What do you think?
Rate this book
Ethics and Technology: Controversies, Questions, and Strategies for Ethical Computing
comes with a few bent streaks on the front page but nothing crazy. No writing in book.
400 pages, Paperback
First published June 25, 2003
9 people are currently reading
225 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 22, 2015
I used this book to teach an Undergraduate Computer Science course titled "Social Implications Of Information Processing" at WPI, a decision I made hastily based on the previous professor's choice of the same text. I would not make the same choice again.
- I found the text repetitive.
- Definitions were sometimes narrow in scope, Data Mining - personal data only.
- Index was very sparse missing entries for Therac-25, Secondary use, Patriot Act, and so forth. Granted this was helpful in offering open book quizzes. :)
- Review, discussion and essay questions were repetitive for a given chapter.
- The author cites Wikipedia.com often, something I do not allow my students to do. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedi... (2010-12-17)
- Many URL's are cited without an access date. These last two points are particularly bothersome considering the nature of the courses this text is meant for.
- I've never had students complain about a text book as much as this one. I spent 25% of my class time clearing up "conceptual muddles" and filling in relevant topics other such texts include and cover in better depth.
- I did find the Chapter on Critical Thinking useful, as a few other sections of the book. It is not totally without merit.
Given that Baase does not seem to have put out a fourth edition of "A Gift Of Fire" I'd recommend Quinn's "Ethics For The Information Age" instead of this text.
- I found the text repetitive.
- Definitions were sometimes narrow in scope, Data Mining - personal data only.
- Index was very sparse missing entries for Therac-25, Secondary use, Patriot Act, and so forth. Granted this was helpful in offering open book quizzes. :)
- Review, discussion and essay questions were repetitive for a given chapter.
- The author cites Wikipedia.com often, something I do not allow my students to do. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedi... (2010-12-17)
- Many URL's are cited without an access date. These last two points are particularly bothersome considering the nature of the courses this text is meant for.
- I've never had students complain about a text book as much as this one. I spent 25% of my class time clearing up "conceptual muddles" and filling in relevant topics other such texts include and cover in better depth.
- I did find the Chapter on Critical Thinking useful, as a few other sections of the book. It is not totally without merit.
Given that Baase does not seem to have put out a fourth edition of "A Gift Of Fire" I'd recommend Quinn's "Ethics For The Information Age" instead of this text.
July 20, 2020
Computing Behind the Programming
19 July 2020
Well, I certainly am a sucker for punishment considering that I ended up reading this book from cover to cover. Actually, sometimes I sort of get the impression that I might actually be the only student in existence that reads the textbooks, or at least the textbooks that are assigned for Computer Science. Yeah, it’s not as if the information that we need isn’t available on the internet. Then again, unlike most of my other subjects (with the exception of the theory ones), this subject is more about looking at concepts behind the scenes, particularly legal and ethical ones. This is where this book comes in.
Yeah, this book delves into a lot of legal and ethical issues that Computer Scientists are likely to encounter in their careers, though they are generally the things that many of them want to avoid and leave up to other people who are more qualified in that area. Personally, having a legal background meant that I was somewhat interested in these areas, and there are certainly quite a lot of things that I have encountered throughout my previous existence, copyright being one of the big things.
Honestly, most of the people doing this subject wanted to get it over and done with as fast as possible, but the fact that we had to do it goes to show that industry is looking for people who can actually think about these things. I found the subject to actually be pretty easy, but then again I do happen to have an arts/law degree, so that certainly did help. Yeah, and also the fact that I read through this book from cover to cover also helped, though that is probably because I am not only a sucker for punishment, but also one of those people who happens to be even more geekier than your typical computer science student.
Yeah, this book was interesting, and quite in-depth as well, though the thing is that the rabbit holes that the author explores really do go a lot deeper than he was able to cover in this book. Like, for instance, the idea of people simply existing in a virtual world, something that I have encountered with numerous people in my times. Also, the idea that in the virtual world people aren’t as real, and as honest, as they might be in reality. Cyberbullying is certainly one of those things where people believe that you can’t hurt somebody over the internet when in reality the internet can be pretty destructive.
I guess it is a good thing that the school is trying to get students to think about these things, though in the end I suspect half of them simply want to sit in a dingy basement writing computer code and not have to actually interact with anybody else. Unfortunately, those days are now long gone.
19 July 2020
Well, I certainly am a sucker for punishment considering that I ended up reading this book from cover to cover. Actually, sometimes I sort of get the impression that I might actually be the only student in existence that reads the textbooks, or at least the textbooks that are assigned for Computer Science. Yeah, it’s not as if the information that we need isn’t available on the internet. Then again, unlike most of my other subjects (with the exception of the theory ones), this subject is more about looking at concepts behind the scenes, particularly legal and ethical ones. This is where this book comes in.
Yeah, this book delves into a lot of legal and ethical issues that Computer Scientists are likely to encounter in their careers, though they are generally the things that many of them want to avoid and leave up to other people who are more qualified in that area. Personally, having a legal background meant that I was somewhat interested in these areas, and there are certainly quite a lot of things that I have encountered throughout my previous existence, copyright being one of the big things.
Honestly, most of the people doing this subject wanted to get it over and done with as fast as possible, but the fact that we had to do it goes to show that industry is looking for people who can actually think about these things. I found the subject to actually be pretty easy, but then again I do happen to have an arts/law degree, so that certainly did help. Yeah, and also the fact that I read through this book from cover to cover also helped, though that is probably because I am not only a sucker for punishment, but also one of those people who happens to be even more geekier than your typical computer science student.
Yeah, this book was interesting, and quite in-depth as well, though the thing is that the rabbit holes that the author explores really do go a lot deeper than he was able to cover in this book. Like, for instance, the idea of people simply existing in a virtual world, something that I have encountered with numerous people in my times. Also, the idea that in the virtual world people aren’t as real, and as honest, as they might be in reality. Cyberbullying is certainly one of those things where people believe that you can’t hurt somebody over the internet when in reality the internet can be pretty destructive.
I guess it is a good thing that the school is trying to get students to think about these things, though in the end I suspect half of them simply want to sit in a dingy basement writing computer code and not have to actually interact with anybody else. Unfortunately, those days are now long gone.
May 1, 2022
It was something of a shock to read a textbook again, and I was thoroughly disappointed. In reading (most) if this book, some moments it shone, and it was fairly informative. But it was overly technical, pedantic, did not do a good job of engendering understanding, and engaged in the Theory Project of ethical thinking (thinking of ethics as the best way to explain our moral statements in a monistic, reductive, hierarchical, derivational style).
November 10, 2013
This book is straight to the point, it presents clear data on ethical issues in the cyberspace. Information is presented clearly and without much deviation from the main idea. The examples are useful and help the general public understand more technical or legal concepts / aspects. I would recommend this book to be at least on the reading list of every college student, if not mandatory. We live in a digital world that is changing much faster than we expect. Understanding the benefits and the disadvantages of the cyberspace is essential to be able to protect against cyber-criminals of all kinds. Even though the book is a bit "dry" as someone else said, it meets the purpose for which it was written.
September 2, 2012
It's a little dry, but so are the other books I have seen on ethics, legal issues, and cyber security. It is still a complete and accurate treatment of the current events, philosophical underpinnings, and legal issues surrounding cyber ethics.
Read
April 20, 2010Its a good book and describes about ethical issues in Computing
Want to read
October 31, 2014pooring
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews