Workshop: Ethical Guidance for Research and Application of Pervasive and Autonomous Information Technology

研讨会：普适自主信息技术研究与应用的伦理指导

• 批准号: 0848097
• 负责人: Kenneth Pimple
• 金额: $ 2.5万
• 依托单位: Indiana University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-03-15 至 2011-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0848097&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Workshop; Ethical; Guidance; Research; Application

This workshop, supported by the Science, Technology & Society Program and the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate at NSF, will discuss ethical guidance for research and application of pervasive and autonomous information technology. Technologies are being developed today using very small, relatively inexpensive, wireless-enabled computers that will most likely result in the near-omnipresence of information gathering and processing devices embedded in clothing, appliances, carpets, food packaging, doors and windows, paperback books, and other everyday items to gather data about when and how (and possibly by whom) an item is used. The data can be analyzed, stored, and shared via the Internet. Some of these pervasive technologies will also be autonomous, making decisions on their own about what data to gather and share, which actions to take (sound an alarm, lock a door), and the like. The potential benefits of pervasive and autonomous information technology are many and varied, sometimes obvious, sometimes obscure--as are the ethical implications of their development and deployment. The history of information technology suggests that long-standing issues including usability, privacy, and security, among others, as well as relatively new phenomena such as ethically blind autonomous systems, are best addressed early. When such issues are addressed early, they can become part of the culture of researchers and engineers responsible for identifying needs and designing solutions. This will be an international meeting of experts in ubiquitous and autonomous information technologies, ethicists well-versed in practical ethics, and other stakeholders. The meeting will feature: discussions of case studies describing actual and anticipated uses of pervasive and autonomous information technology, invited presentations on key issues, working groups to identify and categorize ethical concerns, and other community-building activities aimed at formulating ethical principles to help researchers and designers recognize and address ethical issues at every stage, from design to deployment to obsolescence. The participants will form the core of a new interdisciplinary subfield of value-centered pervasive and autonomous information technology which will build on the principles by developing guidelines and conceptual tools to support communication and collaboration among researchers, engineers, and ethicists.

本次研讨会由科学、技术与社会计划和美国国家科学基金会的计算机和信息科学与工程理事会支持，将讨论普及和自主信息技术的研究和应用的伦理指导。如今，正在使用非常小、相对便宜、支持无线的计算机来开发技术，这些计算机最有可能导致几乎无所不在的信息收集和处理设备嵌入到衣服、电器、地毯、食品包装、门窗、平装书和其他日常物品中，以收集关于何时以及如何(以及可能由谁使用)物品的数据。这些数据可以通过互联网进行分析、存储和共享。其中一些无处不在的技术也将是自主的，它们自己决定收集和共享哪些数据，采取哪些行动(发出警报，锁门)等等。无处不在和自主的信息技术的潜在好处是多种多样的，有时是显而易见的，有时是模糊的--其开发和部署的伦理影响也是如此。信息技术的历史表明，最好及早解决长期存在的问题，包括可用性、隐私和安全等问题，以及道德上盲目的自主系统等相对较新的现象。如果这些问题及早得到解决，它们就可以成为负责确定需求和设计解决方案的研究人员和工程师文化的一部分。这将是一次无处不在和自主的信息技术专家、精通实践伦理的伦理学家和其他利益攸关方的国际会议。会议的特点是：讨论描述普及和自主信息技术的实际和预期用途的案例研究，邀请就关键问题作陈述，工作组确定伦理问题并将其归类，以及其他旨在制定伦理原则的社区建设活动，以帮助研究人员和设计者认识和解决从设计到部署再到淘汰的每个阶段的伦理问题。参与者将形成一个新的跨学科子领域的核心，即以价值为中心的普及和自主的信息技术，该领域将以这些原则为基础，通过开发指导方针和概念工具来支持研究人员、工程师和伦理学家之间的沟通和合作。