Applying “Moral Responsibility for Computing Artifacts” to PICT

“Moral Responsibility for Computing Artifacts,” nicknamed “The Rules,” is a collaborative project dedicated to continuously revising and improving a short document promoting a succinct and fundamental articulation of responsibilities that accrue to people who design, develop, deploy, or knowingly use computing artifacts. At this writing there are 50 people signed on to the project from nine countries; the current document can be found at the end of this chapter. Although The Rules are designed to be applicable to all computing artifacts, there are interesting aspects specific to pervasive devices that make The Rules particularly important for this subset of computing artifacts. This chapter explores aspects of pervasive information and communication technologies (PICT) artifacts that are most problematic ethically, and examines how the principles in The Rules can be applied to help mitigate these ethical concerns.