Getting ‘virtual’ wrongs right

Whilst some philosophical progress has been made on the ethical evaluation of playing video games, the exact subject matter of this enquiry remains surprisingly opaque. ‘Virtual murder’, simulation, representation and more are found in a literature yet to settle into a tested and cohesive terminology. Querying the language of the virtual in particular, I suggest that it is at once inexplicit and laden with presuppositions potentially liable to hinder anyone aiming to construct general philosophical claims about an ethics of gameplay, for whom assumptions about the existence of ‘virtual’ counterparts to morally salient phenomena may prove untrustworthy. Ambiguously straddling the pictorial and the performative aspects of video gaming, the virtual leaves obscure the ways in which we become involved in gameplay, and particularly the natures of our intentions and attitudes whilst grappling with a game; furthermore, it remains unclear how we are to generalise across encounters with the virtual. I conclude by briefly noting one potential avenue of further enquiry into our modes of participation in games: into the differences which a moral examination of playfulness might make to ethical evaluation.     

Game mechanics and technological mediation: an ethical perspective on the effects of MMORPG’s

In the past decades, video games have grown from a niche market to one of the major entertainment media, enticing millions of players worldwide. When ethical aspects of video games are being debated, the discussion oftentimes revolves around effects of their content, such as violence. This paper argues that effects of game mechanics, such as reward mechanisms, should be considered as well, as these are at the core of the appeal of games. We analyze the ethical dimension of behavioral game design present in Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG’s). Using the framework of technological mediation, we show how opaque and seductive game mechanics can invite problematic usage patterns, such as excessive use with negative effects on well-being, and how designers can take responsibility for morally acceptable impact of their games. Having a practical focus, the paper concludes with several proposals for better design.     

网络游戏机制融入教学实践的研究

随着计算机和网络技术的发展,各类网络游戏雨后春笋般地兴起,很多人热衷甚至痴迷于游戏之中。如何将其积极的因素与教育融合,取长补短,调动学生的学习兴趣,提高学习效果。本文就网络游戏强“磁性”的原因、游戏机制融入教学内容设计和游戏机制融入实践教学三个方面进行了阐述。     

Dynamic games for secure and resilient control system design

Modern control systems are featured by their hierarchical structure composed of cyber, physical and human layers. The intricate dependencies among multiple layers and units of modern control systems require an integrated framework to address cross-layer design issues related to security and resilience challenges. To this end, game theory provides a bottom-up modeling paradigm to capture the strategic interactions among multiple components of the complex system and enables a holistic view to understand and design cyber-physical-human control systems. In this review, we first provide a multi-layer perspective toward increasingly complex and integrated control systems and then introduce several variants of dynamic games for modeling different layers of control systems. We present game-theoretic methods for understanding the fundamental tradeoffs of robustness, security and resilience and developing a cross-layer approach to enhance the system performance in various adversarial environments. This review also includes three quintessential research problems that represent three research directions where dynamic game approaches can bridge between multiple research areas and make significant contributions to the design of modern control systems. The paper is concluded with a discussion on emerging areas of research that crosscut dynamic games and control systems.     

大学英语课堂中的游戏教学

本文从目前大学英语课堂存在的问题出发,分析了游戏教学的作用以及在大学英语教学中的适用性。游戏教学的有效性与游戏设计的科学性、合理性以及教师的实际操作是分不开的,因此本文还探讨了游戏教学的原则以及在操作过程中应注意的问题。     

The amoralist challenge to gaming and the gamer’s moral obligation

According to the amoralist, computer games cannot be subject to moral evaluation because morality applies to reality only, and games are not real but “just games”. This challenges our everyday moralist intuition that some games are to be met with moral criticism. I discuss and reject the two most common answers to the amoralist challenge and argue that the amoralist is right in claiming that there is nothing intrinsically wrong in simply playing a game. I go on to argue for the so-called “endorsement view” according to which there is nevertheless a sense in which games themselves can be morally problematic, viz. when they do not only represent immoral actions but endorse a morally problematic worldview. Based on the endorsement view, I argue against full blown amoralism by claiming that gamers do have a moral obligation when playing certain games even if their moral obligation is not categorically different from that of readers and moviegoers.     

Beyond codes of ethics: how library and information professionals navigate ethical dilemmas in a complex and dynamic information environment

This paper reports on a research project that investigated how library and information (LIS) professionals experience ethical dilemmas, with particular reference to the impact of new technologies, sources used to assist ethical decision-making, and the contribution case studies can make to ethical understanding and decision-making. Data was collected through interviews in Britain, Ireland and Australia with LIS professionals, educators, and representatives of professional bodies. The findings identify the main types of dilemma raised and discuss cases indicative of each type. They suggest that new technologies do not appear to change ethical principles but, when experienced in the workplace, substantially change the factors the professional has to evaluate. They also suggest that relevant codes of ethics are satisfactory on traditional library issues of access and confidentiality, but do not address the ethical challenges of current and potential digital environments. Professional associations appear more familiar with codes of ethics than practitioners although practitioners show high levels of ethical awareness, suggesting associations need to communicate more with their members and provide tools that are more useful in the workplace. Case studies are seen as a good way to educate and engage practitioners because of the complexity, conflicts and dynamism they can present.     

Just consequentialism and computing

Computer and information ethics, as well as other fields of applied ethics, need ethical theories which coherently unify deontological and consequentialist aspects of ethical analysis. The proposed theory of just consequentialism emphasizes consequences of policies within the constraints of justice. This makes just consequentialism a practical and theoretically sound approach to ethical problems of computer and information ethics.     

From dignity to security protocols: a scientometric analysis of digital ethics

Our lives are increasingly intertwined with the digital realm, and with new technology, new ethical problems emerge. The academic field that addresses these problems—which we tentatively call ‘digital ethics’—can be an important intellectual resource for policy making and regulation. This is why it is important to understand how the new ethical challenges of a digital society are being met by academic research. We have undertaken a scientometric analysis to arrive at a better understanding of the nature, scope and dynamics of the field of digital ethics. Our approach in this paper shows how the field of digital ethics is distributed over various academic disciplines. By first having experts select a collection of keywords central to digital ethics, we have generated a dataset of articles discussing these issues. This approach allows us to generate a scientometric visualisation of the field of digital ethics, without being constrained by any preconceived definitions of academic disciplines. We have first of all found that the number of publications pertaining to digital ethics is exponentially increasing. We furthermore established that whereas one may expect digital ethics to be a species of ethics, we in fact found that the various questions pertaining to digital ethics are predominantly being discussed in computer science, law and biomedical science. It is in these fields, more than in the independent field of ethics, that ethical discourse is being developed around concrete and often technical issues. Moreover, it appears that some important ethical values are very prominent in one field (e.g., autonomy in medical science), while being almost absent in others. We conclude that to get a thorough understanding of, and grip on, all the hard ethical questions of a digital society, ethicists, policy makers and legal scholars will need to familiarize themselves with the concrete and practical work that is being done across a range of different scientific fields to deal with these questions.     

Towards an ontological foundation of information ethics

The paper presents, firstly, a brief review of the long history of information ethics beginning with the Greek concept of parrhesia or freedom of speech as analyzed by Michel Foucault. The recent concept of information ethics is related particularly to problems which arose in the last century with the development of computer technology and the internet. A broader concept of information ethics as dealing with the digital reconstruction of all possible phenomena leads to questions relating to digital ontology. Following Heidegger’s conception of the relation between ontology and metaphysics, the author argues that ontology has to do with Being itself and not just with the Being of beings which is the matter of metaphysics. The primary aim of an ontological foundation of information ethics is to question the metaphysical ambitions of digital ontology understood as today’s pervading understanding of Being. The author analyzes some challenges of digital technology, particularly with regard to the moral status of digital agents. The author argues that information ethics does not only deal with ethical questions relating to the infosphere. This view is contrasted with arguments presented by Luciano Floridi on the foundation of information ethics as well as on the moral status of digital agents. It is argued that a reductionist view of the human body as digital data overlooks the limits of digital ontology and gives up one basis for ethical orientation. Finally issues related to the digital divide as well as to intercultural aspects of information ethics are explored – and long and short-term agendas for appropriate responses are presented.     

Respect for persons,identity, and information technology

There is surprisingly little attention in Information Technology ethics to respect for persons, either as an ethical issue or as a core value of IT ethics or as a conceptual tool for discussing ethical issues of IT. In this, IT ethics is very different from another field of applied ethics, bioethics, where respect is a core value and conceptual tool. This paper argues that there is value in thinking about ethical issues related to information technologies, especially, though not exclusively, issues concerning identity and identity management, explicitly in terms of respect for persons understood as a core value of IT ethics. After explicating respect for persons, the paper identifies a number of ways in which putting the concept of respect for persons explicitly at the center of both IT practice and IT ethics could be valuable, then examines some of the implicit and problematic assumptions about persons, their identities, and respect that are built into the design, implementation, and use of information technologies and are taken for granted in discussions in IT ethics. The discussion concludes by asking how better conceptions of respect for persons might be better employed in IT contexts or brought better to bear on specific issues concerning identity in IT contexts.     

Violent computer games,empathy, and cosmopolitanism

Many philosophical and public discussions of the ethical aspects of violent computer games typically centre on the relation between playing violent videogames and its supposed direct consequences on violent behaviour. But such an approach rests on a controversial empirical claim, is often one-sided in the range of moral theories used, and remains on a general level with its focus on content alone. In response to these problems, I pick up Matt McCormick’s thesis that potential harm from playing computer games is best construed as harm to one’s character, and propose to redirect our attention to the question how violent computer games influence the moral character of players. Inspired by the work of Martha Nussbaum, I sketch a positive account of how computer games can stimulate an empathetic and cosmopolitan moral development. Moreover, rather than making a general argument applicable to a wide spectrum of media, my concern is with specific features of violent computer games that make them especially morally problematic in terms of empathy and cosmopolitanism, features that have to do with the connections between content and medium, and between virtuality and reality. I also discuss some remaining problems. In this way I hope contribute to a less polarised discussion about computer games that does justice to the complexity of their moral dimension, and to offer an account that is helpful to designers, parents, and other stakeholders. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the ACLA 2006 conference in Princeton, 25 March 2006.     

Entrepreneurial and ethical adoption behaviour of cloud computing

In light of continuing use and media attention placed on cloud computing, the study of ethical behaviour in technology innovations remains an important area of research, which helps to understand the antecedents of a person's intention to adopt cloud computing based on their ethical orientation. The present study examines how ethics influences a person's decision to adopt cloud computing, and how in turn ethical behaviours affect technology innovations. Based on social cognitive theory, this paper proposes that a higher ethical and entrepreneurial orientation will lead to a person adopting cloud computing. Moreover, the marketing, learning and outcome expectancy a person has about cloud computing will positively affect their intention to adopt this technology. The predictions are tested through a survey, which indicates that ethics and marketing are important determinants of a person's behavioural intention towards technology innovations.     

基于J2ME的手机游戏地图的设计与优化

游戏地图为玩家创造了一个完整又精彩的世界,地图设计在游戏开发过程中占着举足轻重的地位。本文从策划、美工、程序三个阶段完整地阐述了手机游戏地图的设计过程以及优化处理技巧,让小地图有大作为,满足手机游戏开发的要求。     

基于DX9打砖块游戏的设计与实现

基于C＋＋语言,win32 application结构开发的打砖块游戏,采用DX9技术来渲染图形和声音。本文简单的介绍了游戏开发时所用到的相应技术,然后描述了游戏的设计构思,开发过程中难点的解决方案,最后详细的叙述了游戏的碰撞检测、声音的渲染等模块的实现方法和相关代码。     

浅析中学教育问题的伦理考量与对策

中学教育作为我国的基础教育,除了培养学生的基础知识之外,还是帮助学生树立正确价值观、思想道德品质的重要阶段。然而,随着教育手段和教育环境的变换,中学教育已经渐渐背离了以往的教育目标。中学教育者、学生、学校管理者等多种角色都有这样或那样的不规范行为,显然,我国现阶段的中学教育面临着伦理缺失的严峻考验。面对这种现象,作为教育伦理学的研究者,必须要从教学实践中入手,研究问题背后的伦理问题,进而找到解决问题的办法。本文主要从三个方面：探讨中学教育中教师面临的教育伦理问题,教育伦理学在中学教育实践机制中的必要性以及中学教育伦理问题解决的对策,通过这三个方面的分析,旨在有针对性地对中学的伦理教育加以改进。     

幼儿园小班如何开展自主性游戏活动

教师在幼儿游戏过程中,应该根据幼儿的年龄特点,对游戏材料的投放、游戏活动的交流讨论都应遵循幼儿思维的发展规律,循序渐进地开展游戏活动。如果教师在活动中一味地根据自己的主观意识设计活动内容,非但不能提高幼儿的游戏水平,甚至还会阻碍幼儿游戏发展的水平。教师在指导新入园幼儿的游戏时,应做一名有心人,根据幼儿的年龄特点,了解幼儿各方面的发展水平,尊重幼儿的兴趣和愿望,充分发挥教师的指导作用,体现幼儿的自主性、创造性,让幼儿按着自己的想法自主地进行游戏。     

科技伦理视角下的人工智能研究

人工智能在深刻影响人类社会生产生活方式的同时,也引发诸多伦理困境与挑战,建立新的科技伦理规范以推动人工智能更好服务人类,成为全社会共同关注的主题。本文从科技伦理的视角,围绕机器人、算法、大数据、无人驾驶等人工智能领域所出现的伦理主体、责任分担、技术安全、歧视与公平性、隐私与数据保护等问题,以及人工智能技术的伦理治理,对国内外相关研究成果进行回顾分析,并提出未来需要在中国情境下伦理原则与治理体系的建立、人工智能伦理研究的跨学科合作、理论分析与实践案例的融合、多元主体伦理角色分工与协作等方面进行进一步研究。     

The gamer’s dilemma: An analysis of the arguments for the moral distinction between virtual murder and virtual paedophilia

Most people agree that murder is wrong. Yet, within computer games virtual murder scarcely raises an eyebrow. In one respect this is hardly surprising, as no one is actually murdered within a computer game. A virtual murder, some might argue, is no more unethical than taking a pawn in a game of chess. However, if no actual children are abused in acts of virtual paedophilia (life-like simulations of the actual practice), does that mean we should disregard these acts with the same abandon we do virtual murder? In this paper I shall outline several arguments which attempt to permit virtual murder, whilst prohibiting virtual paedophilia.