DigEthix: Digital Ethics Today

Seth reviews the first set of episodes for the DIGETHIX podcast, talking about his experience and takeaways from this season.  He reviews the cover art for each episode, which were designed by Alex Nielsen and Nicole Smith, to discuss the range of themes that were discussed. A gallery of the described images can be found on our website here:

https://digethix.org/podcast-10-season-recap-and-state-of-the-podcast/

The podcast will be on a break for three weeks, with regular uploads resuming again on September 1, 2021, with other content coming out on our other social media.


Credits:

Music: "Dreams" from Bensound.com

Contact us:

digethix.org
facebook.com/digethix
twitter.com/digethix
instagram.com/digethixfuture
EMAIL: [email protected]

Seth and Bernd Dürrwächter review the Pegasus NSO Spyware scandal. Bernd is principal at AnalyticDimensions.com, a consultancy for big data analytics & data science projects. Bernd has been advising the podcast from the beginning, using insights from his decades of industry experience.

The first half of the conversation goes over the details of the Pegasus scandal and other incidents that NSO has been involved with in the past. The second half turns toward the broader questions of cybersecurity and consent. The key questions for this episode are: if someone gets access to our phone or laptop, just how much reach does that person have into our life? What kinds of surveillance have been enabled by our technologies? What can we do about it?

Potentially Helpful Articles:

1. https://www.theverge.com/22589942/nso-group-pegasus-project-amnesty-investigation-journalists-activists-targeted
2. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3912882,00.html
3. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2021/07/forensic-methodology-report-how-to-catch-nso-groups-pegasus/
4. https://info.lookout.com/rs/051-ESQ-475/images/pegasus-exploits-technical-details.pdf
5. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2019/10/morocco-human-rights-defenders-targeted-with-nso-groups-spyware/
6. https://citizenlab.ca/2016/08/million-dollar-dissident-iphone-zero-day-nso-group-uae/

Other Articles on Tracking:

1. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/19/opinion/location-tracking-cell-phone.html
2. https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/20/22586161/cell-phone-location-data-grindr-catholic-church-report-data-brokers


Credits:

Music: "Dreams" from Bensound.com

Contact us:

digethix.org
facebook.com/digethix
twitter.com/digethix
instagram.com/digethixfuture
EMAIL: [email protected]

Seth talks to Bernd Dürrwächter, one of DIGETHIX’s advisory board members and main collaborators. Bernd is principal at AnalyticDimensions.com, a consultancy for big data analytics & data science projects. He studied computer science at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences from 1988-1992. Bernd is a seasoned practitioner in software engineering, IT architectures, business intelligence & data analytics solutions. 

Seth and Bernd discuss the challenges to education. They highlight how difficult it is to come to a consensus around values. The key questions for this episode are: given the value problem, how can a podcast like DIGETHIX make concrete suggestions? How can public discussion be used in conjunction with education to better equip the next generation of technologists?

Potentially Helpful Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal
https://cmr.berkeley.edu/2017/04/evolution-of-business-ethics/
https://www.iso.org/iso-9001-quality-management.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebook-genocide.html 

Credits:

Music: "Dreams" from Bensound.com

Contact us:

digethix.org
facebook.com/digethix
twitter.com/digethix
instagram.com/digethixfuture
EMAIL: [email protected]

In this episode of the podcast, Seth interviews Dr. Noreen Herzfeld. Noreen is the Nicholas and Bernice Reuter Professor of Science and Religion at St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict. She holds degrees in both Computer Science and Mathematics and has a Ph.D. in Theology from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. 

Seth talks to Noreen about the history of artificial intelligence and about cultural attitudes towards technology, especially those in transhumanism. She stresses that emotions are a key difference between us and machines and that emotions may be essential to what makes us human. The key questions for this episode are: what does it mean for a machine system to be considered intelligent? Is education really a matter of a simple information transfer?

Potentially Helpful sources:
https://www.loc.gov/loc/brain/emotion/Kagan.html
https://www.simplypsychology.org/behaviorism.html
https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/emotion-ai-explained
https://news.stanford.edu/2021/02/23/four-causes-zoom-fatigue-solutions/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/feeling-our-emotions/

Credits:

Music: "Dreams" from Bensound.com

Contact us:

digethix.org
facebook.com/digethix
twitter.com/digethix
instagram.com/digethixfuture
EMAIL: [email protected]

In this episode of the Podcast, Seth interviews Muhammad Ahmad. Muhammad is an Affiliate Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at University of Washington and a Research Scientist at KenSci. His research areas are machine learning in healthcare, accountability and ethics in AI. His recent work is focused on foundations of machine learning and cross-cultural perspectives on AI. Muhammad’s work combines academic rigor with extensive experience in deploying machine learning systems at scale in the healthcare sector and thus first-hand knowledge of many moral and ethical dilemmas that come with it. He has published over 50 research papers in machine learning and artificial intelligence. He has a PhD in Computer Science from University of Minnesota. This episode will be the second part of our look at race and healthcare.

In this interview, Seth and Muhammad explore a variety of topics. Muhammad talks about how he eventually turned his focus towards healthcare, specifically addressing discrepancies in care between different ethnic groups. He explains many technical problems in machine learning, including the challenges to applying different definitions of fairness. The key questions to this episode are: how has data served to both obscure and to illuminate discrepancies on healthcare? How can machine learning enhance our understanding of complex social problems?

Credits:

Music: "Dreams" from Bensound.com

Contact us:

digethix.org
facebook.com/digethix
twitter.com/digethix
instagram.com/digethixfuture
EMAIL: [email protected]

Seth interviews shaunesse’ jacobs. shaunesse‘ jacobs is a Ph.D. student in the Constructive Theology and Ethics track at the Boston University’s School of Theology. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Emory University, where she also completed a Master’s of Theological Studies and a Master’s in Bioethics. She is interested in communal incorporation of religious practices and theological doctrines when facing injustices in the U.S. healthcare system, specifically around the issue of black maternal mortality. This is part one of a two-part look at how questions of race are intertwined with healthcare.

In this interview, Seth talks to shaunesse about black maternal mortality in the US. Maternal mortality refers to the rate of death  in childbirth per 100,000 pregnancies.  The key questions for this episode are: what factors lead to discrepancies in hospital care? Why would doctors differ in their assessment of the pain that is reported by their patients? How does the question of race intertwine with the care that someone receives? What does it mean to have trust in the doctor-patient relationship?

Potentially helpful links:

https://www.npr.org/2017/12/07/568948782/black-mothers-keep-dying-after-giving-birth-shalon-irvings-story-explains-why
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2019/p0905-racial-ethnic-disparities-pregnancy-deaths.html
https://www.cdc.gov/healthequity/features/maternal-mortality/index.html
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/wr/mm6835a3.htm?s_cid=mm6835a3_w


Credits:

Music: "Dreams" from Bensound.com

Contact us:

digethix.org
facebook.com/digethix
twitter.com/digethix
instagram.com/digethixfuture
EMAIL: [email protected]

In this episode of the Podcast, Seth interviews Alex Nielsen. Alex is a lead project scientist at Old Dominion University in the Virginia Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation Center. He is currently pursuing a PhD in scientific and technical communication from Old Dominion University. Alex’s help has also been invaluable in developing this podcast, and he has been one of our earliest advisers.

In this interview, Seth talks to Alex about the aesthetics of DIGETHIX and more broadly about the concept of digitality. In other words, how has our current means of communication affected the ways in which we think about each other and even the very ways we think. The key questions for this episode are: what does it mean for something to be digital? What does it mean to expose otherwise invisible digital markers? What does it mean to have our relationships mediated digitally? If you would like to follow along with this conversation, you can find some of the images that we discuss at https://digethix.org/gallery/.

If you would like to respond to this episode, you can email us at [email protected], and you can find us at twitter.com/digethix and facebook.com/digethix.

Potentially Help Resources:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/760702.Goodbye_to_Berlin
https://www.npr.org/2014/11/13/363517842/for-decades-kodak-s-shirley-cards-set-photography-s-skin-tone-standard
https://www.bl.uk/sacred-texts/articles/biblical-illumination
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45123/hymn-to-intellectual-beauty
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante


Credits:

Music: "Dreams" from Bensound.com

Contact us:

digethix.org
facebook.com/digethix
twitter.com/digethix
instagram.com/digethixfuture
EMAIL: [email protected]

In this episode of the Podcast, I am interviewing Dr. F. LeRon Shults. Dr. Shults is Professor at the Institute for Global Development and Social Planning at the University of Agder, and  he is the Scientific Director of the Center for Modeling Social Systems at NORCE in Kristiansand, Norway.

In this interview, I talk to Dr. Shults about the discipline of computer simulation and modeling. We go over the misconceptions around simulation and how practitioners go about building simulations in the first place. While these new kinds of tools are no doubt powerful, there may also be new problems that arise with it. The key question for this episode is this: are there dangers to understanding a complex process? How and why could that be the case?

LeRon has a new book, available for download through Brill Academic Open Publishing, called, Practicing Safe Sects: Religious Reproduction in Scientific and Philosophical Perspective.

https://leronshultsblog.com/2020/08/24/practicing-safe-sects-book-now-open-access/

Potentially helpful sources:

http://nifty.stanford.edu/2014/mccown-schelling-model-segregation/


Credits:

Music: "Dreams" from Bensound.com

Contact us:

digethix.org
facebook.com/digethix
twitter.com/digethix
instagram.com/digethixfuture
EMAIL: [email protected]

Kate Stockly is a PhD candidate in Science, Philosophy, and Religion at Boston University’s Graduate Division of Religious Studies. her work is characterized by multidisciplinary investigation into human religiosity that aspires to harmonize the sciences and humanities. Kate recently published the book, Spirit Tech, which explores technologies of 'spiritual enhancement.'

In this interview, Seth talks to Kate about her interdisciplinary training for her PhD in religion and science at Boston University, specifically about the application of scientific methods to the study of religion. In her book, Spirit Tech, Kate describes the ways in which new technologies are being developed to facilitate both connection between people and new kinds of spiritual experiences. The key questions for this episode are: what drives people to seek out novel experiences? What role might technology play in these experiences in the future?


Credits:

Music: "Dreams" from Bensound.com

Contact us:

digethix.org
facebook.com/digethix
twitter.com/digethix
instagram.com/digethixfuture
EMAIL: [email protected]

In this episode of the podcast, Seth interviews Dr. Wesley Wildman. Wesley is a Professor of Philosophy, Theology, and Ethics. He is one of the founding faculty members of Boston University’s new Faculty of Computing and Data Sciences. He also serves as the executive director and chairman of the board for the Center for Mind and Culture.

Seth talks to Wesley about the history of the Center for Mind and Culture and about CMAC’s unique approach to problems that could benefit from both humanities and scientific methods. They discuss their hopes that CMAC has for training scholars to work across subject boundaries and to work in teams. They talk about Boston University’s new Faculty of Computing and Data Sciences, a university initiative that cuts across disciplines to try to apply data sciences to every discipline that has an interest. Finally, they talk about their motivations for developing a podcast like DIGETHIX. The key questions for this episode are: how can we better educate researchers to tackle the complicated problems that we face today? Are there ways in which the university system itself may need to be adapted?

Credits:

Music: "Dreams" from Bensound.com

Contact us:

digethix.org
facebook.com/digethix
twitter.com/digethix
instagram.com/digethixfuture
EMAIL: [email protected]