•  70
    Designing spheres of informational justice
    Ethics and Information Technology 11 (3): 175-179. 2009.
    J. van den Hoven suggested to analyse privacy from the perspective of informational justice, whereby he referred to the concept of distributive justice presented by M. Walzer in “ Spheres of Justice ”. In “privacy as contextual integrity” Helen Nissenbaum did also point to Walzer’s approach of complex equality as well to van den Hoven’s concept. In this article I will analyse the challenges of applying Walzer’s concept to issues of informational privacy. I will also discuss the possibilities of …Read more
  •  49
    Artificial moral agents: an intercultural perspective
    International Review of Information Ethics 7 (9): 129-133. 2007.
    In this paper I will argue that artificial moral agents are a fitting subject of intercultural information ethics because of the impact they may have on the relationship between information rich and information poor countries. I will give a limiting definition of AMAs first, and discuss two different types of AMAs with different implications from an intercultural perspective. While AMAs following preset rules might raise con-cerns about digital imperialism, AMAs being able to adjust to their use…Read more
  •  38
    Surveillance and persuasion
    Ethics and Information Technology 16 (1): 43-49. 2014.
    This paper is as much about surveillance as about persuasive technologies (PTs). With regard to PTs it raises the question about the ethical limits of persuasion. It will be argued that even some forms of self-imposed persuasive soft surveillance technologies may be considered unethical. Therefore, the ethical evaluation of surveillance technologies should not be limited to privacy issues. While it will also be argued that PTs may become instrumental in pre-commitment strategies, it will also be…Read more
  •  37
    African Information Ethics in the context of the global Information Society
    with Rafael Capurro, Johannes Britz, Thomas Hausmanninger, M. Nakado, and F. Weil
    International Review of Information Ethics 7 1-353. 2007.
  •  36
    Ethical regulations on robotics in Europe
    with Rafael Capurro, Jutta Weber, and Christoph Pingel
    AI and Society 22 (3): 349-366. 2008.
    There are only a few ethical regulations that deal explicitly with robots, in contrast to a vast number of regulations, which may be applied. We will focus on ethical issues with regard to “responsibility and autonomous robots”, “machines as a replacement for humans”, and “tele-presence”. Furthermore we will examine examples from special fields of application (medicine and healthcare, armed forces, and entertainment). We do not claim to present a complete list of ethical issue nor of regulations…Read more
  •  27
    Urban robotics and responsible urban innovation
    Ethics and Information Technology 22 (4): 345-355. 2020.
    Robots are leaving factories and entering urban spaces. In this paper, I will explore how we can integrate robots of various types into the urban landscape. I will distinguish between two perspectives: the responsible design and use of urban robots and robots as part of responsible urban innovations. The first viewpoint considers issues arising from the use of a robot in an urban environment. To develop a substantive understanding of Responsible Urban Robotics, we need to focus on normative impl…Read more
  •  20
    It’s getting personal: The ethical and educational implications of personalised learning technology
    with Iris Huis in ’T. Veld
    Journal of Philosophy in Schools 6 (1): 44. 2019.
    Personalised learning systems—systems that predict learning needs to tailor education to the unique learning needs of individual students—are gaining rapid popularity. Praise for educational technology is often focused on how technology will benefit school systems, but there is a lack of understanding of how it will affect the student and the learning process. By uncovering what the meaning of ‘personal’ is in educational philosophy and as embodied in the technology, we illustrate that these two…Read more
  •  14
    Technology and the City: Towards a Philosophy of Urban Technologies (edited book)
    with Taylor Stone, Margoth González Woge, and Pieter E. Vermaas
    Springer Verlag. 2021.
    The contributions in this volume map out how technologies are used and designed to plan, maintain, govern, demolish, and destroy the city. The chapters demonstrate how urban technologies shape, and are shaped, by fundamental concepts and principles such as citizenship, publicness, democracy, and nature. The many authors herein explore how to think of technologically mediated urban space as part of the human condition. The volume will thus contribute to the much-needed discussion on technology-en…Read more
  •  11
    Genetische Informationen: Eigentumsansprüche und Verfügbarkeit
    with Mahha El-Faddagh
    International Review of Information Ethics 5 40-47. 2006.
    The use of genetic information about a patient may cause serious concern within the discourse on informa¬tional privacy. In our article we would like to discuss a positive example of a diagnostic use of genetic infor¬mation in the field of molecular genetics. With regard to this example we will discuss the question who owns the genetic information to determine who should decide which data is to be stored or deleted. We will use a Kantian concept of property in order to show that the genetic info…Read more
  •  7
    Introduction
    with Taylor Stone and Pieter E. Vermaas
    In Michael Nagenborg, Taylor Stone, Margoth González Woge & Pieter E. Vermaas (eds.), Technology and the City: Towards a Philosophy of Urban Technologies, Springer Verlag. pp. 1-9. 2021.
    Technology is no stranger to the city. Cities are planned, built, maintained, governed, demolished, and destroyed by technical means. Yet, the city has yet to receive much attention within the philosophy of technology. This volume addresses this gap, and in doing so contributes to the much-needed discussion on technology-enabled urban futures from the perspective of the philosophy of technology. In this introductory chapter, the larger volume is introduced by reflecting on the rationale and need…Read more
  •  5
    Ethics and Robotics (edited book)
    with Raphael Capurro
    Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft. 2009.
    P. M. Asaro: What should We Want from a Robot Ethic? G. Tamburrini: Robot Ethics: A View from the Philosophy of Science B. Becker: Social Robots - Emotional Agents: Some Remarks on Naturalizing Man-machine Interaction E. Datteri, G. Tamburrini: Ethical Reflections on Health Care Robotics P. Lin, G. Bekey, K. Abney: Robots in War: Issues of Risk and Ethics J. Altmann: Preventive Arms Control for Uninhabited Military Vehicles J. Weber: Robotic warfare, Human Rights & The Rhetorics of Ethical Machi…Read more
  •  4
    Medienethik
    In Armin Grunwald (ed.), Handbuch Technikethik, Metzler. pp. 224-228. 2013.
    Der Begriff ›Medium‹ lässt sich im Deutschen seit dem 17. Jahrhundert in der natur- und sprachwissenschaftlichen Fachsprache nachweisen. Seit der Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts wird ›Medium‹ allgemein für das »Mittlere« oder das »Vermittelnde« gebraucht, z. B. auch für das zwischen Dies- und Jenseits vermittelnde personale ›Medium‹. Im 20. Jahrhundert meint insbesondere der Plural, ›die Medien‹, die zu diesem Zeitpunkt etablierten Medien wie das Buch, die Zeitung, das Radio, das Fernsehen oder den F…Read more
  •  2
    The ethics of search engines (special issue)
    International Review of Information Ethics 3. 2005.
  • Privacy and Terror: Some Remarks from Historical Perspective
    International Review of Information Ethics 2. 2004.
    In this essay I will investigate if in the discourse on different ideas of privacy the reference to the obvious abuse of personal data in totalitarian states is necessary or if we are able to debate both necessity and limits of privacy without having to refer to this extreme example. The aim is to show that the experience of terror has been fundamental for the European tradition.
  • Review: Der virtuelle Krieg. Zwischen Schein und Wirklichkeit im Computerspiel (review)
    International Review of Information Ethics 4 64-66. 2005.
    Review of Hartmut Gieselmann: Der virtuelle Krieg. Zwischen Schein und Wirklichkeit im Computerspiel. Hannover: Offizin-Verlag 2002. The topic of this book is the genre of war game. The author focuses on three main directions, each of which is dealt with by way of exemplary representatives. In this respect his main interest is in the question of how media are able to contribute to making real violence disappear for perception. In this respect his critical analysis aims at the staging of war as a…Read more
  • Review: Handbook of computer game studies (review)
    International Review of Information Ethics 4 67-68. 2005.
    Review of Joost Raessens and Jeffrey Goldstein: Handbook of computer game studies. Cambridge, Massachu-setts – London, England: MIT Press 2005. By more than 450 large-format pages the publishers offer a view of current research in the field of “game studies”. With almost no exception, the 27 articles are of high quality. Readers, however, who are familiar with the works of the single authors are offered only little new information. Unfortunately, the authors mostly focus on western, particularly…Read more