values — a society based on human values other than
buying and selling. This requires significant planning and struggle.

5.3 Key Ethical Questions Raised by Wiener/Bynum

Wiener's original questions and their modern equivalents:

Wiener's Question (1940s–50s) Modern Equivalent

What are the social & ethical consequences of What are the social & ethical implications of
ultra-rapid computing machines? creating and using ICT (including AI)?
How can we cope with automatisation to serve How can we ethically integrate ICT into society
and preserve human values? while preserving human values?
What are the obligations of people engaged in What are the special social & ethical
 creating computerised automata? responsibilities of ICT professionals?

5.4 Specific Ethical Issues Identified by Wiener

Remarkably, in the 1940s–50s, Wiener identified issues still central today:
• Computers replacing humans in the workplace
• Encryption and government secrecy
• Computerised weapons in warfare
• Access to computing for persons with disabilities
• Intellectual property
• Computers as decision-makers (e.g. life-and-death medical decisions)

Wiener on To transfer responsibility for moral choices to a machine — whether it can learn or
AI Decision- not — is to cast that responsibility to the winds, and find it coming back seated on the
Making whirlwind.

6. Methodology for Applying Computer Ethics

(Bynum, 2000)
6.1 Bynum's Guiding Principles
Bynum (2000) proposed a methodology grounded in Wiener's principles, adding two further
criteria:

• Human Purpose — Ethical judgments must be grounded in human flourishing.

Does this action help people reach their full potential?
• Principles of Justice — Apply Wiener's four principles: Freedom, Equality,
Benevolence, and Minimum Infringement of Freedom.
• Unambiguity — The meaning of ethical concepts and rules must be clear. If
unclear, clarify before applying.
• Precedent and Tradition — New cases should be assimilated into the existing
body of cases, rules, laws, and practices wherever possible.

6.2 Three-Step Problem-Solving Process

When facing a computer ethics issue:

1. Identify the ethical question or case

– Clearly define what decision or situation needs to be addressed
2. Clarify any ambiguous concepts or rules
 – Ensure all key terms and applicable rules are unambiguous before proceeding
3. Apply existing principles, laws, rules, and practices
– Use precedent and traditional interpretation for consistency
– If the case fits existing rules → apply them
– If not → adjust existing policies to accommodate
– If adjustment is insufficient → introduce a new policy entirely

7. Development of Computer Ethics as a Field

7.1 Key Thinkers

Scholar Year Contribution

James Moor 1985 "What is Computer Ethics?" — argued computers create new
capabilities, new choices, and thus policy vacuums requiring
new rules
Walter Maner 1976 Argued widespread computer use introduces genuinely new
ethical issues not seen before
Deborah 2004 Disagreed — argued these are old ethical issues with a new
Johnson technological twist, not fundamentally new problems
Joseph 1976 "Computer Power and Human Reason" — created ELIZA
Weisenbaum chatbot; shocked by how people became emotionally attached
to a simple program

7.2 The ELIZA Effect — Weisenbaum's Warning

Weisenbaum created ELIZA in the 1960s — a simple chatbot using a 'Doctor' script that
mimicked a Rogerian psychiatrist by reflecting back the patient's own words. The disturbing
finding:
• People became emotionally attached to the program after very short exposure
• Users shared deeply personal information with what was a simple pattern-matching
program
• Even Weisenbaum's own secretary asked him to leave so she could talk to ELIZA
privately
• Weisenbaum concluded: "Extremely short exposures to relatively simple computer
programs could induce powerful delusional thinking in quite normal people."

This remains directly relevant today with AI chatbots, virtual assistants, and social robots.
8. What Makes Computer Technology Ethically
Distinctive
Computer technology amplifies the scale and scope of ethical concerns in two key ways:

8.1 Volume and Scale

• Record-keeping at unprecedented scale — every click, location, and interaction can be
stored
• Ability to collect, organise, and mine vast amounts of personal information
• Empowers individuals to do harm at a scale previously impossible (e.g. data in the
hands of authoritarian regimes)

8.2 New Concepts with No Existing Rules

• New technologies and concepts emerge for which no rules exist: huge personal
databases, cookies, AI, cloud computing, chat rooms
• Individuals with computer knowledge bear extra ethical responsibilities because of the
power asymmetry between them and the general public

8.3 Three Levels of Ethical Responsibility (Gotterbarn)

Gotterbarn identified a hierarchy of ethical responsibility:

Level 1: General values held by all members of society — integrity, freedom, justice,
Humanity fairness.

Level 2: Higher order of care expected of any professional — societal well-being, not
Professionalism just personal interest.

Level 3: ICT Profession-specific standards defined in the Code of Ethics for ICT/software
Profession engineers.

9. Professional Code of Conduct

9.1 Six Functions of a Code of Conduct (Gotterbarn)

• Inspiration — Inspires professionals to behave ethically; inspires public

confidence in the profession. (Downside: formulations tend to be vague, limiting
practical utility.)
 • Guidance — Modern codes are normative (offer general guidance) rather than
regulatory (strict punishable rules). Requires professional judgment; not a
complete decision procedure.
• Education — Educates (a) current and prospective ICT professionals about their
commitments and responsibilities; (b) managers and legislators about what to
expect; (c) the general public about minimum acceptable professional standards.
• Support — Provides professionals with a basis to push back on unethical
instructions (e.g. "this is contrary to our professional code of conduct").
• Deterrence — Can serve as formal basis for professional discipline: revoking
membership or suspending licences for failure to meet minimum standards.
• Public Image — Codes enhance the profession's public reputation. (Note: codes
typically discourage public criticism of fellow professionals to avoid reputational
damage to the field.)

9.2 ACM and IEEE Codes of Ethics

Two major professional codes for ICT:
• ACM — Association for Computing Machinery: Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
• IEEE — Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers: Code of Ethics

Common themes across both codes (identified by Stalling):

• Dignity and worth of other people (links to deontological ethics)
• Personal integrity and honesty (links to virtue ethics)
• Responsibility for your work (deontological)
• Confidentiality of information
• Public safety, health, and welfare
• Participation in professional societies to improve standards
• Access to technology = social power — those without access to technology are
marginalised; professionals have a responsibility regarding this

10. Key Takeaways

Core Insight Computer ethics is not a new discipline invented in the digital age — it traces back to
Aristotle and was formalised by Wiener in the 1940s. The questions raised then are
the same ones we grapple with today, particularly with the rise of AI.

• The purpose of ethics is to help humans flourish — this is the foundation for evaluating
any ICT-related ethical decision.
• Wiener's four principles (Freedom, Equality, Benevolence, Minimum Infringement)
provide a practical framework for ethical judgment.
 • When facing an ethical dilemma, follow Bynum's three steps: identify, clarify, then
apply/adapt/create policy.
• ICT professionals carry a higher ethical burden than the general public due to the power
their knowledge and tools confer.
• Codes of conduct are not just rules — they inspire, guide, educate, support, deter, and
protect the public image of the profession.
• The AI challenge today echoes Wiener's concerns about the industrial revolution —
society must proactively rebuild around human values, not just economic ones.

Tutorial (Week 3): Exercises using ACM and IEEE Codes of Ethics — problem-based exploration of real ethical
scenarios. Next Week: Privacy (legal aspects + technical content).