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U.S. Naval War College
The Ethics of Technology: Navigating Moral Dilemmas in an Age of Innovation
When asked what I do, I always state, “I teach ethics of technology.” Though my response to that question has remained constant, people’s reactions have changed dramatically in a few years. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, people generally responded with, “What is that?” In a post-COVID-19 world, people’s response has often changed to, “We need more ethics of technology.”
At the U.S. Naval War College in 2016, I created the Ethics and Emerging Military Technology Graduate Certificate Program (EEMT), a one-of-a-kind in the Department of Defense. My objective was to bring together the philosophy of ethics and the philosophy of technology in an applied strategy to consider the emerging ethical challenges posed by ever-advancing military technology.
Regarding the program, our mid- to senior-level military and civilian professional graduate students research current and highly relevant technology dilemmas. The EEMT program has standing relationships with NATO, Five Eyes, Department of Defense agencies, think tanks, research universities, and industry, allowing our graduate students to collaborate with the organizations most relevant to their work/research. These opportunities ensure that the applied ethics research of EEMT students is some of the best in the field and often helps inform national security policy.
Part of what makes the field of ethics of technology so unique is that it is a relatively new discipline derived from World War II innovation in the military-industrial complex. The field is new, and the exponential nature of technological innovation and emerging disruptive technologies has accelerated the need to view technology through an ethical lens, no more so than ever before.
Yet despite the pressing need to consider the ethical implications of new technologies and their development outside of the medical and engineering professions, ethical discussions on the topic have been almost non-existent. Because technology can often fall into a morally gray area, one of the most pressing questions of this era is, just because we can, should we?
In today’s world, few are technophobes (fear of technology). Most of us suffer from technophilia (love of technology) to the extent that we rarely question a given technology's first-, second-, and third-order effects. That is changing.
Most people think of ethics as “just doing the right thing.” But whose right thing is right? Others have required organizational ethics training, which is often limited to compliance. Ethics is about the dignity and value of people. What values do we hold and lead by?
Technology is liberation, threat, and power—its ethical implications demand constant reflection to safeguard humanity, national security, and our future.
Ethics is more than proper versus wrong. It is more about right versus right and wrong versus wrong. Dilemmas are created when two or more values of duty, the greatest good, and virtue conflict. A moral decision-making framework is needed to navigate those complexities.
We must now consider the future implications of heightened technology usage/reliance. Technology is liberation, threat, and power. The internet has brought people across the globe closer, biotechnology has saved lives, data access increases knowledge, and artificial intelligence enhances decision-making. Yet, simultaneously, the impact of social media poses threats to children, shaping negative values, global competition for rare earth exploits the environment, and biowarfare, information warfare, neuro warfare, and nano warfare threaten our society. Technology exerts its power over humanity for good and ill. Whether considering the current election cycle and the attacks on objective truth or how uncrewed aerial vehicles have changed the nature of war (as seen in the Russia-Ukraine conflict), the consequences of technology being misused are immense.
“What does it mean to be human in an age of technology?” Ethics of technology is a constant moral examination/reflection of the human, national security, and infrastructure implications of various advancements.
China’s recent hack into AT&T and Verizon’s information systems exemplifies the risks of these technologies to the American way of life and national security. There is a call for control of speech to curtail misinformation and disinformation on social media. Whose values prevail?
Ethics of technology education should be prioritized on every level. Academically appropriate digital literacy is critical to equip people with enhanced reasoning skills to keep up with the changing technology landscape. We all have an ethical obligation to ensure a safe and better future.
