Meta-informatics and ethical issues in computing

摘要

This paper deals with aspects of teaching a course on ethical issues in computer science for third- and fourth-year computer science and computer engineering majors. In addition to engineering concerns - soft and hard - our recent discussions have increasingly centered on public policy issues involving surveillance, access to, use and interpretation of information, and on early access to appropriate instruction in computer and information technology indispensable for productive life and citizenship in the 21st century. In these discussions, students have revealed blind spots with respect to manipulation, misuse, misrepresentation, and distortion of information. Among the difficulties are those associated with reification, "reverse reification", saturation of the channel, especially through the use of so-called "talking points", and outright falsification, misrepresentation, and distortion. These seem to belong to a neglected aspect of our discipline that might be given the name "meta-informatics."My assertion is that "meta-informatics" is an area worthy of consideration, especially in courses or modules devoted to ethical issues in computer and information science.