A Discussion of Ethics and Computer Science

By: Keith MacDonell In his article The Refragmentation , Paul Graham hypothesizes that the increasing income inequality is caused by "not some force that's pulling us apart, but rather the erosion of forces that had been pushing us together." He then claims that these two main forces were war (World War II) and the growth of large companies. The war affected the economy through standardization of wages throughout the war. After the war, the economy was dominated by several large corporations that provided similar products. Graham used the example of NBC, CBS, and ABC. Many of the aspects of society were standardized, allowing for the prominent rise of the middle class. When viewed from the paradigm that the combination of these two aspects was an anomaly, it is not surprising that income inequality is increasing as more time passes. Taking a look back in history, particularly at the middle ages, it appears that income inequality was socially prevalent then as well. Ther

Growing up, I attended catholic school for both elementary school and high school. This was in addition to Sunday school when I was little and attending mass every Sunday with my family. As a result, I encountered the Parable of the Talents. The story depicts several servants who get a variety of amount of talents (a unit of money) from their master. Two of the three servants utilize their talents to double those that their master has given them. The third, however, who received the fewest talents, did not utilize his talent at all. Instead, he, "dug in the ground and hid his master's money (Matthew 25:18)." Upon bringing the talents back to their master, the master was pleased with the first two servants who used the talents they were give to produce results. He was, however, displeased with the last servant who failed to use that which he was given (Matthew 25). A basic interpretation of this poem from the Catholic perspective, which is also my interpretation of the p

Hey! My name is Keith MacDonell. I grew up in Indianapolis, IN with my three brothers. Before matriculating to college, I took a gap year to work and gain some perspective out in the world. I spent both of the summers as a scuba diving instructor down in the Florida Keys, and I spent the winter out in Park City, Utah working at Deer Valley Ski Resort. I attended the University of Notre Dame for undergrad and majored in Chemical Engineering. Towards the end of junior year, I decided that I did not want to pursue a career in Chemical Engineering. I decided that Computer Science was what I would have switched my major to if I could have gone back to freshman year. Because of this, I decided to pursue a Masters in Computer Science here at Notre Dame, which I am starting this semester. I think that one of the most pressing ethical/moral issues facing computer scientists is that of security vs privacy, particularly with respect to public safety. For example, how much should the NSA be ab