Nicolo Machiavelli wrote: 'The gulf between how one should live and
how one does live is so wide that a man who neglects what is actually
done for what should be done learns the way to self-destruction rather
than self-preservation"




There are two kinds of selfishness: the kind that says, 'I must do
 what will make me happy,' and the kind that says, 'You must do what
 will make me happy.'  The first is good, the second is bad."
 -- Kenton E. Sinner




The basis of ethics is man's right to play the games of his choice. I
will not trample on your toys and you will not trample on mine; I
won't spit on your idol and you will not spit on mine. (Isaac Bashevis
Singer)


You're responsible not only for what you do, but also for what you fail to do
Eugene Leitl


Until the day animals stand up and demand equal rights, I have the
right to eat them.
               -Jeff Mink


A truly great man will neither trample on a worm nor sneak to an emperor.
                -- B. Franklin

Everyone has an agenda. The sin comes in pretending that you don't.
                             Jennifer Boeth Donovan



"I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them
too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for
everything I do."
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

"Our ability to adapt and therefore to accept everything is one of our
greatest dangers. Creatures that are completely flexible, changeable, can
have no fixed morality." 
      - Stanislaw Lem, "His Master's Voice." 

"But ethics are really not the issue. We're talking about saving lives
here."  Dr. Robert White

Today, man knows more about his dangerous inclinations than he knew a
hundred years ago, and in another hundred years his knowledge will be
even more complete. The he will be able to benefit from it.  Stanislaw
Lem

I object to intellect without discipline; I object to power without
constructive purpose.  Spock, "The Squire of Gothos," stardate 2124.5.

"The foundation of morality should not be made dependent on myth nor
tied to any authority lest doubt about the myth or about the
legitimacy of the authority imperil the foundation of sound judgment
and action."  Einstein

I'm all for treating others with respect.  However, I don't think that
should be extended to (for example) refraining from research into
cognitive science just because the end result may offend someone who
held a prejudiced view of what the result 'ought' to be.  Jeff Dee


To treat something as conscious when it turns out not to be is a
little foolish.

To treat something as not consious when it turns out to be is an
ethical outrage.

So the time will come when we must give the benefit of the doubt.

malcolm@pigsty.demon.co.uk (Malcolm McMahon)

 Put broadly, even a quick perusal of the books, essays, and
organizations that have emerged to address computing ethics will show
that the ethics of the Internet are currently being worried under four
headings:

   1.Right to Intellectual Property (e.g., "you can't use my image on your page without
     permission") 
   2.Right to Privacy (e.g., "don't let the government coopt encryption") 
   3.Right to Intellectual Freedom ("information wants to be free") 
   4.Right to Bandwidth ("don't spam the Net because it hogs resources that others need") 

By Alan Liu,Should We Link to the Unabomber?
             An Essay on Practical Web Ethics



"If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil
deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us
and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the
heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of
his own heart?"  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn