Technological Justice
If the last decade or so has shown us anything, it is that technology has a vital impact on our social fabric. Social media technologies can simultaneously be used to start a revolution and to strengthen the grip of a tyrant. Improved communication methods can both save lives during natural disasters and lead to human-created disasters through the dissemination of misinformation.
The rise of computing and internet-based technologies has made clear that technology can impact social justice in all sorts of ways. But this is true of all technology: The siting of a highway can determine which neighborhood flourishes and which collapses into disrepair; The use of polluting technologies sacrifices some people, including future people, and the environment for the sake of others. Technology can also enhance or diminish long-term social justice, as when new cybersecurity tools are created to preserve the legitimacy of democratic elections or online test-proctoring services inaccurately report students for misconduct, threatening their educational attainment.
Given the strong influence of technology on our social fabric, it should be no surprise that technology professionals are commanded to think about the long-term and social impacts of their design decisions. These sorts of considerations can be broadly grouped together under the heading of Justice, our fourth and final ethical principle.
In the three chapters that follow, we will explore the principle of justice and related concepts and methods, to understand how technology professionals can use their skills and knowledge to be a force for positive change in the world.
Chapter 10 discusses the principle of justice, its connection to professional codes of ethics, and some common justice-related values.
Chapter 11 then introduces another new Value Sensitive Design tool – Red-Teaming – which can be used most helpfully to promote long-term thinking about the effects of a technology on the world. Engaging in red-teaming can result in the production of a Value Impact Analysis, highlighting key values that could be significantly impacted by a technology in the long-term.
Chapter 12 introduces some new justice-based evaluative methods. These methods sit somewhere between the welfare-based and dignity-based methods previously explored. Like welfare-based methods, they tend to be focused on populations rather than individuals. However, like dignity-based methods, they do account for the fact that individuals are distinct and differentially impacted and that the difference in impact may be morally relevant, independent of the total impact.
