When Technology and Humanity Cross

Intended Learning
Outcome

Within the given period, the learners are expected

to:

e​xamine human rights in order to uphold such rights

in technological ethical dilemmas ​(P.O No. 4)

Picture Not Mine. Credits to the owner.

Time Element: 4.5 hours

Preparation

The ever-growing society has made people see technology as some form of
necessity. The roles played by technology these days are very crucial not only to a few
but also to everyone. In one way or another, each person in the society is directly or
indirectly affected by technology whether he wills it or not. In fact, most people survive
their everyday lives with great reliance to the different technological advancements
already available to the masses.

Introductory Activity: ​(Movie Viewing: I, Robot 2004-Full movie, Will Smith

Movie)
Time Allocation: 1 hour & 45 minutes

Note: ​An Activity Sheet will be accomplished by the students after watching the movie.

Presentation
:
 What is
technology? What
is humanity?

Technology, ​a word with Greek roots, is defined as, “the practical application of
knowledge especially in a particular area” by Merriam-Webster. ​Technology ​is a
word used to define or portray progressions, abilities, creations, happenings,
interpretations, and knowledge of a singular group of persons and as humans we
execute certain functions for man and society.
Advantages of technology: ​1. Life has become easy through science and technology.
2. Travelling has become faster than before. 3. Communication becomes easier, faster,
and cheaper. 4. Innovations in technology increased the standard of living. 5. Using
various technology, man become advanced. 6.The impossible have become possible
due to the progress in science and technology. 7. Science and technology made a lot of
things easy to do and comfortable for man.

Disadvantages of technology: ​1. Human had misused the technology and used in
damaging purpose. 2. By the use of technology, man is doing illegal things. 3. New
technology like mobile are generating bad consequences on children. 4. By means of
modern technology, terrorists use it for destructive purpose. 5. Many illnesses are
created due to the development of atomic energy and atom
bomb. 6. Modern technology like nuclear energy have not only affected man but it
also
affected plants and other creatures. 7. Natural beauty is decreasing due to
the development of modern technology.

Factors that define the limits of technology: ​1. The laws of physics. – Software,
Quantum effects, and Thermodynamics plays important role when it comes to the law
of physics and technology. Software is a flexible medium. Quantum effects have
theoretical and practical limits to the information capacity. Thermodynamics effects
happen when the container that will dissipate heat, limits the use of technology.

2. The laws of software. – An example of software limitations is when there is a given

computation, there are ties we can’t do it, and there are times we can’t afford to do it,
and sometimes we just don’t know how to do it.

3. The challenge of algorithms. – Limitation for algorithms is that there are also certain
classes of problems that are on a reasonable algorithm: data compression and
photorealistic which renders two such problems like theoretical limits of compressing an
image, a waveform, video, or some raw streams of bits, some degree of information
loss, hairy mathematics, some trial and error, lack of perfect knowledge adds
complexity and compromise to our system.

4. The difficulty of distribution. – Leslie Lamport an American computer scientist who

observed, “A distributed system is one in which the failure of a computer you didn’t
even know existed can render your computer unusable.”

5. The problem of design. – The design of any relevant Web-centric system consists of
tens of thousands of lines of custom code on top of hundreds of thousands of lines of
middleware code on top of several million lines of operating system code.
6. The problem of functionality. – Book writes: To consider the requirements,
functionality, and non-functionality of a machine like multi-engine aircraft, a cellular
phone, or an autonomous robot has these limitations such as usability, survivability,
and adaptability has these unrestrained, potential contradictory, external requirements
are too complexity to design.

7. The importance of organization. – According to Booch (2003), No one person can

ever understand such a system completely. It demands that we use a team of
developer, and ideally, as small a team as possible but software systems that drive the
entire enterprise, one typically must manage teams of teams, each of which may be
geographically distributed from one another.

8. The impacts of economics. Total Advancement costs

money.

9. The influence of politics. – Investment in software development is the key to success,

the political organization can influence its progress and its limitations. Great things
could have provided if the influence in politics are on a positive side.

Humanity ​is the human race, which includes everybody on earth. It is also a term for
the qualities that make us human, such as the capacity to love, to sympathize, to be
creative, and not to be a robot or alien

Humanity ​is from the Latin word “​humanitas” ​which means “human nature, kindness.”
Humanity comprises all the humans, also refer to the kind of emotions human
frequently feel for each other. But when people talk about humanity, it is talking about
people as a whole. When people do wrong things, it challenges your faith in humanity.
ETHICAL
DILLEMAS
The control over nature and the control of other people by the use of technology is
completely another story. Science and technology as well as research and
development enjoy and must continue to enjoy autonomy from the state and society.
They may draw inspiration from them, but they are not necessarily determined and
directed by them. However, the application, use and distribution of technology require
ethical standards and even legal provisions set by the local and international
government.
The ethical dilemmas and policy issues for 2015 for 2015 (presented in no
particular order) are:

1. Real-time satellite surveillance video. – The satellites themselves are getting

cheaper, smaller, and more sophisticated than before. Commercial satellite companies
make this data available to the corporations, letting customers to see useful images of
areas handling with natural disasters and humanitarian emergencies, but also the data
on the comings and goings of private citizens.
How do we choose what should be observed and how frequent? Should we use
this information to solve criminalities? What is the possible for misuse by corporation,
governments, police departments, private citizens, or terrorists and other “bad actors”?

2. Astronauts bioethics (of colonizing Mars). – The colonization of Mars and plans for
long-term space mission are already ongoing. On December 5, NASA launched the
Orion spacecraft and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden declared it “Day One of the
Mars era.” The company Mars One (along with Lockheed Martin and Surrey Satellite
Technology) is preparing to launch a robotic mission to Mars in 2018, with succeeding
humans in 2025. But as we watch with interest as this clarifies, we might ask ourselves
the following: Is it moral to expose people to unknown levels of human separation and
physical danger (including exposure to radiation) for such a purpose? Will these
pioneers lack privacy for the rest of their lives so that we might watch what happens?

3.Wearable technology. – We are presently involved to (literally and figuratively)

multiple technologies that monitor our behaviors. Wearable technologies have the
potential to teach us, protect our health, as well as violate our privacy in any amount of
ways.

4. State-Sponsored Hacktivism and Soft War. – “​Soft war” ​is a concept used to explain
rights and duties of insurgents (and even terrorists) during armed struggle. Soft war
incorporates tactics other than armed force to achieve political ends. Cyber war and
hacktivism could be tools of soft war, through certain ways by states in inter-state
conflict, as opposed to isolated individuals or groups. We already live in a state of low-
intensity cyber conflict. How do we fight back if these activities become more
aggressive, damaging infrastructure?

5. Enhanced pathogens. – White House suspended research on October 17, 2014 that
would enhance the pathogenicity of viruses such as influenzas, severe acute
respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) (often
referred to as gain-of-function (GOF research). Gain-of-function research, in itself, is
not detrimental; in fact, it is used to provide vital understanding into viruses and how to
treat them. But when it is used to increase mammalian transmissibility and virulence,
the altered viruses pose serious security and biosafety risks.

6. Non-lethal weapons. – These weapons may not kill (then again, there have been
fatalities from non-lethal weapons), but they can cause serious pain, physical injuries,
and long-term costs.

7. Robot swarms. – Should we be worried about the ethical and policy consequences of
letting robots work collected without human interference? If a robot malfunction and
causes harm what will happen? Who would be blamed for such an accident? What if
tiny swarms of robots could be set up to spy or sabotage?
8. Artificial life forms. – The ethical and policy issues surrounding innovations in
synthetic biology renew concerns raised previously with other biological breakthroughs
and includes safety issues and risks factors connected with releasing artificial life forms
into the environment.

9. Resilient social-ecological system. – Resilient social and ecological system is what

we build. Tolerantly being pushed to an extreme while maintaining their functionality
either by returning to the earlier state of by operating in a new state. Resilient systems
endure external pressures such caused by climate change, natural disasters, and
economic globalization. A resilient ecosystem can maintain a complex web of life when
one or more organism is over exploited. To what way is it the responsibility of the
government to assure that civil infrastructure is resilient to environmental change?

10. Brain-to-brain interfaces. – Brain-to-brain interfaces have been achieved, allowing

for direct communication from one brain to another without speech. The interactions
can between humans or between humans and animals. The ethical issues are
countless. What kind of neuro security can we put in place to protect individuals from
having accidental information shared or removed from the brains (especially by
hackers)

UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

The UDHR explicates the fundamental human rights in 30 articles. It outlines
inalienable human rights that are vital and necessary in the pursuit of the good life.
These are the freedoms everyone is entitled to and guaranteed by virtue of being
human. The first seven articles of the UDRH encapsulate the spirit of this so-called
“milestone document in the history of human rights.” They are as follows:

​ ll human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are
Article 1. A
endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of
brotherhood.

Article 2. ​Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration,
without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or
other opinions, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no
distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status
of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust,
non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3. ​Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4. ​No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall
be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5. ​No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading

treatment or punishment.
Article 6. E​ veryone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the
law.

​ ll are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to
Article 7. A
equal protection against any incitement to such discrimination.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has a long, bloody history. Crafted in
1948, after World War II, the UDHR now serves as a common understanding of what
each person’s fundamental rights are. These rights apply to everyone, everywhere. IT
is imperative that we all know and live these rights to prevent injustice and oppression.
ROBOTICS AND
HUMANITY
Another great product of innovative minds of the people is the robot. Robots are
now widely used. For example, there are so-called service robots.
The International Federations of Robotics (IFR) and United Nations Economics
Commission for Europe (UNECE) made it their task to formulate a working definition of
service robots. A preliminary extract of the relevant definition is (IFR, 2012):
A robot is actuated mechanism programmable in two or more axes with a
degree of autonomy, moving within its environment, to perform intended tasks.
Autonomy in this context means the ability to perform intended tasks based on
the current state and sensing without human intervention. A ​service robot ​is
a robot that performs useful tasks for humans or equipment excluding
industrial automation application. Note: A robot may be classified according to
its intended application as an industrial robot or a service robot. A ​personal
service robot or a service robot for personal use ​is a service robot used for
noncommercial task, usually by laypersons. Examples are domestic servant
robot, automated wheelchair, personal mobility assist robot, and pet
exercising robot. A ​professional service robot or a service robot for
professional use ​is a service robot used for a commercial task, usually
operated by a properly trained operator. Examples are cleaning robot for
public places, delivery robot in offices or hospitals, firefighting robot,
rehabilitation robot, and surgery robot in hospitals. In this context, an operator
is a person designated to start, monitor, and stop the intended operation of a
robot or a robot system.

Roles played by
robotics
Just like people living in the society, robots also have their own set rules and
characteristics that define what a good robot is. These laws were formulated by Isaac
Asimov back in 1940s, when he was thinking of the ethical consequences of robots.
These are the following (Stanford, n.d.): ​Law 1: ​A robot may not injure human being or,
through inaction, allow a human being to harm. ​Law 2: ​A robot must obey the orders
given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Law 3: ​A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not
conflict with the First or Second Law.
 Activity Sheet 1

It’s Movie Time!

(​I, Robot 2004-Full movie, Will Smith Movie)

Name: ___________________________ Course/Year/Section: _____________

Date : ___________________________ Score: _____________

Activity. Answer the following questions: (5 minutes to answer)

1. Who is the bad guy in I

robot?

Answer: ______________________________________________________________

2. Does Sonny die in I

robot?

Answer: ______________________________________________________________

3. Is there going to be as sequel to I

Robot?

Answer: ______________________________________________________________

4. What are the 3 laws in I

Robot?

Answer: ______________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

5. What are the robots called in I

Robot?

Answer: ______________________________________________________________

6. How are the robots controlled in I Robot?

Answer: ______________________________________________________________
7. How did I Robot end?

Answer: ______________________________________________________________

8. What is the moral lesson of the movie “I Robot?

Answer: ______________________________________________________________

Practic
e

Activity. (Group Presentation – Using Kialo platform)

Time Allocation: 1 hour

A. Class will be divided into three groups: a. Facilitator Group, b. Supporting Group,
c. Opposing Group B. A topic shall be chosen before the planned date of debate
discussion. The facilitators should present a paper detailing the topic without choosing
any side. Each side will lay their arguments and questions, and then in an orderly
manner, each group will take turns answering the questions or rebutting the other side’s
arguments. The facilitators will make sure that the arguments and questions remain true
to the topic.

Suggested
topics:

a. Do technological devices bring more good than bad to people?

b. Should there be more budget for technological researches despite the dilemmas they
are currently facing?
c. Should there be a limit to technological
advancement?

Note: Rubrics will be provided for your

reference.
RUBRICS FOR DEBATE PRESENTATION/DISCUSSION
Group Name:__________________________________________________________
Members : ___________________________________________________________
Subject : _____________________________ Topic/s: _______________________
Course/Year/Section: ______________________Date of Presentation: ____________
Total
Criteria 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point ​
Points
Respect for team
Statements and responses were respectful and used appropriat​e language,
​ but once or twice body

language was not appropriat​e

Most statements and responses and in appropriate language, but there was one sarcastic remark
Statements,
All statements body language, and responses were respectful
responses and/or body language were borderline appropriate language. Some sarcastic remarks
Statements, responses and/or body language were consistently not respectful
Information
All informatio​n presented
​ in this debate was clear, accurate and thorough

Most informatio​n presented

​ in this debate was clear, accurate and thorough
Most information presented in the debate was clear and accurate but was not usually thorough
Some information was accurate, but there were some minor inaccuracie​s
Information had some major inaccuracies or was usually not clear
Rebuttal
Most All
Most
counter counter-
counter-
arguments arguments
arguments
were were
were
accurate accurate,
accurate,
and relevant
relevant
relevant but and strong
and strong
several were weak
Counter- arguments were not accurate and/or relevant
Use of Facts/Statistic​s
Some counter arguments weak and irrelevant
Every major point was supported well with several relevant facts, statistics
Every major point was adequately supported with relevant facts, statistics
Every major point was supported with facts, statistics and/or examples, but the
Some points were supported well, others were not
All points were not supported
and/or and /or
examples examples
relevance of some was questionabl​e
Organization
All
Most
Most
Most arguments
arguments
arguments
arguments were
were clear
were clear
were clear clearly tied
tied to an
tied to an
tied to an to an idea
idea
idea
idea (premise)
(premise)
(premise)
(premise) and
and
and
and organized
organized
organized
organized in in a tight,
in a tight,
in a tight,
a tight, logical
logical
logical
logical fashion
fashion
fashion
fashion
Most arguments were clear tied to an idea (premise) and organized in a tight logical fashion
Understanding
The team clearly understoo d the topics in depth and presented their informatio n forcefully and
convincing​ly
The team clearly understoo d the topic in depth and presented their informatio n with ease
The team seemed to understand the main points of the topic and presented those with ease
The team seemed to understand the main points of the topic, but didn’t presented with ease
The team did not show an adequate understandin g of the topics
Total Points
Comments ​Adapted from the source: http://course1.winona.edu/shatfield/air/classdebate.pdf
Performance
Performance 1. (Pair Presentation – Using Zoom Platform)
Time Allocation: 5 minutes every pair for presentation
Present and explain different international and local government policies regarding the
protection of human being in the face of new technologies.
Missing ​ Poor ​ Fair ​ Good Excellent ​
Presentation Rubrics ​Content ​ 1 point ​ 2points ​ 3 points ​ 4
points 5 points
Organization
Audience cannot understand presentation
Audience has difficulty following presentation
Students presents information but the
Students presents information in logical
Students presents information in logical,
sequence there is no
because
sequence is sequence of
presenters are
not logical,
which information
not prepared
making it hard
audience can for audience
follow to understand
interesting sequence which audience can follow
Contents
Content is weak. Facts are inaccurate. Students could have search in more depth
Student demonstrates full knowledge of the topic and engages the audience with enthusiasm.
Volume and Clarity
Student is Content is
uncomfortabl missing and
e with student did
information not do
however research
message can be heard.
Students is at ease with content and has an easy flow within the message
Student
Student’s
mumbles, incorrectly pronounces terms, and speaks to quietly for viewing audience to hear
Student’s voice is low. Student incorrectly pronounces terms. Audience members have difficulty
hearing
voice is clear. Student pronounces most words correctly. Most audience members can hear with
little effort.
Student uses a clear voice and correct, precise pronunciation of terms.
Length 20-29 seconds 40-59 seconds 60-75 seconds 2 minutes 2 -3 minutes
Presentation
Unable to hear student and information goes missing
Student is
Student
unable to explain content of commercial and doesn’t present
explains commercial but does not make an eye contact and is hard to understand
Student explains Student is
content, unable to
makes eye explain
contact and commercial.
keeps audience attention. ​Adapted from the source:
http://www.rcampus.com/rubricshowc.cfm?code=AA5749&sp=yes
Performance 2. Lesson Test - When Technology and Humanity Cross
Assignment
Write a short reflection on how technology influences humanity.
Student explains content and makes eye contact