Week 10 - Security and Ethics Flashcards
Why can a government not wage war without public support?
Because the citizenry of the State must supply the necessary resources of manpower and material . Therefore, because no one wants to see their resources wasted, citizens will rightly take a less costly form than war
Was the Hussein regime corrupt - without the assumption of Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Yes.
According to the Western human rights group, the regime was responsible for the murder of at least 400,000 - perhaps close to half a million - of its own people in the fifteen year from 1988 - 2003
Outline instances when States have collaborated with terrorist groups?
Libya has collaborated with the IRA and Iran with Hezbollah
What is the difference between fear and suspicion?
The main differences is that the object should not merely be speculative, but already meditated by an enemy, somewhat developed and even impending
What will infotech and biotech create?
They will create upheavals in human society, eroding human society, eroding human agency and possibly subverting human desires.
Therefore, under such conditions, liberal democracy and free market economics might become obsolete
What is the core difference between the Russian/Chinese/Cuban revolutions and the Trump and Brexit demonstrations?
The Russian, Chinese and Cuban revolutions were made by people who were vital to the economy but lacked political power; in 2016, Trump and Brexit were supported by many people who still enjoyed political power but feared they were losing their economic worth
Outline Israel regarding their systems of surveillance
Israel is a leader in the field of surveillance technology, and has created in the occupied West Bank a working prototype for a total-surveillance regime. Already today whenever Palestinians make a phone call, post something on Facebook, or travel from one city to another, they are likely to be monitored by Israeli microphones, cameras, drones, or spy software. Algorithms analyse the gathered data, helping the Israeli security forces pinpoint and neutralise what they consider to be potential threats. The Palestinians may administer some towns and villages in the West Bank, but the Israelis command the sky, the airwaves, and cyberspace. It therefore takes surprisingly few Israeli soldiers to effectively control the roughly 2.5 million Palestinians who live in the West Bank.
In the late 20th Century, why did democracies outperform dictatorships?
Democracies were far better at processing information and this was because democracy distributed power to process information and make decisions among many people and institutions, whereas dictatorships concentrate information and power in one place
What does AI allow us to do?
Concentrate and process enormous amounts of information centrally
What original handicap, may benefit dictatorship’s in the 21st Century?
The ability to concentrate all information and power in one place may become their decisive advantage in this century
What is Deontology?
This is a reference to the nature of human duty and obligation. It spells out the rules that are always right for everyone to follow
What does a Kantian approach emphasise?
It emphasises rules that are right because they can be, in principle, agreed on by everyone (universalism)
What is consequentialism?
This is the judgement of actions by the desirability of their outcomes
What is utilitarianism?
This judges acts by their expected outcomes in terms of human welfare and the ‘greatest food for the greatest number’
What are the principles of Kantism and Cosmpolitanism?
- Treating people as ends in themselves requires us to think universally and therefore restricting moral concern to members’ of one’s own state or nation renders any belief in equality incomplete
- A cosmopolitan commitment means one’s national identity and well - being should not come at the expense of outsiders. Therefore, obligations to friends, neighbours and fellow people, must be balanced with obligations to strangers and to humanity