Dr. J's Contemporary Issues in CS Lecture Notes

(C) Copyright 2011-2018 by Clinton Jeffery and/or original authors where appropriate. For use in Dr. J's classes only.

Introduction to Contemporary Issues

We talked about the syllabus and stuff, and assigned a reading-based first homework.
Risks of Technology
Future material may be drawn from here, but information on that page is subject to change at this point.

Risks of Technology

Announcements

Bill Joy's Risks

20 years ago, they posited "human level AI" would be here in 30 years. AI's have beaten world champions in chess and Jeopardy, and they are starting to drive cars pretty well. What could possibly go wrong?

the Risk of Genetic Engineering Apocalypse?

clip
What is it?
Engineered plague? This risk is that humans will use technology to create a biological weapon so successful that it kills us all.
How likely is it?
Are there related risks?

the Risk of Nano-Technology Apocalypse?

clip
What is it?
Gray goo? This risk is characterised by the notion that micro-devices capable of self-replication will run amok and cover the earth.
How likely is it?
Are there related risks?

the Risk of Robotic Apocalypse?

Car accident clip
What is it?
Welcome our new robotic overlords? The usual version of this risk is that AI will enslave or more likely eliminate humans.
How likely is it?
We are already dependent on many machines, including computers, to scale our production (e.g. of food, and energy). Do you agree, or disagree, with the assertion that we are likely to drift further into complete dependence on machines?
Are there related risks?
Do you agree, or disagree with the notion that even if the machines don't take over, further automation will place more power in the hands of whatever tiny elite controls the machines?

Other Risks of Technology

There are other risks, some of them short of extinction events.
Risk that technology will enable a (Country|Supervillain) to take over
Risk that technology will put us all out of work

Ethics in Computing

ethics are the moral principles govern behavior or activity
So ethics in computing are the moral principles that govern our professional computing activities: inventing software/hardware, coding, documenting or administrating a computing system, billing
OK, but what are moral principles?
values, rights and wrongs
And, what do we mean by "govern"?

Choices

Ethics boils down to choices. But before you can even make ethical choices, you have to be aware of the moral issues, which requires awareness.

Interestingly, one of the early pioneers of computer ethics, AI researcher Joseph Weizenbaum, claimed A/I would be good for making decisions, but not choices.

Maner's Hypothesis

"ethical decisions are much harder to make when computers are added"

Do you agree or disagree? Can you give an example in support of this claim?

Ethics vs. Politics

What ethics you have, and what choices you make, shape your politics and vice-versa.

Examples of Ethical Issues in Computing

What have you experienced, or heard of, in the profession of computer science, that would add to this cute list of ethical issues in computing

Reading Assignment

Skim the links below (adapted from http://www.ethicsweb.ca/resources/computer/issues.html), search for any new ones you can find, and write a one-page summary, including a paragraph about each of the three most valuable resources that you find on this page or elsewhere, about computing ethics.

Ethics in Computing, part 2

Ethical Conundrum of the Day

Coders discover a serious bug that compromises a major piece of widely used financial software. Disclosing the bug will cost them money and reputation, big time. Do they disclose the bug, possibly forcing a shutdown of their platform until it is fixed, or keep it secret while they work on a fix?

Bases for Ethics

As a computer scientist, I know that "all solvable problems in computing can be solved by the proper application of recursion" (Udi Manber), and that before you can solve ANYTHING recursively, you have to have a working basis case. So before we can have computer ethics, we have to have ethics in the first place. What is our basis for having ethics at all?
Atheists will say: natural selection has bred ethics into our genes.
Nature is completely full of violence. It is eat or be eaten. Some conjecture that ethics was bred into us on a group, tribe, or societal level, but there is no evidence of natural selection working on such an aggregate basis. Why do (most) humans insist that there is right and wrong behavior? Was it simply taught? Is it purely environmental/cultural conditioning? Or do humans know "right" and "wrong" implicitly?
To the atheists' view, existentialists will add: there is an external entity (society) to which you must answer, and your ethics is simply the cost/benefit equation applied to whatever society will reward or punish.
So a true existential atheist should be fine with murder, so long as you don't get caught. But this is a real rare person. Most atheists will agree that killing and stealing are wrong. Whether or not you can get away with it, they violate someone else's human rights. But who says there is any such thing as human rights?
Early legal systems (e.g. code of hammurabi) are the origin for the that "external rules of society define our ethics".
They were developed in civilizations that were very religious: "priest kings" in ziggurats form one basis for the "it was taught/conditioned into us" theory.
Some religions assert that right and wrong, and our basis of ethics, are completely defined by an external supernatural being, and that being will judge your behavior and reward or punish it.
If I extrapolate a bit here (so this is me, not your priest/rabbi/imam talking):
Now: what would you correct or add to the above description of the basis for ethics?

Ethics in the ACM/IEEE/USENIX Codes

Learn the 8 ACM/IEEE Principles and read the 15 USENIX Principles. Are there any that you personally disagree with? What about ones that you feel are guidelines, not actual rules? Lastly: how many of these are vague, to the point they require elaboration in order to be useful?

Highlights of ACM/IEEE:

Highlights of USENIX:

CPSR's 10 Commandments of Computer Ethics

  1. Thou shalt not use a computer to harm other people.
  2. Thou shalt not interfere with other people's computer work.
  3. Thou shalt not snoop around in other people's computer files.
  4. Thou shalt not use a computer to steal.
  5. Thou shalt not use a computer to bear false witness.
  6. Thou shalt not copy or use proprietary software for which you have not paid.
  7. Thou shalt not use other people's computer resources without authorization or proper compensation.
  8. Thou shalt not appropriate other people's intellectual output.
  9. Thou shalt think about the social consequences of the program you are writing or the system you are designing.
  10. Thou shalt always use a computer in ways that ensure consideration and respect for your fellow humans.

Internet Privacy and Access

Work @ IBM?

Get Fast-Tracked for 2019 Jobs & Internships with IBM Through Uncubed

Interested in meeting experts at the intersection of Artificial
Intelligence, Natural Language Processing & Machine Learning, and landing a
job or internship with the company at the forefront of it all?

IBM & Uncubed are bringing together students looking for full-time
opportunities in 2019 to learn about the future of AI: from reducing
environmental pollution and predicting weather patterns to protecting public
safety and personalizing education practices.

Events will take place this November across Atlanta, Boston, San Francisco,
and Toronto -- travel & lodging provided (read FREE!)

(Not looking for a full-time position yet? Apply through Uncubed and get
priority access to 2019 internships.)

Students will be selected through our application process -- we currently
have full-time & internship positions available in Engineering &
Development, Product Management, Design & UX, Data Science, and more!

Learn more and apply here.

Questions? Contact us at ibm@uncubed.com.

Discussion of Term Paper

See http://www2.cs.uidaho.edu/~jeffery/courses/400501/ for details.

Reading Assignment

Read the following.

Internet Privacy and Access

What's Up with Net Neutrality?

Internet Privacy and Access, Part 2

Discussion of Reading Assignment Papers

Federal Privacy Bill

Be Very Afraid

Google Location History

Resumed Discussion of Net Neutrality

Redneck's-Eye-View

Internship Ad

HOME IS WHERE THE TECH IS

2019 Summer Internship

Opportunities at Paylocity

 
Make an impact in tech, right here in Boise and launch your future career
with Paylocity. We work in small agile product-oriented teams where we
innovate, collaborate and bring amazing products to market.

Paylocity has a new technology office in downtown Boise and developed an
internship program specifically designed for Computer Science juniors and
seniors.  Be part of something great and get a jump start your career
learning useful job skills you can apply right away.

We're reviewing applications and scheduling candidate interviews now! 

Check out the job opportunity and apply here:
http://bit.ly/2019SummerTECHInterns

Additional career opportunities can be found at:
https://www.paylocity.com/careers/

Internship Location:  Downtown Boise

Dates:  May 20 - August 9, 2019

Freedom of Speech

Censorship

The opposite of "freedom of speech" is censorship. The most famous censorship examples on the internet include:
US government censorship
We generally censor obscenity and defamation. Interestingly, the US does not consider a work obscene if it contains artistic, literary, political or scientific value.
Paypal, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Silicon Valley censors persons and groups that they disagree with, i.e. those that are not left-wing progressive. Our constitution only limits government censorship, it does not protect freedom of speech against corporate censors.
China, Iran and other repressive regimes
Whole countries attempt to censor the entire internet. Some censor as data crosses their borders; others censor after the fact, by threat of prison or worse. Different countries have different extents and topics of censorship, depending both on culture and on the purpose of censorship. Is it to prevent damage to individuals? to society? to the government?
ISIL and similar groups have been successful at recruiting using social media
Should such groups be censored? Why or why not?

Intellectual Property

Some Kinds of Intellectual Property Protection, Applied to CS

patent

U.S. patent length: 20 years. "design" patent: 14 years.

An inventor receives a patent by disclosing an invention to the government, in exchange for which they are granted a temporary monopoly on the use of their invention. Many professors and researchers in industry are highly motivated to go after CS patents; for example it may earn you a promotion, a raise, a large bonus, or a percentage of the profits from your invention.

The question of what is patentable has been a sore subject for many in the software field. Traditionally, "ideas" including math have been unpatentable. The idea has to be embodied in a physical process. So for a long time, software patents would consist of an idea, attached to some absurd piece of hardware that included that idea. But now that requirement has been relaxed somewhat. For awhile, unfathomable myriads of software patents were issued, so many that any reasonably complex piece of software might violate a host of them without even knowing it.

In addition to being not-just-an-idea, patentability has traditionally included the notions that a patent has to be non-obvious, and not created previously by others. Unfortunately, the U.S. Government patent office has historically been under-staffed and lacked the expertise to accurately assess "obviousness" when it comes to computer software. Many patents have been issued for very obvious software ideas; some have been thrown out after painful court challenges in which prior art was brought forward.

Two-part patent eligibility test for software:

  1. determine whether the claims are for patent-ineligible concepts, and
  2. if so, determine whether the claims transform the nature of the claims into something patentable.

Patents cost thousands of dollars, making them easier for for-profit institutions to pursue, than individuals or free software entities. Litigation based on patents is simply outside the realm of ordinary people. Thus, they exaggerate the monopoly power of giants at the expense of the small developer.

copyright

U.S. copyright length: "life" + 70 years.

Copyright is the primary means of protecting computer code. Do you know how to protect code so that its copyright can be enforced? Registration with the U.S. copyright office is one important step... $35, doable online.

Look-and-feel copyrights are occasionally a thing. When Apple sued Microsoft for ripping off the Mac interface, Xerox then sued Apple for ripping of their (Star) interface. Similar lawsuits have been filed over office suites that have been cloned. More recently, Apple has sued over phones at tablets that imitated the iPhone and iPad products more than the wanted.

trade secret

A trade secret is a secret device, technique, formula, process etc. used by a company to manufacture products better than their competitors'. "Important but invisible" part of IP. Major tools for enforcement include:
NDA
work-for-hire rules
"non-compete clause"

trademark

U.S. term length: 10 years, renewable to infinity

A trademark is a brand name: any word or symbol used or intended to identify and distinguish the goods/services of a provider.

A few Famous Software Patents

For each, you can ask, how big an invention was it, and whether it deserves protection.