Informational privacy and moral values

Rapid progress of artificial intelligence in digital advertising will have a major impact on the consumer. The aim of this article is to explicate this effect by defining the problem as a gap between the rationality of artificial intelligence and the vulnerability of the consumer in decision-making in the context of new researches in the field of cognitive psychology and behavioural economics. To prevent the increasing possibilities of unethical and hidden manipulations of the consumer in online advertising, some ethical theories and the possibility of their implementation in algorithms and legislation are examined. Theoretical research shows enormous lack of interdisciplinary cooperation for development of an appropriate ethical theory for the purpose of its implementation into artificial intelligence in business processes. Traditional moral theories are unable to solve new complex issues because of their too narrow focus on moral principles. An alternative ethical theory based on sustainability principles is proposed. It adheres to the principles of economics, latest findings of cognitive psychology, and uses artificial intelligence for its implementation. Sustainable evolutionary ethics opens up new research questions that can be solved only interdisciplinary.

The great technological achievements in the recent past regarding artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and computer science make it very likely, according to many experts in the field, that we will see the advent of intelligent and autonomous robots that either match or supersede human capabilities in the midterm (within the next 50 years) or long term (within the next 100–300 years). Accordingly, this article has two main goals. First, we discuss some of the problems related to ascribing moral status to intelligent robots, and we examine three philosophical approaches—the Kantian approach, the relational approach, and the indirect duties approach—that are currently used in machine ethics to determine the moral status of intelligent robots. Second, we seek to raise broader awareness among moral philosophers of the important debates in machine ethics that will eventually affect how we conceive of key concepts and approaches in ethics and moral philosophy. The effects of intelligent and autonomous robots on our traditional ethical and moral theories and concepts will be substantial and will force us to revise and reconsider many established understandings. Therefore, it is essential to turn attention to debates over machine ethics now so that we can be better prepared to respond to the opportunities and challenges of the future.

universal principle as the appropriate source of moral guidance, and both share the view that moral problems are to be solved by the application of such an abstract principle to particular cases. Both share an admiration for the rules of reason to be appealed to in moral contexts, and both denigrate emotional responses to moral issues. Many feminist philosophers have questioned whether the reliance on abstract rules, rather than the adoption of more context-respectfulrules, rather than the adoption of more context-respectful approaches, can possibly be adequate for dealing with moral problems, especially as women experience them.i6 Though Kantians may hold that complex rules can be elaborated for specific contexts, there is nevertheless an assumption in this approach that the more abstract the reasoning applied to a moral problem, the more satisfactory. And Utilitarians suppose that one highly abstract principle, The Principle of Utility, can be applied to every moral problem no matter what the context. A genuinely universal or gender-neutral moral theory would be one which would take account of the experience and concerns of women as fully as it would take account of the experience and concerns of men. When we focus on the experience of women, however, we seem to be able to see a set of moral concerns becoming salient that differs from those of traditional or standard moral theory. Women's experience of moral problems seems to lead us to be especially concerned with actual relationships between embodied persons, and with what these relationships seem to require. Women are often inclined to attend to rather than to dismiss the particularities of the context in which a moral problem arises. And we often pay attention to feelings of empathy and caring to suggest what we ought to do rather than relying as fully as possible on abstract rules of rea-

This article is in reaction to recent articles in Advances In Nursing Science by Yarling and McElmurry and Bishop and Scudder, which interpret the nursing ethic as grounded in the social reform of the institution or in the role of the nurse on the health care team. It is argued here that covenantal relationships between the nurse and the patient provide a more substantial foundation for the nursing ethic. Arising from the moral principle of fidelity, this model furnishes guidance for the nurse, a link for the nursing ethic with traditional moral theory, and, most important, a grounding in the unique experience of the nurse-patient relationship.

The problem: the moral responsibility for market outcomes ‘at a distance’ Let us start by identifying the problem. A huge literature has demon- strated that the globalization of economic markets is producing widespread ravages all over the world, in terms of the appearance of new inequalities, pauperization processes, and attacks on human rights in many parts of the globe. We ask ourselves: who is responsible for the harm that one or more market agents/actors bring to bear on distant others in an impersonal and unintentional way? The ‘others’ can be single individuals, vast social groups, and even entire populations. A question like this becomes more and more relevant in so far as the capitalist economy becomes fully globalized. The issues of agents/actors' morality in the era of globalization cannot be dealt with by traditional ethical norms. Traditional ethics claims that moral responsibility can be direct, indirect, or adiaphoric. It seems relatively easy to identify direct moral responsibility when, for example, a financial trader directly sells tainted financial products without informing clients of the elevated risk of loss, or when the owner of a sweat shop exploits underage or female workers, violating basic human rights. In these cases, Ego inflicts direct harm on Alter , who is a proximal (near) person, which does not exclude the possibility of harm done to third parties as well. But what can we say when economic action is undertaken with the intention of harming no one, yet causes negative effects? Take the example of the decision to move investments in order to create work and wealth in one location when this decision involuntarily causes unemployment and poverty in other locations. Traditional moral theory usually applies the principle of double effect (or the principle of the indirect volunteer ).

In his article ‘Saints and Heroes’, Urmson argues that traditional moral theories allow at most for a threefold classification of actions in terms of their worth, and that they are therefore unsatisfactory. Since the conclusion of his argument has led to the widespread use of the term ‘acts of supererogation’, and since I do not believe that such acts exist, I propose to argue that the actions with which he is concerned not only can, but should, be contained within the traditional classification.

Discussions of the morality of capital punishment, and indeed discussions of the morality of punishment in general, usually assume that there are two possible justifications of punishment, a deterrence justification associated with utilitarianism and other consequentialist moral theories, and a retributive justification associated with deontological moral theories. But now that rights-based theories are attracting the increasing attention of moral philosophers it is worth asking whether these theories may not employ a different justification of punishment, with different consequences for the morality of particular forms of punishment. I will argue that rights theories do employ a different justification of punishment, and that this justification combines many of the attractive features of the deterrence and retributive justifications while avoiding their unattractive features. In particular, I will argue that the rights-based justification has more attractive consequences for the morality of capital punishment than either the deterrence or retributive justifications.

There is little published research on the role of consultants in technology adoption. Given the increasing popularity of the World Wide Web in commercial environments and the number of consultants now offering web development services, some analysis into the effects of their engagement would be of benefit. In an extension of an ongoing study, an existing sample of 113 World Wide Web adopters was used to examine the nature of World Wide Web site use with respect to consultant and Internet Service Provider (ISP) engagement. Analysis was also conducted into the use of consultants and ISPs as developers and maintainers of these sites. This preliminary research finds a number of interesting outcomes. No significant relationship is found between consultant or ISP engagement and World Wide Web site use, regardless of whether the consultant was engaged as site developer or site maintainer. The study raises a number of additional findings that are of interest but are not directly related to this study. These findings merit further research.

In this article the Astronomy On-Line (AOL) learning experiment on World Wide Web (WWW) is described. As a part of AOL, educational research was carried out. The purpose of this study was to measure how students experience the new medium in their learning and how students utilize the communication facilities (group e-mail, real-time discussion) available through the WWW site. This study also describes the computational facilities available among AOL participants all around Europe

This study investigated the short term effects of viewing presidential candidate World Wide Web (WWW) sites (George W. Bush or Al Gore) on attitudes toward issues and character. Participants spent 15 minutes viewing either Bush's or Gore's site (a control group viewed a nonpolitical Web page). Results reveal that these sites do influence voters. Those who viewed Gore's WWW site (compared to the control group) had more positive perceptions of Gore's character, favorable perceptions of Bush's character, policy positions, and leadership, and lower ratings of Bush on a global feelings category. Gore site viewers, however, did not have more positive perceptions of Gore's policy positions or leadership, and they did not rate him higher on a global feeling measure (compared with the control group). No significant differences occurred for those who viewed Bush's site (compared with the control group) on any dependent variable. Thus, although we should not assume that Web sites will necessarily influence voters, it is clear that they can do so.

A World Wide Web (WWW) site was developed on the subject of acids and bases for use as a supplement to the General Chemistry course. The site was used in two consecutive years of the course. Its effectiveness was assessed with surveys and with comparisons of grades for users and nonusers. Results show that students in general do not use the site to target their self-reported problem areas; instead, they tend to progress through the site in a linear fashion. Those students who used the site to help them with their problem areas were able to achieve a modest grade improvement over their performance on other exams.

This article presents the results of a study of World Wide Web (Web) Sites for 133 academic libraries serving medium-sized universities. Each library Web site was examined, and all of the features were recorded. The study identified 31 core components which were present in over 50 percent of the libraries surveyed. The study indicated that: the navigational and design aspects of library Web sites should be improved; materials should be placed on the sites only if they will be accessed and utilized by the user community; and libraries could profit by making greater use of online tutorials and virtual tours to supplement regular bibliographic instruction.

Low occupancy rate is one of the major problems faced by public transport systems. One reason for low occupancy rate is that a passenger normally does not know the public vehicle scheduling information and its arrival timing information at predefined stops. Trends in wireless technology like Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) have resulted in easier and faster communication. We propose a new cost effective public vehicle tracking system by integrating both of the above mentioned technologies. By providing reliable public vehicle arrival information to the passengers at predefined stops, it is expected to improve the public vehicle occupancy. Thus, this system provides the facility to know about the time for arrival at different stops and the location of public vehicles having predefined routes.

Congestive heart failure is a major health problem in terms of morbidity, mortality, increasing prevalence in the population, and economic burden to the health care system. The scope of the problem is evident by looking at the numbers (): hospital discharges for heart failure increased 155.2% in the 20-yr period from 1979 to 1999, and currently there are about 4.8 million Americans living with congestive heart failure. There are over a half million new cases of congestive heart failure each year, and the incidence approaches 10% of the population after age 65. Heart failure follows a heart attack in 22% of men and 46% of women, and 75% of heart failure cases were preceded by hypertension, indicating a link between development of heart failure and previous myocardial damage or stress. The need for cost-effective therapeutic approaches is further reinforced by the economics of heart failure (Table 1). Ultimately, heart failure can only be treated by cardiac transplantation, which has dramatically increased in recent years (Fig. 1), and Current pharmacologic interventions at best can only slow progression of deteriorating heart function and provide symptomatic relief. Our inability to mitigate the progression of congestive heart failure is evident from mortality associated with the syndrome, ending in death within 8 yr for 80% of men and 70% of women. Although survival after diagnosis of congestive heart failure is worse in men than women, fewer than 15% of women survive more than 8–12 yr. Clearly, heart failure is a syndrome affecting both sexes, especially in the aging population, that would benefit tremendously from novel therapeutic approaches to management, particularly (Table 1) efforts to inhibit the progression of decompensation and restore contractile function. Table 1 Economic Cost of Cardiovascular Disease: Estimated Direct and Indirect Costs (in Billions of Dollars) of Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke United States, 2002 Heart Disease b Coronary heart disease Stroke Hypertensive disease Congestive heart failure Total cardiovascular diseases a Direct costs Hospital/nursing home 81.0 41.8 24.5 8.6 15.4 126.1 Physicians/other professionals 15.3 8.6 2.4 8.6 1.6 29.9 Drugs/other medical durables 13.5 6.2 0.8 15.5 2.0 31.8 Home health care 5.2 1.6 3.1 1.7 2.4 11.7 Total expenditures a 115.0 58.2 30.8 34.4 c 21.4 199.5 Indirect costs Lost productivity/morbidity 19.0 8.4 5.6 6.7 NA 30.9 Lost productivity/mortality d 80.0 45.2 13.0 6.1 1.8 98.8 Grand totals 214.0 111.8 49.4 47.2 23.2 329.2 a Totals do not add up because of rounding and overlap. b This category includes coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, part of hypertensive disease, cardiac heart disease, cardiomyopathy, pulmonary heart disease, and other ill-defined “heart” diseases. c Tom Hodgson and Liming estimated that health care expenditures attributed to hypertension that could not be allocated to cardiovascular complications and other diagnoses totaled $108.8 billion in 1998. d Lost future earnings of persons who will die in 2002, discounted at 4%. NA indicates not available. Open image in new window Fig. 1. Heart transplantation frequency by year. Reproduced with permission from the American Heart Association. World Wide Web Site: http://www.americanheart.org, © 2001, Copyright American Heart Association

The growth of the worldwide collection of computer networks known as the Internet has led to a rapid increase in the quantity and variety of information available to scientists in mass spectrometry. It is now possible to learn about the latest mass spectrometric techniques, compare the capabilities of commercial instruments and participate in discussion with colleagues from around the world without ever leaving one's desk. The challenge that comes with the Internet information explosion is to learn how to navigate the various areas of the Internet and fully utilize these new information sources. It is also important to know how and where to find the most reliable information on a medium where quality cannot always be assured. The purpose of this paper is to provide a listing and brief discussion of on-line resources available for mass spectrometry. World Wide Web sites are tabulated for search pages, index pages for mass spectrometry research groups and companies, mass spectrometry societies, local discussion groups, journals and software. Usenet newsgroups and electronic mailing lists of interest to mass spectrometrists are listed and discussed.