Ethical challenges to citizens of ‘The automatic Age’: Norbert Wiener on the information society
| Pages | 65-74 |
| Date | 31 May 2004 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14779960480000243 |
| Published date | 31 May 2004 |
| Author | Terrell Ward Bynum |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Keynote Address, Ethicomp 2004, Syros, Greece 14th April 2004
Ethical Challenges to Citizens of ‘The Automatic Age’:
Norbert Wiener on the Information Society
1. INTRODUCTION
In Chapter I of his foundational informa-
tion-ethics book, The Human Use of Human
Beings (1950, 1954) Norbert Wiener said:
It is the thesis of this book that soci-
ety can only be understood through a
study of the messages and the com-
munication facilities which belong to
it; and that in the future…messages
between man and machines, between
machines and man, and between
machine and machine, are destined to
play an ever-increasing part. (1954, 16)
To live effectively is to live with
adequate information. Thus commu-
nication and control belong to the
essence of man’s inner life, even as
they belong to his life in society.
(1954, 18)
communications in society…are the
cement which binds its fabric togeth-
er. (1954, 27)
Wiener believed that, in the coming ‘auto-
matic age’ (as he called today’s era), the
nature of society, as well as its citizens’ rela-
tionships with society and with each other,
will depend more and more upon informa-
tion and communications. He predicted
that, in our time, machines will join human
Info, Comm & Ethics in Society (2004) 2: 65–74
©2004 Troubador Publishing Ltd.
KKEEYYWWOORRDDSS
Information
Ethics
Entropy
Human
Purposes
Justice
Ter rell Ward Bynum
Research Center on Computing & Society,
Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, USA
Email: computerethics@earthlink.net
CCOOVVEERRAAGGEE
This article discusses the foresight of philosopher/mathematician Norbert Wiener who, in the 1940s, founded
Information Ethics as a research discipline. Wiener envisioned the coming of an “automatic age” in which informa-
tion technology would have profound social and ethical impacts upon the world. He predicted, for example,
machines that will learn, reason and play games; “automatic factories” that will replace assembly-line workers and
middle managers with computerized devices; workers who will perform their jobs over great distances with the aid
of new communication technologies; and people who will gain remarkable powers by adding computerized “pros-
theses” to their bodies. To analyze the ethical implications of such developments, Wiener presented some principles of
justice and employed a powerful practical method of ethical analysis.
ABSTRACT
To continue reading
Request your trial