I’m struggling to adequately complete my third homework assignment in my Philosophy class today. I finished reading Chapter 7 on Ethics this past weekend and spent time Sunday between movie breaks gathering my notes to answer my professor’s questions. I am almost finished; just agonizing over a couple of questions that require my opinion which I am very uncomfortable stating in writing in an assignment for which I will receive a grade. Not fun.
Over lunch I took a book break to continue reading Version Control when I couldn’t believe my eyes as I read this paragraph:
… keep in mind the difference between a person and the data generated by a person as she moves through life. This is a distinction that is easy to forget. Information is not a person, and a person is made up of more than information. A person has beliefs and feelings and a will and a soul: information does not. You have to remember this because we do not want to dehumanize our clients by speaking of them in terms of numbers, but you must also remember that while it is possible to have a moral or ethical obligation to a person, it is impossible to have such an obligation toward data. The very idea is nonsensical. What would it mean to talk about being fair to…bits? How would you talk about treating bits with respect?
Oh dear! Here we go again!
Is it truly ‘nonsensical’?