Future Ethics

We must show that we deserve society’s trust by engaging the public in the moral decisions that surround technology, and prioritising the good of all, not just our revenue streams.

It is not enough for a virtuous person to intellectually grasp her moral duty to extend compassion, or even to understand that it would be irrational not to do so. We must also find ways to feel compassion, which is an experience that goes beyond the intellect. —Shannon Vallor22

For some people, a fair algorithm is one that reflects today’s society. For others, a fair algorithm must be an agent of social change.

‘Ethics is the aesthetics of the future.’6

Unintended consequences affect familiar people in unknown ways, while externalities happen to people we’ve ignored. In other words, we overlook unintended consequences by not looking deeply enough, but we miss externalities because we were looking in the wrong places.

Data always looks backward, meaning historical prejudice is frozen into a training corpus.

bias. Discrimination is already interwoven in the fabric of our tools and datasets.

The Incredible Machine, ‘Transparent Charging Station’. Reprinted by kind permission.

Design changes how we see the world and how we can act within it; design turns beliefs about how we should live into objects and environments people will use and inhabit.