Preliminari etici per il data processing

Abstract in English Most attempts to define data-driven information and communication technologies (ICT) continue to be dominated by the assumption that they are a kind of tool or instrument—that is, means for achieving specific ends arbitrarily defined by humans. The conception of ICT as tools or instruments is not without merit, especially insofar as it focuses on a limited segment of reality and approaches it predominantly, or even exclusively, within the horizon of problem-solving. Nevertheless, it remains questionable whether this perspective truly allows for an understanding of the technologization and datafication of the world as we experience it today. We argue that the tool-based conception fails to provide an adequate understanding of modern, globally networked, and ubiquitous data-processing technologies. On the one hand, the instrumental conception of technology is in most cases rather an abstraction or a retrospective projection that a genuine understanding since the original experience of tool use does not constitute an authentic experience of the epoch of information and communication technologies. On the other hand, it stands in the way of an authentic engagement with data-processing technologies. We therefore propose an explicit epochal characterization that allows for a conceptual distinction between tools and classical machines, as well as between machines and data-driven technologies. In doing so, we establish the conditions for an ethical engagement with present and future data-processing systems and their corresponding normative implications.