Ethics and Morality Beyond the Actor-Network: Doing the Right Thing in an Algorithmic Culture

• In Event: Big Data and Algorithms: Theory and Critique

Abstract

The growing governance and authority of algorithms and the rapid emergence of the ‘Internet of Things’, has intensified attention to the relationship between humans and machines, and to the ethics of everyday life with technologies. This raises a lot of questions: How should we live with technologies? Can humans make decisions? The question on the authority of humans is clearly debatable. In this paper I discuss the underlying premises for the ethical standpoint of Actor Network Theory (ANT) and explore other existing alternatives. I begin by looking into the basic premises of ANT, and the assumptions of ‘the human’ and of ethics it comprises. I then explore the notion of a ‘disclosive’ ethics and continue by penetrating the relation between agency and ethics in ANT. Following from this I discuss various different approaches to ethics, and how we can still keep a human notion of ethics in an algorithmic culture.

Author

• Stina Bengtsson, Sodertorn University