Practical Ethics

Silicon dreams: digital drugs and regulation

A new worry has hit parents: digital drugs. The idea is that sounds can affect brain states, so by listening to the right kind of sounds desired brain states can be induced - relaxation, concentration, happiness, PMS relief or why not hallucinations? Apparently "idosers" walk around high on sound. Just the right thing for a summer moral panic - kids, computers, drugs and pseudoscience.

Lex Orwell: When is a Surveillance Society OK?

The current Swedish debate about a bill to allow military intelligence to intercept phone and Internet communications has produced something most unSwedish: a grassroots "blogquake" that has upset the staid logic of traditional politics. Given the threat that the bill may fall because of MPs disobeying their party whips (normally unheard of in Swedish politics) there is a real chance the bill is even withdrawn at the last minute. But even if it is, this is an issue that will return again and again: exactly how much information should the government be allowed to gather and for what purposes?

The stresses of 24 hour creative work: How much would Aristotle blog?

New York Times writes about the stressful lifestyle of for-pay bloggers. The bloggers get rewarded for being prolific and quick to comment, but since the Internet never sleeps they feel a pressure not to sleep either. The result is physical and emotional stress that never lets up – especially since often the home is also their workplace. This is just one example of the high stresses of many new creative class occupations. Is there any way out of knowledge-economy workaholism?

PatientsLikeMe.com

The New York Times recently published a feature article on a website called PatientsLikeMe. This is an online community like facebook or MySpace, but with a medical twist. The members have serious medical conditions, like Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, or HIV, and they use site to post quantitative information about their treatment and symptoms. The site then presents this information for all to see. For example, users can search the website for a drug and then view bar graphs illustrating reasons that members take the drug, the distribution of dosages, length of treatment, reasons for stopping treatment, and patient ratings of the treatment. Individual profiles also show line graphs plotting disease progression and showing major treatment events. The aim is to offer patients the information required to better tailor their own treatment.

It’s easy to think of both risks and benefits of this sort of website.

Are artists, writers, sportsmen, academics, scientists, politicians, and businessmen addicts?

Various news sources this week, including Fox News and The Guardian, are reporting on an editorial published in this month’s American Journal of Psychiatry. In it, the author, Jerald J. Block, argues that internet addiction is a real psychological disorder, and that it ought to be recognised as such in DSM-V, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is currently being compiled by the American Psychiatric Association.

Who is your hard drive working for?

Western Digital, a producer of networked hard drives that enable users to access their files across the net, has blocked customers from sharing media files from their drives. Needless to say, users are not amused and hard at work at finding workarounds. The move is possibly a pre-emptive way for the company to avoid being sued by the content industry for providing a means for piracy. The block covers most popular media formats, regardless of who owns the copyright of the contents. This makes it impossible for users to share e.g. home videos or their own creations. Who really owns the hard drive – the customer or Western Digital?

Dirty work but someone hasn’t got to do it anymore

Today’s UK papers trumpet articles on robots made in Japan to do the ‘D-work’ — dirty, dangerous and difficult. The tone is upbeat with a slight sense of amusement reserved for futuristic ideas. Yet these developments may not be so ridiculous, and may be the thin edge of a difficult wedge.

Hands off my non-existent furniture!

The BBC recently reported that a Dutch teenager has been arrested for allegedly stealing €4,000 worth of virtual furniture from virtual hotel rooms in Habbo Hotel, a social networking website.