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COMPUTER SCIENCE FACULTY have a responsibility to teach
students to recognize both the larger ethical issues and
particular responsibilities that are part and parcel of
their work as technologists. This is, however, a kind of
teaching for which most of us have not been trained,
and that faculty and students approach with some
trepidation. In this article, we explore the use of science
fiction as a tool to enable those teaching artificial
intelligence to engage students and practitioners about
the scope and implications of current and future work in
computer science. We have spent several years
developing a creative approach to teaching computer
ethics, through a course we call “Science
Fiction and Computer Ethics.” 7–9, 18, 28
The course has been taught five times at
the University of Kentucky and two times
at the University of Illinois at Chicago
and has been successful with students,
as evidenced by increasing and full en-
rollments; high teaching-evaluation
numbers; positive anonymous com-
ments from students; nominations and
awards for good teaching; and invita-
tions to speak about the course on con-
ference panels and in talks.
Computer science, as a field, already
recognizes that some ethics education is
essential; the Accreditation Board for
Engineering and Technology (http://
www.abet.org/), one of the largest U.S.-based accreditors of engineering and
technology programs, requires instruction on professional ethics. Indeed,
some in computer science have gone so
far as to require students in undergraduate courses to perform ethics consultations for local industry. 24 However, educating students to engage ethical
challenges is often left to the cross-disciplinary portions of university curricula,
especially in the U.S. 12 We, as well as others, argue that spending time focused
on how these issues apply to both our
own research and our students’ future
work is important and necessary within
computer science. 30, 36
In fields with a strong practical
component and established body of
How to Teach
Computer
Ethics through
Science
Fiction
DOI: 10.1145/3154485
Science fiction in particular offers
students a way to cultivate their capacity
for moral imagination.
BY EMANUELLE BURTON, JUDY GOLDSMITH,
AND NICHOLAS MATTEI
key insights
˽ It is important to teach students to
understand the difference between
normative ethics—or what is the right
answer or normal mode of thought—and
descriptive ethics—or using the language
of ethical theory to understand and
describe a situation.
˽ Using fiction to teach ethics allows
students to safely discuss and reason
about difficult and emotionally
charged issues without making
the discussion personal.
˽ A good technology ethics course teaches
students how to think, not what to think,
about their role in the development and
deployment of technology, as no one can
foresee the problems that will be faced
in a future career.
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