Collaborative Research: An Exploratory Study of the ethical Implications of Embedding Values in Computational Models

这项拟议的研究试图探索价值是如何嵌入到计算模型中的，这些价值是如何由专业和组织文化塑造的，以及这些嵌入的价值对计算模型作为产品的成功的影响。为了实现这些目标，三个假设将指导研究：1)计算模型中嵌入的价值观将部分但不完全对应于社会学和科学技术研究文献中的价值观，但也将确定特定于计算模型的额外价值观；2)组织和职业的伦理框架部分但不完全决定在建模过程中嵌入什么价值观；3)在计算模型中嵌入价值是计算模型发展的一个重要方面，因此，作为产品的模型的成败部分但不完全取决于在建模过程中嵌入了什么价值。这个项目出现在建模过程和建模伦理的交叉点上。这两条主线是密不可分的，因为职业道德和组织道德在塑造建模过程中发挥了作用，而理解建模过程对于理解价值如何嵌入计算模型是必要的。为了检验这些假设并实现这些目标，有必要采用多种方法来收集和分析数据。在选定的现场，即计算建模实验室，研究人员将利用结构化问卷、访谈、参与者观察和焦点小组来研究计算建模的过程。数据分析将是定量和定性的，并将基于统计方法、行为分析和内容分析。这项探索性研究的目的是通过执行所有四种数据收集方法并对一个外地地点进行相应的数据分析，同时产生关于计算模型中嵌入的价值观的伦理影响的有价值的数据，从而证明所建议的方法的有效性。这个项目建立在两位研究人员的经验和长处的基础上，包括之前由NSF赞助的研究。其中一名PI拥有40年的计算建模经验，包括建模伦理研究，而另一名PI具有计算机科学、人类学和科学技术研究的教育背景。首先，这项研究的目的是通过提供一个关于计算建模的伦理和价值的深入案例研究，为关于建模伦理的文献做出贡献。第二，进行深入实地数据收集和分析的方法将有助于编写关于专业和组织文化和道德操守的文献。最后，这项研究还将通过将模型作为产品和建模作为过程的文献结合起来，从而更好地理解在计算建模过程中嵌入特定的值对计算模型作为产品的成功的影响。这项研究的第一个社会贡献将是通过向建模者展示价值是如何嵌入到他们产生的模型中，以及这些嵌入的价值的伦理含义，来改进计算建模的实践。这项研究的第二个社会贡献将是让建模者更多地意识到他们组织文化的限制。最后，这项研究和后续研究的结果可能最终会导致开发在线模块，用于对计算机科学专业的学生进行建模伦理教育，这将为计算机科学课程提供免费资源，供他们开发伦理课程使用。

The proposed research seeks to explore how values are embedded in computational models, how these values are shaped by professional and organizational culture, and the effects of these embedded values on the success of computational models as products. In order to accomplish these objectives, three hypotheses will guide the research: 1) that the values embedded in computational models will partially, but not fully, correspond to those found in sociology and science and technology studies literatures, but additional values specific to computational models will also be identified; 2) that the ethical frameworks of the organization and the profession partially, but not fully, determine what values are embedded during the modeling process; and 3) that the embedding of values in computational models is a significant aspect of their development, and thus that the success or failure of a model as a product is partially, but not fully, determined by what values are embedded during the modeling process. This project emerges at the intersection of the process of modeling and the ethics of modeling. These two threads are inseparably interlinked, since professional and organizational ethics play a role in shaping the process of modeling, while an understanding of the process of modeling is necessary in order to understand how values become embedded in computational models. To test these hypotheses and achieve these objectives, it is necessary to employ a multiple-methodology approach to data collection and analysis. At the selected field site, a computational modeling laboratory, the researchers will utilize structured questionnaires, interviews, participant observation, and focus groups to study the process of computational modeling. Data analysis will be both quantitative and qualitative, and will be based on statistical methodologies, behavioral analysis, and content analysis. The purposes of this exploratory study are to demonstrate the validity of the proposed methodology by conducting all four data collection approaches with corresponding data analyses for one field site, while at the same time producing valuable data about the ethical implications of values embedded in computational models. This project builds on the experience and strengths of both researchers, including prior NSF-sponsored research. One of the PIs has forty years of experience as a computational modeler, including research on the ethics of modeling, while the other PI has an educational background in computer science, anthropology, and science and technology studies. This study, first, aims to contribute to the literature on the ethics of modeling by providing an in-depth case study of the ethics and values of computational modeling. Second, the methodology for conducting in-depth field data collection and analysis will contribute to the literature on professional and organizational culture and ethics. Finally, the study will also contribute by bringing together the literatures on models as products and modeling as a process, which can lead to a better understanding of the effect that embedding specific values during the process of computational modeling can have on the success of the computational model as a product. The first social contribution of this study will be to improve the practice of computational modeling by demonstrating to modelers how values are embedded in the models that they produce and the ethical implications of these embedded values. A second social contribution of this study will be to make modelers more aware of the constraints of their organizational cultures. Finally, the findings of this and subsequent research can eventually lead to the development of online modules for educating computer science students in the ethics of modeling, which would provide computer science programs with a free resource that they could use to develop ethics courses.