I am still working through the possibilities for my assignment, and they are still very much in a state of flux. However I think that I will probably be drawing on some comments made by other course members and therefore I think it is only polite (and probably ethical) to ask if anyone minds being quoted in my assessment?
Which quotes I intend to use has not been decided yet, but it could include blog and twitter comments so if anyone minds me using their words, please let me know.
The videos this week have really got me thinking about what it means to be human and how we respond to non-humans within our culture. So far we don’t appear to have too much contact with robots in our everyday lives, though this is beginning to change. Many people are beginning to form attachments to their robotic hoovers like Roomba, treating them like pets and often dressing them up in little outfits.
Taking the robot development one step further is the humaniform droid Geminoid who has been built in the image of his creator (God complex??) and looks a little too realistic for comfort. Hiroshi Ishiguro the developer who plans to send the droid to meetings in his stead and speak through him. The droid is very impressive, down to making all those subconscious little hand movements we all make when we speak. Perhaps this is the future – instead of attending meetings we will pack up our droid and courier it to the site instead while we sit our office and watch it all on a video screen.
What I did find interesting was my own reaction to the droid. I was impressed but detached until someone prodded his face and he responded with a look of distaste. At that point I felt like they were being cruel, like poking a puppy which is ridiculous when you consider that he is a machine (and yes I did just call him a ‘he’!). But if a machine looks and behaves like a human, how do we in all conscience treat it with anything other than respect? I think that is root of many of the films we have been watching – with AI, Bicentennial man and I Robot all exploring the ‘humanity in robot form’ theme and how we of flesh and blood can respond with humanity or with detachment, or with fear and loathing. Will we have to have a new class of rights, human, animal and robot?
What I love about studying is the way that the readings can blend and stimulate thoughts on seemingly disparate topics. For example, Poster started me thinking about pornography (along with the WOW Video), which is not something that I would usually muse over!
Having never purchased pornography, I can only assume that the process of going into a newsagents and looking someone in the eye as you purchase an erotic magazine carries with it a certain degree of embarrassment. My feelings are that this is precisely why the internet is so successful in providing erotic material. It removes that moment of embarrassment, and the danger of judgement regarding the predilections of the buyer. It becomes anonymous. The very nature of the Internet determines that it can be used in private – a singular activity with no imperative to ‘behave’ in an acceptable manner because there is no one ‘watching’. This could also explain the rise in convictions for collecting images of children because there is perceived to be no one to ’see’ and no one to ‘tutt’.
If this is the case, the argument is not that the Internet is simply supplying more pornography, it is surely that it is making it accessible to those who would be too embarrassed to purchase It openly.
Reading this piece and considering the role of ethics in media made me wonder about ethics and morality, and whether they are the same thing? Looking up the terms on www.dictionary.com ethics is described as “a system of moral principles”, and morals as “the distinction between right and wrong”. Sounds simple. They both seem to mean the same thing. However, this doesn’t quite hold true with me.
Following an ethical code suggests that the code is created by an institution, such as the ethical code of doctors or lawyers. However, morality is driven by what the individual has learnt to be right and wrong, and the teaching of this code would be down to society through education or from parents. Therefore it is possible for morality and ethics to clash in certain circumstances. For example, during my day job I work with a lot of defence lawyers and I often ask myself how they can do the job they do. Their professional code of ethics demands that the defence lawyer performs to the best of their ability to mitigate legal recourse against their client, and try to ‘get them off!’. However, the lawyer is also an individual with their own moral code and sense of right and wrong. They may be aware that their client is guilt of the most heinous acts, and possibly a continuing danger to the public. Their moral code would say that to support the client was wrong and that they should pay for their crimes and be prevented from re-offending, but their ethical code says that they must defend that client to the best of their ability.
In this case ethics and morality clash! In this sense, ethic are a set of rule that come with the force of regulation, and with that a threat of retribution from the institution if they are broken – for example, disbarring. However, morality is more of a question of conscience, and therefore the retribution comes from a spiritual centre.
Could we say that with the internet, the ethics is ‘netiquette’ because it is a set of rules set down by the institution? If this is the case, then this could explain why internet relations sometime degenerate to ‘flaming’ and ‘cyber bullying ‘because there is basically no redress for rule breaking. The virtual nature of the medium by its very nature means that the individual transgressor cannot be punished (except possibly by exclusion from offended groups, though the individual can simply ‘reinvent’ themselves and start all over again). If morality and ethics are different, and ethics can easily be overturned by the virtual nature of the internet, isn’t the same true of morality? Can we ignore our ‘inbuilt’ programming of what is right and wrong to misbehave on the internet and truly turn it into dystopia?
