Current Event #2

The Slippery Slopes of Silicon Valley
About a year ago there were many ethical dilemmas happening in the Silicon Valley. Start-up tech companies were using the data given to them by their users and clients to perform studies and to take down their competitors. Some examples of this are Facebook and Uber. Facebook recently changed up the news feeds of over half a million users to perform a psychological study. This allowed them to alter the number of positive and negative items seen on a user's wall. While this may not have had very significant effects, Facebook was manipulating information in different ways for different customers without their knowledge. Uber, a taxi service, also used technology to take down one of their greatest rivals, Lyft, by sending in fake orders and canceling them. Many people in the world look up to Silicon Valley as the center of the technology industry. However, their loose ethical standards seem to suggest that maybe they aren't the shining pinnacle of inspiration we should all be looking to. Hopefully as these young start-ups grow up they will also mature in their interactions with those around them.

Study Journal #1

September 8

• Ethics and morality are not the same thing. Morality is a set of "rules" that are immutable, while ethics are rules that are changed over time. I always thought that these two words were synonymous, but it makes sense that ethics change over time and from group to group.
• Philosophy has three tenants: Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Ethics. These three items correspond to the following questions: What is reality? How do we know what we know? Given what we know, what should we do? Again, ethics comes down to what is the general consensus on what to do in a given situation. It can be bent and changed over time.
• Aristotle believed that ethics was more about becoming and doing good rather than knowing good. The same is true about hypocrisy. A person can tell others what is right from wrong, but if they don't follow what they teach others, then are they really good / ethical?

September 10

• LDS ethics require that we treat neighbors with respect regardless of the situation. It doesn't matter if your neighbor might be a terrible person. If they are going through hard times, help in any way possible. You might become friends over time and help them to change for the better.
• There are four principles of situational ethics: pragmatism, relativism, positivism and personalism. All I could think of was the song "What is Love?". I guess a lot of music was based off of ideas from situational ethics in the 60's.
• Situational ethics rely on more of a case by case decision process, rather than a set of rules or laws. The only rule it stays true to is "love", or do what is better for the greater good. How would our court systems work though if every case was decided differently by different judges? How do we decide what is the greater good? Unless you are omniscient, this method of thinking is impractical and nearly impossible to implement.

September 15

• Knowledge is power. Data is knowledge. Computer scientists hold the data. Therefore, computer scientists hold the power. However, power should not be abused. Without good ethical codes of conduct, computer scientists can become corrupt and cause great harm in a variety of ways.
• From the article about the fish, sometimes we don't see all the details about something from just quickly glancing at it. We need to interact with it so that we can learn about it.
• Order of Ignorance 2: Lack of Awareness: I do not know that I do not know. Unless you sit still and think about nothing and interact with nobody, this area in the orders of ignorance should be decreasing constantly. We should always be exploring for new information and new knowledge.

September 17

• Temptations of the devil can ALWAYS be overcome by renewed faith in God and by repentance. This phrase doesn't say SOMETIMES or MAYBE, it says ALWAYS. This would be a good quote to put on the wall or as a note to self.
• Many people think that "Christ is peace" means no war. However, this also can apply to having a peace of mind, peace of spirit, peace in the home. Following Christ will help us to avoid contentions.
• He that takes offense when no offense was intended is a fool. He who takes offense when offense was intended is an even greater fool. - Brigham Young --It doesn't matter what other people think about you or call you. The only opinion of yourself that you should care about is Heavenly Father's opinion.

Ethics & Morality

Faith & Scientific Progress - theblaze.com
Recently there have been many reports on the sale of fetal tissue from an organization known as Planned Parenthood. This topic has almost divided the country on which side is in the right. Many of the people who want to shut down the program appear to come from a religious background. Because of this, a Harvard professor stated that although this is a sensitive topic for many, we shouldn't allow faith to get in the way of scientific progress, and that the suffering of many people could be cured if the research could take place unhindered. The way I see it, this professor has no qualms about what can and cannot be done if it is in the name of science. While I wholeheartedly support research and science, if the process includes the killing of infants in their fetal stages, then it should not be allowed to continue. There must be a line drawn in the sand somewhere. A "line in the sand" has actually always been around, which is the code of conduct we call morality. There is also another code called ethics which more people like to subscribe to. However, it seems with each passing day we continue to dash the ethical line and redraw it further away from morality.