Count Zero

Hello world! Welcome to my blog on ethics in computer science. The idea for this blog started with my joining the UCL Computer Science Research Ethics Committee (CS-REC) in September 2020, and was partly motivated as a way to archive my thoughts during my own learning process¹.

Since then, through discussions with people much more versed in the study of ethics — including my fellow colleagues on the CS-REC, and my partner (who is the real ethical brains behind all this) — the idea has developed from a pragmatic resource to a broader discourse on ethics in computer science.

Which all sounds a bit lofty, so in the interests of not disappearing up my own posterior, I’ll be lowering the tone with frequent pop culture references² and terrible puns.

So what makes this blog different?

Well, in short, because I see ethics as an inherently social construct, and therefore a subject that necessitates discussion between individuals and groups from varied backgrounds³. In parallel, modern computer science is generating a new frontier in human-computer interactions; we are now connected at an unprecedented scale thanks to our pocket-sized-computer-camera-phones⁴, which in theory have the potential to network every single person on the planet.

I therefore see the development of ethics in computer science as requiring interaction between people; much like Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Social Contract, this will only work if we all buy into it. In this spirit, I’ll be inviting guest bloggers to contribute their thoughts to the discussion, with the ultimate aim of creating an inclusive model of ethics in computer science.

But first, a few quick definitions. The answers to these questions are subjective; I’ll also be asking them of every guest blogger, which should help frame subsequent discussion.

What is computer science?

Textbook definition here: computer science is the study of algorithms, machines and computation itself.

What is ethics?

Another textbook definition: ethics is the study of systems of moral principles.

Why do pencils have erasers?

Because everyone makes mistakes; this blog represents a work in progress, and, much like DeepMind’s reinforcement learning algorithms, I’m learning as I go⁵.

Footnotes

1. Dear Reader: beware; the puns really will be this bad, and they will be frequent.
2. And enough footnotes to give David Foster Wallace the howling fantods.
3. In contrast to, for example, mathematics, which can be a solitary pursuit.
4. Can see why they went with “smartphones”, really.
5. cf. ¹.