Back to top

Explore More Essays

Self-Driving Car Ethics

By Karis Hustad
October 10, 2018
Earlier this spring 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg was walking her bike across the street in Tempe, Ariz., when she was hit and killed by a car traveling at over 40 miles an hour.

Digital Ethics in the Real World

By Frank Durham
September 22, 2010
One evening in May while my wife was cooking supper, the ever-present National Public Radio played a piece about Facebook, privacy, and user anger at how transparent ostensibly private information can be. That kind of story drifts through the kitchen morning and night. But this one was different, because it offered a direct connection to a “social network” I did not know I had.

@MayorEmanuel

By Don Wycliff
March 14, 2011
It is one of mainstream journalism’s fundamentals: The journalist is a witness, and should not allow himself or herself to be become part of the story. If that principle applies to journalists, should it also apply to a teacher of journalists?

The message is the medium

By Steve Finch
March 24, 2011
In Michel Houellebecq’s novel “The Possibility of an Island,” the main protagonist, Daniel, is confronted with a future that is defined by nuclear holocaust and decay in which the only means of communication is a Facebook-esque device. Face-to-face contact is off-limits for the regenerated clones of humans that inhabit this dystopian nightmare.

Software Vulnerabilities

By Jesse Young
April 7, 2011
In 2008, three MIT students became infamous for hacking into the Boston transit system. Using software they wrote, they discovered a method to get free rides by adding credits to the subway passes. They had planned to announce their findings at DEF CON, an annual hacking conference held in Las Vegas, but a federal judge, at the request of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, barred them from giving the talk.

Web2.0 Suicide: The Luxury of the 21st Century

April 15, 2011
“Great, I’ll just friend you on Facebook,” a girl said to me. Probably seeing the blank expression on my face, she added: “You do have Facebook, right?”