IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2014 - 4

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE IEEE

"Ethics And..."
J. ROBERTO B.
DE MARCA

The following remarks were delivered by IEEE President and CEO J. Roberto B. de Marca at the 2014 IEEE Ethics
Conference, which was also this year's IEEE-SSIT International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS `14), on
May 24, 2014, in Chicago, IL, U.S.A.

EEE sponsors more than 1400 conferences and
on Social Implications of Technology) featuring an
workshops every year and I believe this event to
increasing number of articles dedicated to this topic.
be one of most important in 2014. That is why I
If we go back in time, the origin of the word Ethics
chose to participate in this conference.
is not very clear. It could have derived from the word
I believe that this year's theme of "Ethics And..."
Ethos, meaning character in Greek, but it also could
l l h,
encapsulates the issues of ethics in our modern world
have an origin with the expression ta ethika ^ xa} hikla
both succinctly and comprehensively. It is exactly the
or the study of morals. The first one evolved to the curopen-endedness of the theme of "Ethics And..." that
rent meaning of the word Ethics.
gives it the strength and breadth to accomplish this task.
Ethics can be defined as the basic concepts and
Ethical choices, in our modern world, are everyfundamental principles of decent human conduct. It
where and becoming more complex and this sympocan also be defined as the study of what is good and
sium could not happen at a better time.
what is bad. This event is devoted to the
Modern communications and in particstudy of actions that are required from
In the years
ular the Internet have shifted the boundengineers, scientists, and technologists in
to come, we
aries of human interaction. Communities
performing their professional duties.
have extended a broad geographical conActions can be specified as governed
will be dealing
text, encompassing a growing number
by the triad of ethics, morals, and the law.
with issues
of cultures. We are also in the dawn of
Ethics is an individual trait while morals
of ethics that
an extensive sensorization of our planet
result from collective behavior. The legal
could not have statutes establish norms and limits for the
that will generate and store an enormous
amount of data about individual personal
been foreseen action. It is easy to find situations where a
lives. The current discussion on Intercertain action is legal - within the parameven a brief
net Governance as well as technologies
eters of the local law - but it is not ethical.
generation ago. It is also easy to think of instances where
that are emerging such as smart cities,
e-health, nanotechnology, and Big Data
morals and costumes that are acceptable for
all demand that an ethical dimension be considered and
a given community are not considered ethical by other
demand attribution of ethical responsibilities.
individuals. Since ethics is associated with the character
Ethical discussion as it relates to technology
of a person, in my opinion there is a simple statement:
advances is clearly gaining more attention with a signifA person does not have "some" ethics-you are either
icant amount of funds being reserved for it by governethical, or you are not.
ments, and publications such as the IEEE Technology
Engineering is a professional field that transforms
Society Magazine (published by the IEEE Society
into actions knowledge developed by science. In doing
so engineering bridges theory and practice in a way
that is constantly changing how our society operates.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2014.2345132
Date of publication: 17 September 2014
Engineering and science certainly advance technology
4

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

FALL 2014

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