Please create a NEW POST on the blog of 700-800 words *PRECISELY*. Not longer, not shorter. Make it engaging, analytically sophisticated, and concise.
In your post, you will apply the skills of ethical analysis you've learned to create a piece of writing that contributes to the internet discourse on the ethics of hacking. You are writing for a real audience, and you are contributing to a 21st century debate that is dearly in need of attention from smart peoples who are skilled in thinking about both hacking and philosophy.
Choose one of the episodes by Michael Sandel on http://www.justiceharvard.org/watch/ I don't recommend the first or last ones; any of the others could work well.
Watch the lecture. :)
Think about the lecture. Generally, Sandel will introduce a political or moral philosopher, like Aristotle, Kant, Rawls, or Locke, and apply the philosopher's ideas to situations.
Those situations will generally not have anything to do with computers. This is a shortcoming in our 21st century world.
You can ameliorate this problem. Apply the ideas in the lecture of your choice--ideas like utilitarianism, rights, moral desert, loyalty, etc.--to a problem or case of your choice in computer hacking. What would John Stuart Mill say about wardriving? What would John Rawls say about jailbreaking? What would John Locke say about replacing the characters in a URL and seeing what you get? What would Immanuel Kant (look, he's not named John!) say about doing that thing where you use web forms to SQLeeze your way into databases?
Don't forget to briefly introduce your philosopher and your hacking idea before you connect them. Readers will happen upon your post via Google, so you want to give them a bit of an introduction so they're not flying bling.
Make sure your ideas are analytically sophisticated--that would go without saying. But ideas are only part of the battle. Don't forget to express your ideas in an attractive and engaging and concise way. Wit, humor, beautiful writing--all these are great ways to engage your readers. Think about your favorite serious bloggers or op-ed--that's the sort of tone you want.
Monica, can you give us a more precise link? The front page doesn't seem to lend itself to picking lectures or what you mean by "first" and "last" as it is a variety of links. I see news, interviews, TV shows and discussion primarily.
ReplyDeletedo you mean the episode links?
ReplyDeleteAlso, after exploring these links a bit, once you answer the questions, prepare for a petition to alter some of the conditions of this essay, or give some wiggle room. These topics are ultra "heavy" and while ethics are part of the class, I feel like this *might* venture a bit in scope past the realm we have been at for ethics in class. We are a HACKING class, not so much a group who has studied philosophy!
ReplyDeleteedited to clarify, thanks! :) you're both hacking and philosophy students; and you're also folks who can think hard about it. These ideas are absolutely the sorts of things we're talking about in class--Sandel just packages them differnetly. All you need to do is pick one of the big ideas and apply it--just like he takes the big ideas and applies them to meatspace situations, you need to take the big ideas and apply them to computer-y situations. Check out the episodes, and if you're still feeling uneasy about this lmk, OK?
ReplyDelete