Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Emergent values for automatons: Ethical problems of life in the generalized Internet

  • Published:
Ethics and Information Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The infrastructure is becoming a network of computerized machines regulated by societies of self-directing software agents. Complexity encourages the emergence of novel values in software agent societies. Interdependent human and software political orders cohabitate and coevolve in a symbiosis of freedoms.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • D. Caruso. Pretty Soon, a Computer Control System may be Perking your Morning Coffee. The New York Times, 23 September, D5, 1996.

  • J. Fineberg. Physics in a jumping sandbox. Nature (382), 29 August, 763-764, 1996.

  • A. Fisher. Power to the People — The UK's National Grid has just Invested in a Sophisticated Control Network. Financial Times (London), Technology Section, 2 November, 18, 1993.

  • D. Goldberg. Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization, and Machine Learning. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  • J. Holland. Genetic Algorithms. Scientific American 267(1): 66-72, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  • D. Ilka. In Oakland County: Milford on New Traffic System: FAST-TRAC to Help Improve Mobility and Safety for Busy Intersections and near Recreation Arcas, The Detroit News (Metro) 19 September, D5, 1997.

  • L. Lamarre. Deregulating in the Information Age. The Electric Power Research Institute Journal 22(3) (May/June): 18-25, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  • J. Markoff. Can Xerox auction off hot air?. New York Times, 24 June, D5, 1996.

  • J. Markoff/ Taking a Step toward Converting the Home into a Supercomputer. New York Times, 25 July, A1-D4, 1998.

  • J.H. Moor. What is Computer Ethics?. Metaphilosophy 16(4): 266-275, 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  • I. Peterson. Agents of Cooperation: Orchestrating the Actions of Mobile Snippets of Smart Software. Science News 155(1): 12, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  • I. Prigogine and I. Stengers. Order out of Chaos: Man's New Dialogue with Nature. New York: Bantam, 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  • M. Resnick. Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • J. Snapper. Responsibility for Computer-Based Errors. Metaphilosophy 16(4): 289-295, 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  • R. Stepler. Fill it up, with RAM. New York Times, 27 August, G1, 1998.

  • P.B. Umbanhowar, F. Melo and H.L. Swinney. Localized excitations in a vertically vibrated granular layer. Nature (382), 29 August, 793-796, 1996.

  • F.E. Yates, Editor. Self-Organizing Systems: The Emergence of Order. New York: Plenum Press, 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  • M. Zeleny, Editor. Autopoiesis, Dissipative Structures, and Spontaneous Social Orders. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1980.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Philosophy, William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ, 07470, USA. E-mail

    Eric Steinhart

Authors
  1. Eric Steinhart
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Steinhart, E. Emergent values for automatons: Ethical problems of life in the generalized Internet. Ethics and Information Technology 1, 155–160 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010078223411

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010078223411

Keywords

Search

Navigation