客户完全受控于系统设计师,只有系统设计师知道系统是如何运作的;也受控于那些顾问,其实顾问提供的服务并不是完全有必要的;还受控于那些几乎是自主定价的垄断电脑供应商。总的来说,社会易受电脑专业人员的行为影响,因为大部分公众都不明白专业人员管辖的项目的危险性或潜在的东西。信息是金钱,也是力量,信息技术革命让电脑专业人员处于极大的诱惑中:是否滥用这种能接近机密性宝贵信息的权力是这个新行业人士所面临的最重要的道德困惑之一。 eqk.+~^
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10. Clients are at the mercy of systems designers who alone know how a system works, consultants whose services may not strictly be necessary, and monopoly computer suppliers who can virtually write their own bills. Society as a whole is vulnerable to the actions of computer professionals because most in the general public do not understand the dangers or implications of projects under the professionals' command. Because information is both money and power, the revolution in information technology has placed computer professionals under severe temptation: whether or not to abuse this power of access to confidential valuable information is one of the most important ethical dilemmas facing members of the new profession. 9 e;8"rJ?C
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电脑业教育家也有特别的责任去确保未来一代的电脑专业人员了解电脑引起的社会问题,尤其是他们将来作为电脑专业人员每天会面临的道德冲突。未来的毕业生也会在某种程度上被认为是"专家"或这个行业的代言人,向更广阔的世界诠释电脑。总的来说,他们将是和各种组织、工场和社会有密切联系的系统的缔造者。 z?W kHQ9
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11. Computing educators also have a special responsibility to ensure that future generations of computer professionals are aware of the social problems caused by computers and especially aware of the ethical conflicts they will face every day in their future roles as computer professionals. Tomorrow's graduates will also to some extent be considered "experts" or spokespersons for the industry, interpreting computers to the wider world, and they will be creators of systems that will have major implications for organizations, the workplace, and society in general. |}Mt hj9n
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电脑业教育家也该培养有口才的信息技术专家,即富有交流技能、"与人交流的技能"和重视信息技术的社会道德关系的技术专家。他们必须让人们有准备地面对这个混乱的现实世界,而不是图像显示终端荧屏中洁净、虚构的世界,因此,他们有责任推动这些问题的讨论,并让我们知道所面临的选择。 \-D[C+1(
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12. Computing educators should also be producing articulate information technologists - technologists endowed with communication skills, "people skills," and an appreciation of the social and ethical implications of information technology. They must prepare people for the messy real world, not the tidy, imaginary one inside a VDT screen. They, therefore, have a duty to stimulate discussion about these issues and to generate awareness of the choices available to us. 3j2d&*0
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除了人为滥用造成的问题之外,社会也开始更容易受到电脑故障的影响。有故障的硬件和软件远比许多人(特别是电脑行业人士)让我们相信的要普遍得多。总的来说,社会过分地相信这些所谓不会出错的机器。实际上,电脑不仅不可靠,还不安全,他们常完全失控。是否老实承认这些不足之处,成了电脑专业人员和电脑行业的另一个道德困惑。 !'Ww%ZL\
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13. In addition to the problems caused by human misuse, society is also becoming more vulnerable to computer malfunctions. Malfunctioning hardware and software are much more common than many (especially those in the computer industry) would have us believe. Society as a whole tends to put too much faith in these supposedly infallible machines. In fact, computers are not only unreliable, they also tend to be insecure, and they often become completely unmanageable. Whether to admit honestly these failings becomes another ethical dilemma for computer professionals and the computer industry. -qG7, t
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电脑几乎渗入我们生活的各个方面,包括许多先前技术从未涉足过的领域。但不同于其他渗透性技术如电力、电视和汽车的是,总的来说电脑行为更不可靠,更不可预测。这是因为他们是处于分离状态的数字电子装置,容易引起全面的灾难性崩溃。电脑系统一旦发生故障,就会全面瘫痪,它不像模拟或电子机械装置那样,只会发生局部故障,剩下的部分仍可使用。 Y#FSU#a$<
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14. Computers are permeating almost every aspect of our lives, including many areas previously untouched by technology. But unlike such other pervasive technologies as electricity, television and the motor car, computers are on the whole less reliable and less predictable in their behavior. This is because they are discrete state digital electronic devices that are prone to total and catastrophic failure. Computer systems, when they are "down," are completely down, unlike analog or electromechanical devices, which may be only partially down and are thus partially usable. o<rbC <
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电脑能够储存、检索和传送大量的信息,其速度之快是前所未有的。这固然很好,但这却严重关系到资料的安全性和个人隐私,因为电脑本质上是不安全的。最近美国、德国、英国的黑客和数据窃贼活动已表明即使是闯入最复杂的金融和军事系统也还是易如反掌。新兴起的高科技罪犯布下的骗局正日益增多,这些骗局包括做手脚预定机票到重编移动电话中的芯片程序等。 :|Bzbn=N2
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15. Computers enable enormous quantities of information to be stored, retrieved, and transmitted at great speed on a scale not possible before. This is all very well, but it has serious implications for data security and personal privacy because computers are inherently insecure. The recent activities of hackers and data thieves in the United States, Germany, and Britain have shown how all-too-easy it still is to break into even the most-sophisticated financial and military systems. The list of scams perpetrated by the new breed of hi-tech criminals, ranging from fraud in airline-ticket reservations to the reprogramming of the chips inside mobile phones, is growing daily. W3&~[DS@~
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电脑系统常常是复杂得令人难以置信。实际上,其复杂性就连它们的创造者也不明白(尽管很少有人愿意承认这一点)。这常常使它们完全失控。这种失控的复杂性会造成大量的故障或惊人的预算"失控"。比如杰弗利·罗士费德在《商业周刊》(1988年11月7日和1989年4 月3日)中报导说,1988年美国银行在花了5年时间和6千万美元试图让一个价值2千万美元的电脑系统运转起来后,不得不放弃。全美保险公司眼睁睁地看着其新系统的费用从8百万美元一直涨到差不多1亿美元,预期的完工期从1987年一直推迟到1993年。而且,这个问题似乎越来越严重。1988年美国仲裁协会受理了190个电脑纠纷,其大多数都和有缺陷的系统有关。要求赔偿的总款目从1984年的仅仅3100万美元涨到2亿美元(见1988年2月7日和1988年6月29日《洛杉机时报》)。 cBU@853
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16. Computer systems are often incredibly complex - so complex, in fact, that they are not always understood even by their creators (although few are willing to admit it). This often makes them completely unmanageable. Unmanageable complexity can result in massive foul-ups or spectacular budget "runaways." For example, Jeffrey Rothfeder in Business Week (7 November 1988 and 3 April 1989) reports that Bank of America in 1988 had to abandon a $20-million computer system after spending five years and a further $60 million trying to make it work. Allstate Insurance saw the cost of its new system rise from $8 million to a staggering $100 million and estimated completion was delayed from 1987 to 1993. Moreover, the problem seems to be getting worse; in 1988 the American Arbitration Association took on 190 computer disputes, most of which involved defective systems. The claims totaled $200 million--up from only $31 million in 1984 (See The Los Angeles Time 7 February 1988 and 29 June 1988). Z$S0X$q}
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复杂性也会造成灾难:没有哪部电脑是100%可以得到保障的,因为预料到所有的重要用途实际上是不可能的,如拯救生命,驾驶飞机,管理核电站,进行大笔资金转账,还有控制导弹系统--有时会造成悲剧。例如,1982年到1987年,美国空军先进的黑鹰直升机的五次失事中,大约22位空军士兵死于非命,之后,失事原因追溯到电脑控制的"电控飞行"系统。至少有两人死于遭受过量的电脑控制的Therac-25 X光射线机发出的辐射,其他致命的电脑故障的例子还有很多(汤姆·富勒斯特和派瑞·莫里森:《电脑道德:电脑警世故事和道德困惑》,MIT出版社,剑桥,马撒诸赛州,1990,68-87)。 |2&|#K4k^
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17. Complexity can also result in disaster: no computer is 100 percent guaranteed because it is virtually impossible to anticipate all sorts of critical applications, such as saving lives, flying air craft, running nuclear power stations, transferring vast sums of money, and controlling missile systems - sometimes with tragic consequences. For example, between 1982 and 1987, some twenty-two servicemen died in five separate crashes of the United States Air Force's sophisticated Blackhawk helicopter before the problem was traced to its computer-based "fly-by-wire" system. At least two people died after receiving overdoses of radiation emitted by the computerized Therac 25 X-ray machines, and there are many other examples of fatal computer-based foul-ups (Tom Forester and Perry Morrison, Computer Ethics: Cautionary Tales and Ethical Dilemmas in computing, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1990, pages 68-87). h|ja67VG
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通常在有些领域电脑故障并不非常危及生命,这些领域包括电话开账,电话交换软件,银行结单,银行柜员机,电子资金转让系统,汽车执照资料库等。尽管电脑常在这些场合备受"谴责",然而在大多数情况下,故障的最终原因实际上是人为失误。 0!`!I0
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18. Popular areas for less life-threatening computer malfunctions include telephone billing and telephone switching software, bank statements and bank-teller machines, electronic funds-transfer systems, and motor-vehicle license data bases. Although computers have often taken the "blame" on these occasions, the ultimate cause of failure in most cases is, in fact, human error. n7d`J_%s
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对社会来说,每项新技术都会产生新问题--也有新利益--电脑也不例外。但数字化电脑已使社会特别易受硬件和软件故障的影响。有时工业机器人会发狂,而心脏起搏器和自动车库门开启器会被销售终端机、个人电脑和电视游戏释放出的电磁射线或电子烟雾损坏。自动柜员机、汽油站的加油泵、快餐店终端机会因无法预见的软件错误而崩溃。 ni3A+Y0
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19. Every new technology creates new problems - as well as new benefits - for society, and computers are no exception. But digital computers have rendered society especially vulnerable to hard ware and software malfunctions. Sometimes industrial robots go berserk, while heart pacemakers and automatic garage door openers are rendered useless by electromagnetic radiation or "electronic smog" emitted from point-of-sale terminals, personal computers, and video games. Automated teller machines (ATMs), pumps at gas stations, and fast-food outlet terminals are closed down because of unforeseen software snafus. XPcx"zv\
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这所有停工期的费用是巨大的,例如,据报道,英国商业每年约遭受30起大灾难,损失达几百万英镑。这些是由机器或人为的失误引起的,还不包括以骗局和破坏形式进行的人为滥用引起的(1986年11月10日《卫报》)。单英国国内制作的软件,其故障引起的费用,保守估计大约每年9亿美元(1988年6月13日《电子工程时报》)。1989年,英国电脑协会委员会报道说,现在许多软件都太复杂,以致现有的安全估计技能还不充分,因此,人们的安全也得不到保障(1989年2月21日《澳大利亚报》)。 2graLJ?9Z
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20. The cost of all this downtime is huge. For example, it has been reported that British businesses suffer around thirty major mishaps a year, involving losses running into millions of pounds. These are caused by machine or human error and do not include human misuse in the form of fraud and sabotage (The Guardian, 10 November 1986). The cost of failures in domestically produced software in the United Kingdom alone is conservatively estimated at $900 million per year (Electronics Engineering Times, 13 June 1988). In 1989, a British Computer Society committee reported that much software was now so complex that current skills in safety assessment were inadequate and that therefore the safety of people could not be guaranteed (The Australian, 21 February 1989). ,T7(!)dR
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电脑系统也易遭受火灾、水灾、地震、断电,以及外来黑客和内部雇员破坏的影响。例如,1986年在芝加哥,《大英百科全书》编辑部一位心怀不满的雇员因被辞退而恼怒万分。他敲键进入百科全书的资料库,对其内容进行了一些更改,而这些资料原是这部有名的著作的新版内容--例如,他在引言中把耶稣基督和安拉互换一下,又把公司高级职员的名字插到奇怪的地方。正如一位高级职员这样评价:"在电脑时代,我们所拥有的恶梦就在于此。"(1986年9月5日《圣何塞导信新闻周刊》)。 o<%s\n
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21. Computer systems are also vulnerable to fires, floods, earthquakes, and power outages, as well as attacks from outside hackers and sabotage from inside employees. For example, in Chicago in 1986, a disgruntled employee at Encyclopedia Britannica, angry at having been laid off, merely tapped into the encyclopedia's data base and made a few alterations to the text being prepared for a new edition of the renowned work - like interchanging Jesus Christ and Allah in references and inserting the names of company executives in odd places. As one executive commented, "In the computer age, this is exactly what we have nightmares about." (San Jose mercury News, 5 September 1986)