10. Evolving Realities: Ethical and Secure Computing in the New Technological Spaces

Artificial Intelligence discusses the new frontiers of ethics in the new artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, virtualization and virtual reality, and cyberspace. The chapter explores how these new frontiers are affecting the traditional ethical and social values. Our discussion is on based on the premise that artificial intelligence technologies create possibilities to understand and extend human knowledge to create intelligent agents perhaps with a human value base, intended to help solve human problems. We further look at virtualization and virtual reality technologies and how they inform our behavior based on our traditional moral and ethical values through the mediation of interaction through with electronic media. Our discussion of the social and ethical implications and consequences of virtualization is centered on two issues. One is that the anticipated benefit to society of virtualization as it extends known and relatively managed humanity’s social spheres and social networks in an unprecedented way through opening up of virtual domains of social interactions. The second benefit of virtualization to society is to avail tools and make it possible for those in society who want to create new virtual social networks out of the old and dismantle old ones. Finally, we discuss a global mesh of interconnected computer networks, commonly referred to as cyberspace, which makes it possible for anyone using a point-of-entry device like a computer, smartphone, or any other Internet-enabled electronic device to reach anyone else, with the potential to access the mesh, through a one-on-one, one-to-many, and many-to-one communication capabilities or through broadcasting via the World Wide Web. Cyberspace, because of immerse and telepresence capabilities and global reach, creates a potentially dangerous environment where one can do anything with no elegance, no accountability, and no to limited.