Computers Shouldn't Take ALL of the Blame!

            In the article Computers as Ethical Artifacts, Nathan Ensmenger discusses whether computers could be considered ethical objects considering the fact that computers are, in fact, tangible objects with no sense of ethics. In the second paragraph under the section Do computers have politics?, Ensmenger discusses some of the issues that came to surface in the 1970’s with the increasing use of computers. The article states “This discussion addressed issues that seemed unique to computer technology: computer crime, child pornography, free speech and censorship concerns, surveillance and privacy regulation, digital divides of various kinds, intellectual property regimes, the possible negative effects of violent video games, and so on.” While some of these issues may be unique to a world where computers are rapidly available, some of these other issues appear to have been issues prior to the use of computers, but only magnified by the use of computers. Because some of these issues were preexisting, I question whether the computer could actually be blamed for it as Ensmenger is suggesting in his article. (Note: it is clear that Ensmenger is not blaming the computer but only recognizing that these are some of the issues of debate with regards to computers and society.)

            The first example of a preexisting societal issue is child pornography. Child pornography is referred to as “the visual representation of minors under the age of 18 engaged in sexual activity or the visual representation of minors engaging in lewd or erotic behavior designed to arouse the viewer’s sexual interest” (http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Child+Pornography). No where in this definition does it require that the images must be digital and must be found on a computer. By this definition, child pornography could easily be committed in different types of analog media including analog photographs. Further, it is known that child pornography is closely linked to child sexual abuse. It is also known that sexual abuse is not a characteristic of the modern era (although it may primarily be defined in the modern era considering sexual abuse may have been historically more widespread and even a part of some cultures). With this in mind, it can be extrapolated that it is very likely that child pornography existed prior to the age of computers and was also distributed prior to the age of computers. Therefore, it is not the fault of the technological development of computers that this issue came about. However, to the credit of the other side of the argument, computers and the Internet have made distribution of child pornography significantly easier (as computers and the Internet have made the distribution of essentially everything significantly easier).

            Another example of a preexisting issue is the idea that intellectual property regimes have only existed as part of the modern use of computers and the web. Intellectual property is defined as “property (as an idea, invention, or process) that derives from the work of the mind or intellect” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intellectual%20property). The primary issues with intellectual property have to do with people using other peoples intellectual property for their own gain. For example, a person could take another person’s business idea and implement it and gain from it without giving credit to the original person. Stealing intellectual property has reoccurred throughout history on several occasions. One smaller example is that the recipe for Post corn flakes was actually stolen from the Kellogg brothers. Historically, however, it would have been significantly more difficult to prove that a case of stolen intellectual property occurred due to lack of evidence and a very common “He said – she said” type arguments. With the age of computers and the Internet, proving cases of intellectual property impeachment has become much easier. Therefore, because the crime existed prior to computers, computers should not be blamed for this issue. However, to the credit of those against this argument, the computer has made discovering such cases easier, and therefore has increased awareness of the issue.   

            Although these are only two examples, there are many other issues that are associated with computers that could be extrapolated from others sources. Simply because computers have increased the awareness of issues does not necessarily mean that they should be blamed for those issues.