Ethics in the Information Age  --  Discussion Project  --  Who’s to blame?

Each group will be assigned to advocate for the moral innocence of one of the characters in the killer robot scenario.  Your job is to make the best case you can that your ‘client’ is (morally) innocent and that the blame for the death of the machine operator, Bart Matthews, should fall on someone else.  Cite specific facts from the stories about the case and also the ethical values or principles that you think are applicable.  Part of your job will be to ‘explain away’ the things that your ‘client’ did that might seem to show that he or she was the guilty party.  Another part will be to show that other people involved also did things that justify putting the blame on them. 

1.  Randy Samuels – Programmer

2.  Sam Reynolds -- CX30 Project Manager

3.  Ray Johnson -- Robotics division chief at Silicon Techtronics

4.  Michael Waterson -- President and CEO of Silicon Techtronics

5.  Cindy Yardley -- Silicon Techtronics employee and software tester

6.  “The Company” – some would say that no individual can be blamed, that the responsibility lies at the level of the whole company. (So, for example, if anyone is to be made to pay for Matthews’ death, it should be the company and not any of the above individuals.)