Future Ethics: the must-read guide to the ethics of emerging tech
Technology was never neutral; its social, political, and moral impacts have become painfully clear. But the stakes will only get higher as connected cameras will watch over the city, algorithms oversee society’s most critical decisions, and transport, jobs, and even war become automated. The tech industry hasn’t yet earned the trust these technologies demand.
Based on years of research and consulting, Future Ethics transforms modern ethical theory into practical advice for designers, product managers, and software engineers alike. Cennydd Bowles uses the three lenses of modern ethics to focus on some of the tech industry’s biggest challenges: unintended consequences and algorithmic bias, the troubling power of persuasive technology, and the dystopias of surveillance, autonomous war, and a post-work future.
Future Ethics is an intelligent, quietly provocative book that challenges technologists to stand up for change, and teaches essential ethical principles and methods for building a fairer future.
Buy Future Ethics
Paperback (via Amazon) · USA · UK · Germany · France · Spain · Italy · Japan · Canada · Australia.
Digital (Kindle) · USA · UK · Germany · France · Spain · Italy · Japan · Canada · Australia.
Digital (Apple Books) · Worldwide
Country not listed? Try ordering from your nearest Amazon, or download the digital version.
The author
Cennydd Bowles is technology ethicist and interaction designer. He is the author of Future Ethics, a visiting lecturer at the RCA and Manchester Met, and has spoken on responsible innovation at Facebook, Stanford University, and Google.
Cennydd’s views have been quoted by The Guardian, Sky News, and The Wall Street Journal. He holds an MSc in IT, and is currently studying Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford.
Praise for Future Ethics
‘An eloquent, insightful and utterly readable guide to thinking about the complicated mess we have made for ourselves. A must read for anyone who is inventing the future or cares about living in it.’ —Christina Wodtke, Stanford University.
‘At a time when technologists are only starting to grasp how their values and biases weave through the products they build, Cennydd’s long-lens view of ethics is exactly what designers, product managers and builders of today’s digital products need.’ —Azeem Azhar, Exponential View.
‘Intellectual ideas in a style that’s both accessible and actionable for hands-on practitioners. This book covers some of the most important topics practitioners need to consider as they work with machine learning, artificial intelligence, and other forms of advanced computing technologies.’ —Jon Kolko, Partner, Modernist Studio.
‘We need good books about ethics now more than ever. Practitioners need guidance on how to think ethically, how to detect ethical choices, and how to resolve ethical dilemmas. That’s exactly what this book is, and it’s destined to become a well-thumbed classic.’ —Alan Cooper.
Contents
Foreword by Alan Cooper.
1 – Trouble in Paradise · Instrumentalism, determinism, and mediation · Morals or ethics? · The myth of neutrality · Barriers to ethics.
2 – Do No Harm? · Unintended consequences · Externalities · Algorithmic bias · Source of bias · Moral distribution · Moral relativism · The technocracy trap · Defining fairness · Mitigating bias · Moral imagination · Futuring · Design as provocation · Utopias and dystopias · User dissent and crisis · Redefining the stakeholder · A Hippocratic Oath? · Ethical infrastructure and diversity.
3 – Persuasive Mechanisms · Dark patterns · Attention and addiction · Ethical experimentation · Persuasion and power · Political persuasion · Automated persuasion · Evidence collapse · Justifying persuasion: folk theories · Persuasive theories · The role of intent · Introducing deontology · Deontology applied · The veil of ignorance · Better persuasion · Regulation and opt-out.
4 – The Data Deluge · Raw data is an oxymoron · Resigned to insecurity · The value exchange in practice · Redefining public and private · Deidentification and reidentification · Seamlessness and trust · Data regulation · Introducing utilitarianism · Scientific morality · Utilitarianism or deontology? · A fairer data exchange · Self-ownership and pocket AI · Portability and differential privacy · The nuclear no-data option · Privacy as strategy · Empowering the public.
5 – Seeing Through New Eyes · Computer vision · Listening machines · Talking with machines · The datafied body · The hypermap · Neo-physiognomy · 'If I don't, someone else will' · The deadly seams · Is ‘better’ good enough? · The trolley problem is a red herring · Coexistence and companion species · Umwelt · The social contract · Explainable algorithms · Counterfactuals · Virtue ethics · Value-sensitive design.
6 – You Have Twenty Seconds To Comply · Moderation and free speech · What’s yours is ours · Security or liberty? · The ethics of encryption · Repurposeable surveillance · The party line · Post-privacy · Autonomous war · Moral disobedience · The price of disobedience.
7 – Software Is Heating The World · Minimum viable icecaps · The digital drain · Gestell · Conservation for technologists · Anticipating scarcity · Radical reorientation · Akrasia and ethical imperfection.
8 – No Cash, No Jobs, No Hope? · Is it different this time? · The future of work · Countering inequality · Ethics or politics? · The ethics of capitalism · Searching for meaning · Complex consciousness · Personhood · The dangers of anthropomorphism · How should we treat machines? · How should machines treat us? · Superintelligence and doomsdays.
9 – A New Tech Philosophy · Beware the business case · Facilitation, not judgment · Other ethical dead ends · Ethics in leadership · Time for specialists? · Being the change.
Appendix
Reader feedback
Future Ethics has a superb 4.3 average rating on Goodreads. Other reader comments:
‘I want a few million copies of this book to be crop-dusted over Silicon Valley.’
‘I’ve never underlined so many things in a book. Never. Ever.’
‘The most comprehensive and accessible tech ethics book I’ve read.’
‘It makes ethics actionable, and therefore accessible and empowering at the individual level.’
‘I’ve been really, really enjoying Future Ethics. It should be required reading for everyone working anywhere near technology.’
‘On page 14 and I’m already hyped to change my ways… What an amazing book so far!’
‘Cennydd’s new book on practical ethical theory for designers and other makers of technology products is already really illuminating. Highly recommended.’
‘One of the most important books a designer could ever read. Rich with examples and provocative questions… well paced and pertinent throughout.’
‘Cennydd’s new book is just perfect. He frames so many of the troubling issues the industry has been circling around with such clarity.’
‘Timely, enjoyable, practical, thought-provoking, and vitally important. I recommend it strongly.’
'If you work in the field of design and technology, this is a must read.’
‘Working my way through Cennydd’s Future Ethics like 🤯.’
Author: Cennydd Bowles
Foreword: Alan Cooper
Editor: Owen Gregory
Technical reviewers: Lydia Nicholas, Thomas Wendt, Damien Williams
Published: September 2018
Paperback: 230 pages
ISBNs
Paperback: 978-1-9996019-1-1
Kindle: 978-1-9996019-2-8
Apple Books: 978-1-9996019-3-5