Ethics for Nerds

Face recognition, armed drones, models that predict human behavior, and algorithms that produce filter bubbles, echo chambers and support tribalism and undermine democracy – informatics-related research and development increasingly shape our society in many different ways. Many of these ways are not good, yet these technological achievements could also help to solve many problems and improve the lives of millions and billions of people.

While computer scientists do not bear the sole and full responsibility for making the world a better place, they definitely are partially responsible for the effects of their work. Nevertheless, they are mostly left alone with this observation. They are neither thaught the methodological or philosophical background, nor the right skills to live up to their responsibility. Instead, they are often left alone with ethical and societal issues of their work.

Our response at Saarland University is Ethics for Nerds, a lecture designed by philosophers and computer scientists for students of informatics and related subjects.

Find out more about the lecture and its contents, the team behind it, and the course’s history.