The Use of Historical Example in a Course on Ethical Issues in Computing
In this presentation, I will discuss the relevance of historical example in the context of a course on ethical issues in computer science. The examples will include the notion of the Panopticon, introduced in the eighteenth century by the utopian philosopher Jeremy Bentham, and a recent unsuccessful class-action suit brought against IBM in the United States on behalf of Holocaust survivors. In each instance, the examples are explored using historical documents: in the case of the Panopticon, the history of government surveillance of citizens in Brazil, Uruguay, and the United States, pre-dating the widespread use of computers, underscores how computer databases come into conflict with individual rights of privacy and free speech. In the case of the Holocaust-survivor class-action suit, I examine how the history related in a best-selling book, published, not coincidentally, just before the class-action suit was entered, can be used to situate students anachronistically in the position of individuals who participated in the actual events of the time. In both cases, the use of historical materials is effective in producing a more complex and reflective response on the part of students.
