Teaching Computer Ethics : Steps towards Slow Tech, a Good, Clean, and Fair ICT

Sammanfattning: Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are critically impacting society and the environment. They are now an integral part of the challenges posed by the current Anthropocene era. To help in facing these enormous challenges, the entire ICT supply chain (from design to development, manufacturing, usage, deployment, and disposal) should take into account the three dimensions of social desirability, environmental sustainability, and ethical acceptability. In this thesis these concepts are proposed as a joint requirement for a new approach to ICT and with a more precise focus: a good, clean, and fair ICT. A good ICT is designed with a human-centred approach, a clean ICT is environmentally sustainable and minimizes the impact on the planet, and a fair ICT takes into account the working conditions of people along the entire supply-chain. These characteristics represent a triple condition that in this thesis is called Slow Tech (inspired by the Slow Food movement that uses good, clean, and fair with reference to food).Among the many stakeholders of the ICT world, this thesis concentrates on the engineers, the designers of the complex systems (hardware, software, networks) that are shaping our society: in short, computer professionals. They usually work inside organizations and companies, but their skills, competencies, and professional code of ethics are the sources of fundamental design choices. In particular, this thesis identifies ethics as one of the new competencies needed by the next generation of computer professionals and, strongly related to it, complementing their university education with a subject that, for simplicity, will be referred as "Computer Ethics". Two fundamental questions are: how can this requirement for an ethical competence be fulfilled? How can universities prepare the next generation of computer professionals so that they are "ethically grounded"? This grounding in teaching and training is the main reason for the overall title of this thesis: "Teaching Computer Ethics". The main point of this thesis is that the reflections stimulated by the analysis of the ICT stakeholders' network and the use of the three Slow Tech questions are two important tools for improving the ethical skills and competencies of computer professionals. The methodology and my empirical experience of teaching Computer Ethics at the Politecnico of Torino described in this thesis provides interesting results in this direction.