Speaker: William Sims Bainbridge, Program Director, Human-Centered Computing (HCC) Cluster, National Science Foundation
Topic: The Emergence of Ethics in Virtual Worlds: World of Warcraft
At: The Technology and Ethics Working Research Group, a project of the Yale University Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics
Date: Wednesday – March 26th
Time: 4:30-5:45
Location: 77 Trumbull St (corner Prospect– Entrance in the new addition on Prospect), New Haven CT – Yale Univ. Institution for Social and Policy Studies – lower level seminar room.
Over the previous seven years, William Sims Bainbridge’s name has arisen often in our discussions of technology. He is truly a creative multidisciplinary thinker. In his role as the Program Director of the Human-Centered Computing Cluster of the National Science Science Foundation, he has had the opportunity to observe the emergence of new technologies from a unique vantage point.
Among Dr, Bainbridge’s most recent books is Nanoconvergence: The Unity of Nanoscience, Biotechnology, Information Technology, and Cognitive Science. He has also co-edited two influential NSF sponsored reports on Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance and Managing Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno Innovations.
We are certainly pleased that Dr. Bainbridge has agreed to come to New Haven on March 26th to make a presentation to the Technology and Ethics working group, and we hope that you too can also be with us.
Wendell Wallach
P.S. The parking lot next to ISPS has been turned into a construction site, but there is another parking lot ½ block down on the left that opens at 4PM. The access for this second lot is now open off of Trumbull Street.
ABSTRACT: Virtual worlds are computer-generated environments having some similarity to the physical world, in which humans are represented by avatars or other surrogates, and where people may interact socially and economically. Among the most influential of dozens of these virtual worlds are World of Warcraft, which has fully ten million subscribers, and Second Life, which includes outposts of many companies, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. The banning of casinos last year, and the more recent run on the banks after a major Ponzi scheme fraud, have raised serious ethical questions about the management of Second Life. World of Warcraft promotes a “post-modern” ethic in which it is okay to kill other people for their resources, so long as this is done with respect, at the same time that it erodes respect for government authorities and promotes the Environmentalist Movement. The recent collapse of The Sims Online ruined all the effort inhabitants had invested in their virtual homes and avatars. Virtual worlds are thus laboratories for research on the emergence of morality in social interaction, the challenge of alternate systems of ethics, and the normative impact of new technologies on human life.
Suggested Readings:
Bainbridge, W.S. “Virtual Nations” (attached)
Bainbridge, W.S. et al. (2007) “The Scientific Research Potential of Virtual Worlds”, Science 317, 472 (attached)
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Brief Bio:
William Sims Bainbridge is the author of 14 books, 4 textbook-software packages, and about 200 shorter publications in the social science of technology, information science, and culture. Goals in Space was a questionnaire study of motivations for space exploration, and Dimensions of Science Fiction explored popular conceptions of the future in space. In 2006 he published God from the Machine, applying artificial intelligence techniques to understand religious cognition, and he has just published Across the Secular Abyss and Nanoconvergence about the tensions between religion, cognitive science, social science, and emerging technologies. Among recent projects are editing The Encyclopedia of Human Computer Interaction (2004) and co-editing Nanotechnology: Societal Implications - Improving Benefits for Humanity (2006) and Managing Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno Innovations: Converging Technologies in Society (2006). He represented the social sciences on five advanced technology initiatives: High Performance Computing and Communications, Knowledge and Distributed Intelligence, Digital Libraries, Information Technology Research, and Nanotechnology, and he represented computer and information science on the Nanotechnology and Human and Social Dynamics initiatives.
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This meeting is open to everyone (undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, administration, and community members) whether or not you have participated in previous sessions of the Technology and Ethics Working Group
Contact Brooke Crockett for dinner reservations at (203) 432-5680 or brooke.crockett @ yale.edu
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