Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Part I Introduction and background
- Part II Ethical approaches
- Part III Ethical issues in the information society
- 6 Social issues in computer ethics
- 7 Rights and computer ethics
- 8 Conflict, security and computer ethics
- 9 Personal values and computer ethics
- 10 Global information and computer ethics
- 11 Computer ethics and applied contexts
- Part IV Ethical issues in artificial contexts
- Part V Metaethics
- Epilogue: The ethics of the information society in a globalized world
- References
- Index
8 - Conflict, security and computer ethics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Part I Introduction and background
- Part II Ethical approaches
- Part III Ethical issues in the information society
- 6 Social issues in computer ethics
- 7 Rights and computer ethics
- 8 Conflict, security and computer ethics
- 9 Personal values and computer ethics
- 10 Global information and computer ethics
- 11 Computer ethics and applied contexts
- Part IV Ethical issues in artificial contexts
- Part V Metaethics
- Epilogue: The ethics of the information society in a globalized world
- References
- Index
Summary
In the long history of human development, almost all technological advances have been quickly harnessed for purposes of war-making. The hunter-gatherer's atlatl – a handheld rod-and-thong with a socket into which a spear was inserted – greatly extended his throwing range, and was good for bringing down prey and handy for fighting competing tribesmen. The same was true of the bow and arrow as well. A kind of dual-use phenomenon – with the same advances having both economic and military applications – soon became evident. For example, the wheel helped move goods in carts, but also led to the war chariot. And so on, since antiquity. The pattern held right up through the industrial revolution, which began over two centuries ago, with steam revolutionizing both land and maritime trade, and giving far greater mobility to armies and navies. Next came aircraft, whose uses seemed to apply to conflict before they did to commerce, since very soon after humankind took to the air a century ago, bombs began to rain down from the sky. The same pattern also held for the atom, with the very first use of nuclear power in 1945 being to kill some hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. ‘Atoms for peace’ came later. Today, early on in the information age, it is clear that the computer too has been yoked to serve Mars, vastly empowering the complex manoeuvres of modern militaries and the disruptive aims of terrorist networks.
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- The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics , pp. 133 - 148Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
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