Ethics and computer use

Abstract

Over the past 50 years, computers have undergone transformation from monolithic number crunchers, to centralized repositories of management information systems, to distributed, networked, cyberspace support systems. During the same period, uses of computers have moved from computational problems to life support, from machine language to GUIs, from abstractions of work to virtual reality on the World-Wide Web. These transformations have brought with them situations that have ethical implications.