Abstract

We are confronted more and more with perplexing issues in the ethics of technology. This includes some obvious concerns such as issues in computer ethics and the ethics of biotechnology. However, the ethics of technology covers a wide variety of less obvious, but perhaps more troubling, concerns and issues that are coming at us in greater numbers at an increasingly rapid rate. As such, the ethics of technology is rapidly becoming the dominant ethical concern of our time. At the same time, the ethics of technology is very poorly understood and, due to structural flaws in how we approach it, we are left unable to adequately address some of the more pressing issues of today and the near future. This paper identifies some of these structural flaws, attempts a few solutions, and above all attempts to start a discussion on these problematic issues.

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Structural Flaws in the Ethics of Technology

We are confronted more and more with perplexing issues in the ethics of technology. This includes some obvious concerns such as issues in computer ethics and the ethics of biotechnology. However, the ethics of technology covers a wide variety of less obvious, but perhaps more troubling, concerns and issues that are coming at us in greater numbers at an increasingly rapid rate. As such, the ethics of technology is rapidly becoming the dominant ethical concern of our time. At the same time, the ethics of technology is very poorly understood and, due to structural flaws in how we approach it, we are left unable to adequately address some of the more pressing issues of today and the near future. This paper identifies some of these structural flaws, attempts a few solutions, and above all attempts to start a discussion on these problematic issues.