O'Brolcháin Fiachra, Jacquemard Tim, Monaghan David, O'Connor Noel, Novitzky Peter, Gordijn Bert
Institute of Ethics, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland.
Insight Centre for Data Analytics, Dublin, Ireland.
Sci Eng Ethics. 2016 Feb;22(1):1-29. doi: 10.1007/s11948-014-9621-1. Epub 2015 Jan 1.
The rapid evolution of information, communication and entertainment technologies will transform the lives of citizens and ultimately transform society. This paper focuses on ethical issues associated with the likely convergence of virtual realities (VR) and social networks (SNs), hereafter VRSNs. We examine a scenario in which a significant segment of the world's population has a presence in a VRSN. Given the pace of technological development and the popularity of these new forms of social interaction, this scenario is plausible. However, it brings with it ethical problems. Two central ethical issues are addressed: those of privacy and those of autonomy. VRSNs pose threats to both privacy and autonomy. The threats to privacy can be broadly categorized as threats to informational privacy, threats to physical privacy, and threats to associational privacy. Each of these threats is further subdivided. The threats to autonomy can be broadly categorized as threats to freedom, to knowledge and to authenticity. Again, these three threats are divided into subcategories. Having categorized the main threats posed by VRSNs, a number of recommendations are provided so that policy-makers, developers, and users can make the best possible use of VRSNs.
信息、通信和娱乐技术的快速发展将改变公民的生活，并最终改变社会。本文重点关注与虚拟现实（VR）和社交网络（SNs）（以下简称VRSNs）可能融合相关的伦理问题。我们考察了一种情景，即世界上很大一部分人口在VRSN中拥有存在形式。鉴于技术发展的速度以及这些新型社交互动形式的普及程度，这种情景是合理的。然而，它也带来了伦理问题。本文探讨了两个核心伦理问题：隐私问题和自主问题。VRSNs对隐私和自主都构成威胁。对隐私的威胁大致可分为对信息隐私的威胁、对身体隐私的威胁以及对关联隐私的威胁。这些威胁中的每一种又进一步细分。对自主的威胁大致可分为对自由的威胁、对知识的威胁以及对真实性的威胁。同样，这三种威胁也分为若干子类别。在对VRSNs带来的主要威胁进行分类之后，本文给出了一些建议，以便政策制定者、开发者和用户能够尽可能充分地利用VRSNs。
