TAMING TECHNOLOGY : A FUZZY LOGIC BASED METHOD FOR IMPLEMENTING ETHICS.

摘要

Usually technological developments only consider making the machine/ thing/device/software functioning more efficient in its operation. However, we posit that any machine/thing/device/software inevitably operates in some context that has moral/ethical/legal /cultural/regional/management policies pertinent to it. The concern of ethics becomes conspicuously obvious as devices become more pervasive like in the Internet of Things and have increased autonomy in decision making. Lack of adequate consideration for managing social ramifications of technology may lead to circumstances where central human values like respect for human life, dignity, respect, honour and privacy could be severely harmed. We propose a method based on fuzzy logic that is able to represent moral/ethical/legal /cultural/regional/management policies applicable to the context of a machine/thing/ device/software operation in terms of different ethical categories (Forbidden, Disliked, Permissible, Recommended, Obligatory).