Through new technologies, society develops new capabilities – some potential capabilities considered questionable and raise the concern of liability. Consider the moral dilemmas of Google’s self-driving car in terms of responsibility, liability, legalities, harm selection and minimisation.
(Source: Technology Review)
These questions and possibilities lead toward the notion of Cyber-Ethics: the study of societal principles of what is considered appropriate and “moral” in the use of technologies. Ethical standards may lead to legal, programming and personal constraints that will reflect on the capabilities given to machinery and software. Cyber-ethics is an interesting study, considering its distance and complexity from legal frameworks and the common viewpoint of cyberspace being outside of state “borders”.
Hayles article connected human’s to the term “organic machines” encouraging the discussion of what separates our species from robots and machinery. The development of robots and cybernetics leads to more ethical discussions in their treatment, rights and potential.
Lundström’s “Äkta människor (Real Humans)” is a fictional television series that explores these ideas further. It introduces opposition, social, legal and ethical conflicts that may be raised in an approaching reality of humanoid robots. There are numerous corporations developing technologies that imitate human movement and actions. In turn, generating questions of in what manner these new technologies will be considered acceptable in our lives.
(Source: Youtube)
References
Barlow, J. 1996, A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, Electronic Frontier Foundation, <https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence> (accessed 11/03/16)
Hayles, K. 1999, ‘Chapter: One: Toward Embodied Virtuality’, How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, The University of Chicago press, Chicago
Spinello, R. 2011, Cyberethics: Morality and Law in Cyberspace, Jones and Barlett Learning, Canada
Media Tear 
Reblogged this on cybercultures blog.
An interesting look at cyber-ethics! I’m dealing with the same topic from another direction, specifically whether the use of ‘designer’ cybernetics would be ethical to use in terms of our humanity. Much like the show you linked ‘Real Humans’ delves into the ethics of living with and utilizing the benefits of humanoid robots, I’m trying to determine whether augmenting ourselves with digital enhancement such as artificial organs is just the next ‘natural’ step in human evolution or whether that same step is one too far in terms of our collective obsession with technology. One thing’s for sure, I’m very excited to see the future, but I don’t think that word can be synonymous with ‘optimistic’ as far as all this is concerned.