Machado Case

Foreseeable but Unforeseen Consequences

Source of Machado Case

www.computingcases.org

Three cases

Therac-25 Case

Hughes Aircraft Case

Machado Case

Cases Compiled by Students

National Science Foundation Project

DUE-9972280

DUE-9980768

Eventually there will be ten cases reflecting areas of concern of ABET

Cases are being compiled into textbook, Good Computing: A Virtue Approach to Computer Ethics

Charles Huff, Bill Frey, & Jose Cruz

Richard Machado Student at the University of California at Irvine

Convicted of federal email hate crime February 13, 1998

Sent email to 59 UCI Oriental students on Sept 20, 1996

Threatened to kill them if they didn’t leave the university

Used the finger command of UCI’s UNIX system to identify his victims (i.e., email recipients)

OAC (Office of Academic Computing) traced email to Machado using SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)

Machado Case (Continued)

OAC caught Machado in the act of sending a second message

Sent him home Had not read the message but responded to student complaints

Referred case to police who referred it to FBI

FBI prosecuted Machado to develop a legal argument against electronic hate mail

A Matter of Definition?

Flaming protected by freedom of expression?

Machado claimed his email was merely flaming, a fairly widespread practice among students

He also claimed he was exercising his right of freedom of expression

Death threat by mail prohibited by law?

FBI claimed that email was hate mail which has been prohibited by law

Legislation emerged in 1960’s to protect black students who were attending racially segregated universities and received death threats designed to get them to withdraw from university

Machado’s Email (Censored) From: “@#!! (Hates Asians) To: List Omitted Subject: @#!! You Asian @#!! Hey @#!!

As you can see in the name, I hate Asians, including you. If it weren’t for asias at UCI, it would be a much more popular campus. You are responsible for ALL the crimes that occur on campus. YOU are why I want you and your stupid @#!! comrades to get the @#!! out ofUCI. If you don’t I will hunt you down and kill your stupid @#!!. Do you hear me? I personally will make it my life career to find and kill everyone one of you personally. Ok?????? That’s how determined I am.

Get the @#!! out,

@#!! (Asian Hater)

Your Task: Set up the case analysis

Review the timeline

Divide tasks: Assign a specialist to each stage of the Software Development Cycle.

(Suggestion: assign two, one leader and a devil’s advocate) Divide the readings among stage specialists

Readings: case narrative, case history, teaching introduction ethical analysis (click on safety, privacy, power, equity & access, quality

of life) Socio-Technical Analysis: hardware, software, physical surroundings,

people/groups/roles, procedures, laws, and data/data structures. supporting documents (RFCs on finger command, UCI student profile,

interview with Allen Schiano from UCI OAC

Decision Points Scenario #1: You are a systems administrator at the Office of

Academic Computing at the University of California at Irvine and have been asked to modify the Unix system to prevent the reoccurrence of the Machado incident

Scenario #2: You are a systems administrator at the Office of

Academic Computing at the University of California at Irvine and have been asked to develop an orientation program for students who will use university computing laboratories and facilities. Special emphasis is put on preventing a reoccurrence of the Machado incident.

Analogy between design and ethics

There is an analogy between design problems and ethical problems

Design Problem Ethical Problem

Construct a prototype that optimizes (or satisfices) designated specifications

Construct a solution that realizes ethical values (justice, responsibility, reasonableness, respect, and safety)

Conflicts between specifications are resolved through integration of specifications

Resolve conflicts between values (moral vs. moral or moral vs. non-moral) by integration

Prototype must be implemented over background constraints

Ethical solution must be implemented over resource and interest constraints (cost/time/technical as well as organizational/political/legal)

Problem-solving in computing can be modeled on software design

The software development cycle can be presented in terms of four stages:

1. Problem Specification

2. Solution Generation

3. Solution Testing

4. Solution Implementation

Step One:

Problem Specification

1. Identify key components of the STS

Part/Level of Analysis

Hardware Software Physical Surroundings

People/

Groups/

Roles

Procedures Laws Data & Data

Structures

2. Specify the problem:

2a. Is the problem a disagreement on facts? What are the facts? What are cost and time constraints on uncovering and communicating these facts?

2b. Is the problem a disagreement on a critical concept? What is the concept? Can agreement be reached by consulting legal or regulatory information on the concept? (For example, if the concept in question is safety, can disputants consult engineering codes, legal precedents, or ethical literature that helps provide consensus? Can disputants agree on positive and negative paradigm cases so the concept disagreement can be resolved through line-drawing methods?

2c. Use the table to identify and locate value conflicts within the STS. Can the problem be specified as a mismatch between a technology and the existing STS, a mismatch within the STS exacerbated by the introduction of the technology, or by overlooked results?

2. Specify the Problem

STS/Value Safety (freedom from harm)

Justice (Equity & Access)

Privacy Property Free Speech

Hardware/

Software

Physical Surroundings

People, Groups, and Roles

Procedures

Laws

Data and Data Structures

Solution Generation

Brainstorm Ten Solutions

Avoid Dilemma Framing

Reduce and Refine List

3. Develop a general solution strategy and then brainstorm specific solutions

3a. Is problem one of integrating values, resolving disagreements, or responding to situational constraints?

3b. If the conflict comes from a value mismatch, then can it be solved by modifying one or more of the components of the STS? Which one?

3. Develop a general solution strategy and then brainstorm specific solutions

Problem / Solution Strategy

Disagreement Value Conflict Situational Constraints

Factual Conceptual Integrate? Tradeoff? Resource?

Technical?

Interest?

Solution Testing

Test for Ethics and Global Feasibility

4. Test Solutions

Develop a solution evaluation matrix

Test the ethical implications of each solution

See if the solution violates the code

Carry out a global feasibility assessment of the solution. What are the situational constraints? Will these constraints block implementation?

Solution Evaluation Matrix

Alternative / Test

Reversibility Harm Beneficence

Public Identification

Code Value: Justice

ResponsibilityHonesty, etc.

Feasibility

Alternative 1

Alternative 2

Alternative 3

Solution Implementation

Implement your solution over feasibility constraints

5. Implement solution over feasibility constraints

Restate your global feasibility analysis

Are there resource constraints?

Are there technical or manufacturing constraints?

Are there interest constraints?

5. Feasibility Matrix

Alternative/ Constraint

Resource Interest Technical

Time Cost Individual Organizational Legal Available Technology

Manufacturability

Alternative 1

Alternative 2

Alternative 3