Seminar 2: Ethics
Seminar 2 : Location, time, place
Note: The seminars start 15min past the hour. Make sure to be there before that otherwise you will miss the seminar.
| Group | Date and time | Place | Mentor |
| 1 | Mon 23/11 10:15-12 | Teknikringen 14, floor 5, room 523 Wait at the door outside the corridor. Do not ring the bell!!! |
Patric |
| 2 | Mon 23/11 13:15-15 | Meeting room floor 8, Osquldasv. 10. Be there or at the floor entrance at 13.15 | Elling |
| 3 | Tue 24/11 10:15-12 | conference room on floor 6, Osquldas väg 10, please be at the entrance at 10.15 | Alexandre |
| 4 |
Tue 24/11 13:15-15 |
conference room on floor 6, Osquldas väg 10, please be at the entrance at 13.15 | Cristian |
| 5 | Wed 25/11 10:15-12 | 6th floor conference room, Osquldas Väg 10, please be at the entrance at 10.15 | Dimos |
| 6 | Wed 25/11 13:15-15 | 6th floor conference room, Osquldas Väg 10, please be at the entrance at 13.15 | Jonas |
Seminar 2 topic : Ethics in Engineering
Engineering ethics deals with the ethical issues of developing and implementing new technologies as well as with the guiding principles of engineering practice. In this seminar we will cover both of these aspects.
Reading Material
Links to mandatory material
- Ethical issues of designing new technologies
http://www.raeng.org.uk/publications/reports/autonomous-systems-report - IEEE code of ethics
http://www.ieee.org/about/corporate/governance/p7-8.html
Links to additional material
Autonomous cars
- http://www.autoblog.com/2015/10/09/volvo-accept-autonomous-car-liability/
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http://www.technologyreview.com/view/542626/why-self-driving-cars-must-be-programmed-to-kill
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http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34475031
- http://www.wired.com/2014/08/heres-a-terrible-idea-robot-cars-with-adjustable-ethics-settings/
- http://www.wired.com/2014/09/set-the-ethics-robot-car/
Autonomous weapons
- http://futureoflife.org/AI/open_letter_autonomous_weapons
- http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/tors/TOR-2014-11-17-Summer_Study_2015_on_Autonomy.pdf
- http://icrac.net
- http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/military-robots-and-the-laws-of-war
- https://www.law.upenn.edu/institutes/cerl/conferences/ethicsofweapons/
- http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150715-killer-robots-the-soldiers-that-never-sleep
Written reflection
You should write a reflecting text of 500-600 words (about a page). The text should be written as one piece of text and thus, e.g., not repeat questions or contain bullets. This exercise is about expressing your own opinion. You should write what you think and not what you think someone wants to read.
Select one of the following areas
- E-democracy: Electronic voting
- Location based services
- E-health: Tele/Remote-presence, i.e. physicians working at a distance
- E-health: Domestic autonomous robotic personal assistants
- Autonomous cars
- Autonomous weapons
and analyse it from an ethical point of view. In your analysis:
- Identify the stakeholders, that is, all the actors that are connected to this technology, including for example designers, equipment and service providers and users
- Identify a few ethical issues related to this technology and analyze them
- Identify and evaluate alternative solutions or actions to avoid possible ethical problems.
- What parts of the IEEE code of ethics is most relevant to the ethical issues you identified in the specific technology application that you have considered? What is missing? Propose an extension (one or several items) to the IEEE code of ethics so that it better covers the issues you identified.
Please note that we will be more strict about you following the instructions this time and in the future. You get 2 points for a well written reflection that meets the requirements. If you do not meet the requirements, points will be deducted.
Submission
- Write your name at the top of the page.
- Provide a word count at the end of the document (should be >= 500)
- Save the document in PDF format (there are several free PDF converters available, for example PrimoPDF if your word processing software does not support PDF).
- Name your document seminar2-firstname-familyname.pdf and upload it to the corresponding assignment in BILDA (http://bilda.kth.se).
- Don't put your person number on the assignment. Use your kth.se address instead to uniquely identify you. The assignments will be distributed to many other students and it is unnecessary to let all of them know you person number.
NOTE: To be considered fulfilling the requirements you MUST clearly show that you have read the required reading material and reference it using clear references in your reflection text.
Before the seminar
Read all the reflecting documents from your group. Make notes of the the most interesting parts in the reflections and be ready to discuss these at the seminar.
During the seminar
Take active part in the discussions!
If you cannot attend the seminar
If you know in advance that you cannot participate on the seminar, indicate this in the doodle that will be sent out. If you miss a seminar, you need to write a summary report of 1000-1200 words (ca. two pages), reviewing the reflections of the other students in the group. You need to submit this “reflection over the reflections” before the seminars (see deadline in BILDA). To be acceptable, your reflection on the reflections should make it perfectly clear that you read and reflected on the content of what the others wrote.
- Name your file seminar1-RoR-firstname-familyname.pdf
- Provide a word count at the end of the document (should be >=1000)