Open Source is based on moral principles that the tech industry can benefit from adopting. It all starts with putting "ought" before "can".

1. CAN OPEN SOURCE
SAVE US?
(from ourselves)
Presented at #MSOSSDAY Toronto, May 7th, 2016

2. !@MOR10

3. Does ‘ought’ imply ‘can’?

4. “if the moral law commands
that we ought to be better
human beings now, it
inescapably follows that we
must be capable of being
better human beings.”
Immanuel
Kant

5. What happens
when people are asked
to make moral choices?

6. Kant’s Categorical Imperative:
“Act only according to what
maxim whereby you can, at
the same time, will that it
should become a universal
law.”
Deontological
Ethics

7. The tech world
needs a lesson
in classic moral theory.

8. Does ‘ought’ imply ‘can’?

9. In the tech industry,
’can’ typically means ‘ought’

11. We can, but ought we?
Self-driving cars
Exhibit One:

12. The Trolley Problem

14. What happens when
moral judgements
are left to a car?

16. Self-driving cars
will reduce accidents.
Who decides we are willing
to pay the price?

17. Boston Globe
https://goo.gl/ncn6YJ

18. 680 News
http://goo.gl/wIlMJw

19. The Wall Street Journal
http://goo.gl/iLJBv2

20. Would we have self-driving cars
if we started by asking
whether we ought to have them?

21. We can, but ought we?
Internet of Things
Exhibit Two:

24. The Internet of Everything
Business Insider
http://goo.gl/bT9uT2

25. The Week
http://goo.gl/jUXCW9
“Please be aware that if your
spoken words include
personal or other sensitive
information, that
information will be among
the data captured and
transmitted to a third party
through your use of Voice
Recognition.”
Samsung SmartTV Privacy Policy

26. The Guardian
http://goo.gl/U6TA7F
“In the future, intelligence
services might use the
[internet of things] for
identification, surveillance,
monitoring, location tracking,
and targeting for recruitment,
or to gain access to networks
or user credentials.”
James Clapper
Director of National Intelligence

27. Edward Snowden
https://goo.gl/ovU2dG

28. The Internet of Things
will simplify our lives.
Who decides we are willing
to pay the price?

32. Beware Online “Filter Bubbles”
TED2011
https://goo.gl/lTxquh

34. When the devices that surround us
have different priorities from ours
we end up with results that benefit
the devices
or their creators
over our own best interests.

35. Would we have IoT
if we started by asking
whether we ought to have them?

36. We can, but ought we?
Virtual Reality
Exhibit Three:

37. Using technology
to replace reality
with an ideal world.
What could go wrong?

38. My 90 year old grandmother
tries the Oculus Rift.
https://goo.gl/i5nrqy

40. The Internet of Things
is augmenting
our perception
of reality.

42. Virtual Reality
will make life more interesting.
Who decides we are willing
to pay the price?

43. Reward system /
Hedonistic hotspot
https://goo.gl/NH1Thk

44. at7addak
http://goo.gl/HaQeNc

45. Oculus Mall Prank
https://youtu.be/
Odax7F3tWhM?t=1m25s

46. Would we have Virtual Reality
if we started by asking
whether we ought to have it?

48. Robot Fails
https://goo.gl/Ari42W

49. Industry puts ‘can’ before ‘ought’
because they put
profit before people.

50. In Open Source,
people come first,
and so can ‘ought’.

51. What happens
when people are asked
to make moral choices?

52. They make informed moral choices!

54. Because we can!
Ethics + Open Source
The Revolution:

55. How do we know
if our actions
and their consequences
are good or bad?

56. From the Greek ethos, meaning “character” or “custom”.
: rules of behavior based on ideas about
what is morally good and bad
ethics

57. From the Latin mores, meaning “customs”.
: concerning or relating to what is right
and wrong in human behavior
morals

58. ethics ≈ morals

59. Open Source is built
on a foundation of
moral principles.

60. Virtue: The attainment of
perfection, the complete
realization of one’s potential,
in Greek, arete.
Virtue Ethics

61. To be virtuous, you must act
as a person who has virtue.
Yes, this is absurdly circular.
Virtue Ethics

62. “To ensure people can
continue to express
themselves freely and safely
on Twitter, we must provide
more tools and policies.
(…) It requires a multi-layered
approach where each of our
320 million users has a part to
play, as do the community of
experts working for safety
and free expression.”
😧
https://goo.gl/HusmFf

63. “For beings that can think
and learn, sharing useful
knowledge is a
fundamental act of
friendship. (…) Friends
share with each other.
Friends help each other.
This is the nature of
friendship.”
Richard Matthew Stallman
“Grandfather of the Free Software Movement”
https://goo.gl/YZC5Oh
😇

64. Duty Ethics: Goodness is the
ability to understand and act
on moral obligations.
The intent to obey the rule is
more important than the
outcome.
Deontological
Ethics

65. Religious overtones:
Love thy neighbour as you
would love thy self.
Do unto others as you would
have them do unto you.
Deontological
Ethics

66. Apple Inc.
http://www.apple.com/customer-letter/
“Once created, the technique
could be used over and over
again, on any number of
devices. In the physical
world, it would be the
equivalent of a master key,
capable of opening hundreds
of millions of locks (…) No
reasonable person would
find that acceptable. ”
😧

67. BBC
http://goo.gl/ywWiZ1
"There are many ways to
investigate whether or not these
killers had accomplices besides
forcing Apple to create software
to undermine the security
features of their own phones,”
"It is potentially a gift to
authoritarian regimes, as well as
to criminal hackers.”
Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
😧

68. “Why do we need a Code of
Conduct? We want open source
to be safe and welcoming for
all interested participants, but
unfortunately that is not
always the case. Our intent is to
provide clear information about
desired and undesired behaviors
in our communities, and to
enable community members to
take action toward making
these spaces better for
everyone.”
😇
http://citizencodeofconduct.org/

69. The consequences of one's
conduct are the ultimate
basis for any judgment about
the rightness or wrongness
of that conduct.
Consequentialist
Ethics

70. Utilitarianism is a classic
consequentialist theory
holding that the best moral
action is the one that
maximizes utility.
Consequentialist
Ethics

71. 😧

72. “The licenses for most
software and other practical
works are designed to take
away your freedom to share
and change the works. By
contrast, the GNU General
Public License is intended
to guarantee your freedom to
share and change all
versions of a program--to
make sure it remains free
software for all its users.”
😇
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.en.html

73. Open Source is built
on a foundation of
moral judgements.

74. • Is it improving the common good?
• Is its true purpose transparent and obvious?
• Have secondary / tertiary effects been
considered and accounted for?
• Are we setting reasonable expectations?
• Who benefits most?
Ethics Checklist for Tech

75. • Is it improving the common good?
• Is its true purpose transparent and obvious?
• Have secondary / tertiary effects been
considered and accounted for?
• Are we setting reasonable expectations?
• Who benefits most?
Ethics Checklist from Open Source

76. Put ‘can’ before ‘ought’
and deal with the consequences.
tech industry:

77. Put ‘ought’ before ‘can’
and build a better world.
open source:

78. CAN OPEN SOURCE
SAVE US?

79. We ought to.
Let’s see if we can!