Reliability, Accountability, Liability

Reading:

For Wednesday 2/14 :
Read the section and follow the links listed below on Military uses of computer technology. Pay particular attention to the article on software problems from the CSPSR site. What is the state of computer technology in the military? How has this changed the impact of the military on society in the last century? What are the key problems presented? What counter-arguments might you present to these problems?

For Monday 2/19 :
Consider the failure of medical equipment (the Therac-25 case, a summary is here). Related to this is the Bound to Fail scenario.
Write this position paper having to do with the Therac-25.

For Wednesday 2/21 :
- Read Blay Whitby's paper "The Virtual Sky is not the Limit: Ethics in Virtual Reality."
- Read this short article "It's the Computer's Fault" -- Reasoning About Computers as Moral Agents", having to do with accountability.

Topics:

• One famous software problem was the luggage handling system for the Denver Airport.
• Consider the case of the London ambulance fiasco. See also the case of the killer robot.
• Artificial Intelligence (definition, current & possible future problems). See the paper by Attila Narin defining AI and discussing the Turing Test. Also note the description of the Chinese room. A more optimistic system is WebMind. In a study done of college students, 83% attributed aspects of decision-making and/or intentions to computers, and 21% consistently held computers morally responsible for error. Read about a future timeline development of an AI called J. Statue.
• Risks and what can go wrong, see here for a well indexed site
• Y2K: who is (was) accountable for the software problems?
• Military uses of computer technology: Browse through the account of false alerts (and these related quotes) by the early-warning radar systems, particularly in light of the limited time to respond to an attack (3 - 18 minutes), and the discussion of eliminating the human using launch-on-warning (LOW). See the RISKS catalog of 80's computer-related problems. The Computer Science Professionals for Social Responsibility (CSPSR) site describes the software problems with a missile defense system (if interested there are other views expressed here); NORAD software being unusable slow and $207 million over budget.
  In early 2007 a group of F22 raptors (fighter jets) lost navigation control when crossing the international dateline.
• Reliability. See this slashdot article describing Amazon mistakenly selling DVD box sets for $0.00.
• Read about the kangaroos shooting down a fighter jet.

Discussion:

• According to one member of our class who is a pilot, the airplane manufacturers Airbus and Boeing differ in their approaches to who should ultimately be responsible for the safety of an airplane. Airbus planes are "fly-by-wire", where they would like to have the autopilot take over in case of a problem. Boeing, on the other hand, would like the human pilot to take over when something goes wrong. With which side do you agree and why?
• Consider how Virtual Reality is increasingly becoming immersive. Are there moral implications to allowing fully immersive criminal acts? Why should or shouldn't restrictions be placed on this? What is the impact on society?