Ethical Dimensions of

Technology
 Objectives
• To summarize and evaluate the three central
themes of the book

• To examine the ethical and moral dimensions of

our technological society

• To think critically about the metaphors of

technology as destiny and technology as
progress
 Objectives, cont’d

• To stress the materiality of technological

production, use, and disuse and its effect on
countries in the Global South

• To examine the social and health consequences

of overload and addiction resulting from
overreliance on mobile devices, apps, and online
games
 Three Central Themes
1. The sociotechnical approach: the study of the
complex interlink between the technological and
social
2. Technological inequality: technology and innovation
are closely interwoven with economics and hence
have consequences for our understanding of
inequality
3. Social change: change results inevitably from
technological developments
 1. The Sociotechnical Approach

• Early conceptualizations tended to focus on

technology as material substance, disregarding
the social nature of technological invention,
implementation, and use.

• The sociotechnical approach argues that the

social and technological are closely interwoven.
1. The Sociotechnical Approach, cont’d

• Criticisms of this perspective:

1. It does not explicitly delineate a select set of
variables that need to be examined.
2. The approach does not state what mechanisms
underlie the relationship between technology and
society.
3. ​Little detail is provided as to how this approach
should uncover mechanisms underlying the
mutual shaping process.
 2. Technological Inequality
• Technological inequality generally occurs on
three levels (Schumpeter):
1. T​ he gap between those involved in innovation
versus those in the workforce continues to grow.
2. The difference in society between the haves and
have-nots often plays out in terms of technological
savviness.
3. A global digital divide exists between those
nations who invent, produce, and distribute new
technology and those who continue to fall behind.
 Case Study: Net Neutrality
• Inequality also plays a role in how information is
transmitted via Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
• The large influence that ISPs have over the delivery of
information makes consumers vulnerable to
discrimination
• Example: broadband providers might decide to curb video
streaming services that compete with its cable television
packages
• If net neutrality were lost, a select group of customers
would get preferential treatment, as data would then
travel at different, pre-determined speeds on the net
 Case Study: Net Neutrality, cont’d

• Digital redlining: urban centres are often stratified

geographically by economic class, the unequal
maintenance of network infrastructure can be seen
as an act of discrimination
• In Canada, the CRTC has declared broadband access
a basic fundamental service
• The US ended net neutrality in 2018 and now
economic interests dictate data flows
 3. Social Change
• Social change is described as a significant change
of structured social action or social structure,
which takes place in a society, community, or
social group.

• In the context of technologically induced social

change, analysts often preclude that these
changes are negative, but they can also be
positive.
Ethical and Moral Dimensions of
Our Technological Society

1. Neutrality of technology
2. Technology as human destiny
3. Technology as progress
 1. Neutrality of Technology

• Supporters of this perspective argue that

technology is impartial because, unlike
humans, it lacks a set of moral values and
direction.
1. Neutrality of Technology, cont’d

• What do you think about the neutrality of

technology argument? Is it true or false?
• Provide an example.
1. Neutrality of Technology, cont’d

• Swedish philosopher Sundström (1998) has

described three instances in which technology
could be deemed as being value-neutral:
1. Multiple uses of tools
2. Uncontextualized tool
3. Tool as science
 Moral Machine

• What kinds of decisions should machines make?

• Driverless cars create new moral dilemmas
• Researchers from MIT created a moral dilemma
to investigate how research can inform the
potential moral decisions that machines may
have to make when on the road
 2. Technology as Human Destiny
• The metaphor of destiny in relation to
technology is a powerful mode of approaching
humanity’s relationship to the world.

• Jonas divides technology into two distinct and

separate spheres:
• traditional technologies
• modern technologies
 2. Technology as Human Destiny,
cont’d
• Destiny is a central part of Heidegger’s inquiry.

• Human destiny is not fully determined but is

closely linked to human agency and choice, and
modern technology endangers this freedom by
concealing the full reality of its true nature.
 2. Technology as Human Destiny,
cont’d
• Heidegger feared that humans would become an
object of technology.

• Heidegger’s solution: not to outright reject

technology, but to detach ourselves and
extensively question technology’s purpose and
role in society.
 3. Technology as Progress
• Technology = progress

• This notion is still deeply rooted in Western culture

and continues to have a profound impact on how
we perceive, use, and evaluate technology.

• Advances in the natural sciences allowed for new

technologies to be developed, and these created
new possibilities for how time was spent/divided.
 3. Technology as Progress, cont’d
• Technologies are objects, whose value is developed
through our perception of their functional or
symbolic worth (Baudrillard 2005)

• Moral backwardness: individuals stand vis-à-vis

technology as inferior entities, who do not question
the nature of their social system

• Technological advancement ≠ progress

 Model of Regressiveness
• Technology is regressive because instead of
aiming toward moral progress, by questioning
the present production system with its
inequalities, power relations, and injustices, the
society puts technological progress and failure at
the forefront.
 The Gizmo
• Baudrillard uses the term “gizmo” to describe
technologies that have no clear societal purpose.
• “Gizmo” is an indeterminate term with a vague
and limitless functionality.
• Reinforces the belief that every problem may be
foreseen and resolved
• Sufficient “gizmos” come to suggest “civilization”
• “There is an App for that”
 Energy Production and Inequality
• In an energy-exporting country, like Canada, we
may think that energy poverty does not exist.
• Approximately eight per cent of Canadian
households spend at least 10 per cent of their
income on home energy.
• Households in the Northwest Territories and
Nunavut pay more than double the Canadian
average for electricity due to the limited availability
of lower-cost energy infrastructure like natural gas
 Indigenous Rights
• In order to improve energy supply and cut
transportation costs, governments in the US
and Canada approve new pipeline projects
• Increased number of pipeline projects
• Most significant opposition comes from
Indigenous groups who have been fighting for
the right to their own land
 Indigenous Rights (Cont.)
• Example, Keystone XL:
• Designed to transport crude oil from northeastern
Alberta, Canada to refineries in Illinois, Oklahoma,
and the Gulf Coast in the United States.
• The pipeline traverses Indigenous territories
including The Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in
Montana, home of A’ani and Nakoda peoples, and
the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota,
home of the Sicangu Oyate peoples.
Pipelines and First Nations Lands
 Electronic Waste
• It is important to consider the ethical implications
of what happens to our gadgets when they are
broken, obsolete, or simply no longer fashionable.

• Many materials that compose electronics are either

toxic or non-degradable.

• This waste is often exported to other countries, such

as China, that are poorly equipped to deal with toxic
materials.
 Electronic Waste, cont’d
• Electronic waste, also called e-waste or waste of
electric and electronic equipment (WEEE), refers to
scrapped electric or electronic devices.

• It includes a wide range of discarded household and

commercial technologies, such as computers,
cellphones, televisions, and batteries.
 Electronic Waste, cont’d

• The amount of electronic waste produced

annually has steadily risen because of:
• Globalization
• Development
• Population growth
• Declining retail prices
Electronic Waste, cont’d
 Questioning Technology as
Progress
1. Is technological change always necessary?
2. Does technological advancement improve
humanity?
3. Are there unaccounted-for consequences of
technology that are not always apparent?
4. Does the technology-as-progress paradigm reflect
capitalist notions of society?
 A Society of Overload
• How can we address problems resulting from
overreliance on technology?
• These are not easy questions to answer.

• What to some may seem excessive reliance on

technology may simply seem to others like
normal, everyday use.
 A Society of Overload, cont’d
• Technology alone does not lead to social change;
rather, change involves a coming together of
multiple factors.

• When we look at how and why our technologies

lead to feelings of being overwhelmed, a
complex picture emerges.
 A Society of Overload, cont’d
• Time-space compression results from heavy
reliance on technology that allows for
interactions and the flow of information to occur
at a faster pace and without constraints of
distance.
 A Society of Overload, cont’d
• Information overload is the inability to
effectively make decisions because of too much
information.

• Deterritorialization describes how in a

networked society we observe collisions of social
spheres and social roles.
 A Society of Overload, cont’d

• How can de-stressor technologies help relieve

this overload? Would you use them? Why?
 Conclusions
• Technologies and technological systems are
embedded into the functions of our daily lives.

• Our interactions with these devices have

become almost second nature to the point that
we think nothing of the interplay between
ourselves and our tools.
 Conclusions, cont’d

• The question concerning technology is not a call

for rejection or abandonment, but one of
measured evaluation in order to maintain a
healthy social, economic, and political
relationship between ourselves and our
technologies.