Ethics at the Frontier

Today's society is characterized by a rapid state of change, and technological innovation plays a significant part in that. So how should one approach ethics at the technological frontier? This technical note discusses the challenges of our modern, highly innovative world; the muddled ethical lines this advancement can produce; and considerations to make and conversations to have around these new norms. Excerpt UVA-E-0392 Rev. Mar. 11, 2014 ETHICS AT THE FRONTIER Today's society is characterized by a rapid state of change. Technological innovation plays a significant part in our rapidly changing world; as of November 2013, the online social network Facebook reported 1.19 billion monthly active users, providing unprecedented visibility into the daily lives of everyday people. The ubiquity of cell phone cameras has made it dramatically easier for those everyday people to capture images of their surroundings, and Google plans to start selling its wearable camera interface, Google Glass, to the masses in 2014. In the fourth quarter of 2013, Apple Inc. sold 14.1 million iPads, which (when equipped with wireless access) allow portable and almost constant connectivity with the Internet yet resembles the imagined devices of science fiction movies and novels from less than a generation ago. In 2003, a decade-long project to map the human genome was completed, paving the way for advances in medical diagnosis and preventive care. Recent years have seen the increased use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones) in scientific research, agriculture, law enforcement, journalism, espionage, and warfare—and likewise dramatically evolving standard practices in each of these arenas. Countless other examples of rapid technological change abound, and the high-velocity environment created by such advancement has a profound effect on business organizations, which are typically the drivers of such innovation. Rapid technological change introduces ambiguity about industry forces, competitive dynamics, and institutionalized patterns of strategic actions, and firms confronted with such conditions must find innovative ways to handle the strategic uncertainties in order to thrive. . . .