Threats to Autonomy from Emerging ICTs

Abstract

This paper examines threats to autonomy created by significant emerging ICT's. Emerging ICT's cover a wide range of technologies, from intelligent environments to neuroelectronics, yet human autonomy is potentially threatened by all of them in some way. However, there is no single agreed definition of autonomy. This paper therefore considers the ways in which different versions of autonomy are impacted by different systems. From this range of threats we will derive some properties which any ICT must exhibit in order to threaten human autonomy. Finally, we will show how the range of definitions of autonomy creates problems for customary approaches to vale-sensitive design, and indicates a need for greater flexibility when attempting to improve the ethical status of emerging ICT's.

Monitoring of the development of information infrastructure in Ukraine

“…Methods of the impact of various information and communication technologies on the safety of economic agents are shown in [21]. However, in this work there are no parameters for the degree of such influence on the information security of the subjects of the information infrastructure.…”

Binding the Smart City Human-Digital System with Communicative Processes

“…However, there are many different definitions of autonomy (Dainow, 2017b). The term was initially restricted to morality by Kant, who argued that all humans had the innate capacity to determine what was morally right and wrong (Kant, 1998).…”

“…Here the focus lies on the internal processes by which one exercises autonomy. The general concerns are to distinguish the degree of external influence which can be allowed before we can say autonomy has been lost and what, if any, specific cognitive elements are required in order for self-reflection to count as autonomous (Dainow, 2017b). Even the same definition of autonomy can lead to people living incompatible lives because they hold different values.…”

“…Where it is done to exploit the user, it constitutes an intentional attack upon their autonomy. Many theories of autonomy hold that autonomy is preserved if the person would have consented had they been given the Brandt Dainow bd@thinkmetrics.com opportunity to do so at the time (Dainow, 2017b), so hidden factors do not necessarily constitute a restriction on autonomy. However, preventing choice post hoc does constitute a restriction of the user's autonomy no matter what the action.…”

Overcoming carer shortages with care robots: Dynamic value trade-offs in run-time

“…Information systems research has shown the importance of values in systems design thinking in many areas, including online applications (Chesney, Coyne, Logan, & Madden, 2009;Friedman, Nathan, & Yoo, 2016), sensor development (Dechesne, Warnier, & van den Hoven, 2013), areas of eHealth (Boonstra & Van Offenbeek, 2010), emerging technologies (Dainow, 2017;Poulsen, 2018b) and other areas (Burmeister, 2013;Burmeister, Islam, Dayhew, & Crichton, 2015). However, to date little research has investigated values in the design of care robots.…”