Friday, September 30, 2011

Tragedy of the Commons

We were talking about this Wednesday.  In the following what is the commons and what is the tragedy?

http://xkcd.com/958/


Thursday, September 22, 2011

Speeding

Remember how we used speeding as an example of the difference between what is moral and what is legal.  The following article reinforces the distinction

http://blog.motorists.org/warning-pay-no-attention-to-this-message/#more-2709

Monday, September 19, 2011

Sep 19 followup

Followup from today's discussion:
The options for this week's essay about the youtube video are:
1. Was it moral to destroy the original?
2. Was it moral not to disclose how the machine worked?

The book I mentioned on limited time clones was  Kiln People

The experiment http://www.prisonexp.org/ while not directly related to technology is very interesting result in ethics.  In some ways it reminds me of the book The Gulag Archipelago A thought provoking book, but not light reading.


Friday, September 16, 2011

Brain Stents

Here is an article about brain stents

http://singularityhub.com/2011/09/16/brain-and-coronary-stents-expensive-popular-cutting-edge-%e2%80%93-and-they-dont-even-work/

This article is mostly negative about them.  My question is:  Suppose that they aren't a great idea, is it morally wrong for these procedures to be done?  If so, who is morally liable?  If not then is it morally wrong not to pay for them?

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Robots

Since we've been talking about replicants/robots you might find these statistics about current robot usage interesting.


http://singularityhub.com/2011/09/12/robotic-labor-taking-over-the-world-you-bet-here-are-the-details/

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

It looks like the penalties for computer crimes might increase dramatically.  See this discussion:
http://volokh.com/2011/09/11/poisoning-the-hamburger-helper/

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

This is an interesting video about identity:

Monday, September 5, 2011

Topics for week 3

What are interesting current events that you would like to see us talk about in week 3?

War on Terror effectiveness

Bruce Schneier talks about an article in The Atlantic that examines the effectiveness of the War on Terror spending

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2011/09/the_efficacy_of.html

How much and where should we be spending?  What are the trade-offs?

Digital Divide?

This story looks at the effectiveness of technology in the classroom.

http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/technology/technology-in-schools-faces-questions-on-value.html


How should we view technology spending in education?

Copyright Overview Video

Here is the video I mentioned in class