When identifying ethical issues and crafting solutions to these, it is important to recognize the system within which we are operating. Listing the components of the system and visualizing the relationships between them can aid the development of effective solutions; a requirement of many ethical approaches/principles. Doing so can also help us avoid unintended, negative secondary or tertiary consequences associated with our decisions.
In this assignment, you will need to develop a causal loop diagram (CLD) that captures the dynamics associated with your social impact analysis topic.You will need to, in effect, visualize and describe the system. This should facilitate the development of a nuanced and defensible application of virtue ethics to your topic.
Recall that a CLD is an idealized, graphical representation of a system and its causal dynamics. Given that this idealized representation is also a simplified version of the actual system, you will need to make careful and deliberate choices about which variables you include, which you do not, and, critically, why. You also need to be clear and explicit about what time horizon you adopt. A good CLD should be understandable to the non-expert. It should also be useable. For example, the CLD should forecast how an intervention intended to improve the system (vis-à-vis ethical outcomes) is likely to play out in the system; including secondary and tertiary impacts.
I recommend drafting an initial hand drawn CLD and then creating one using Vensim for submission (see link below).
Part I: Develop a Causal Loop Diagram
Workflow for Developing a Causal Loop Diagram:
Identify the most significant variables in your system. This can include stakeholders, raw material sources, production facilities, disposal sites, etc. A helpful place to begin is to think about the systemic context your technology (topic) is being deployed in. How does the system behave without the technology? How will the technology positively and negatively impact the structure and dynamics of the system?
Where one exists, identify the relationship between variables including important details such as direction of influence. Is the influence between variables A and B, for example, unilateral? Bilateral? Does A act proportionally on B (e.g., as A increases, so does B or, as A decreases so does B)? Inversely? Indicate the direction of influence using positive (+) and negative (-) signs respectively. Go through this process in each instance where there is a causal relationship between variables.
Identify feedback loops and classify/label these as either reinforcing or balancing loops.
Review your causal loop diagram for any system archetypes – do you see any familiar patterns? If so, identify these.
Are there any feedback delays? These are important to identify when thinking about the dynamics of the system as well as potential leverage points.
Instructions:
Complete a causal loop diagram following the steps above; preferably in Vensim.
Format
Preferably created in Vensim and copy-pasted (from Lock view) into a Word document (see Burgess et al. article for example of this). Please note: I will also accept a neat, hand-drawn diagram that is color coded and pasted into your Word document as a picture. The diagram needs to be inserted above the write up. Your diagram and write up must be submitted in one Word document.
Please use blue lines to indicate proportional relationships (i.e. arrows) and red lines to indicate inverse relationships (i.e. arrows). Include a positive sign at the arrowhead of blue lines and a negative sign at the arrowhead of red lines. That is, you must indicate influence polarity with either a positive or negative sign.
Label reinforcing loops with an R in the center of the loop and balancing loops with a B in the center of the loop. When there is more than one of either, label as R1, R2, etc. and/or B1, B2, etc.
Where appropriate, identify feedback delays. Please use double parallel lines to indicate these.
Part II: Diagram Discussion (approximately 800 words)
Your CLD should be such that you do not need to explain why you chose each variable and the relationships between them. That is, the causal logic should be clear based on reviewing the diagram alone. Your discussion in this part, then, should focus on significant aspects of the diagram. Some questions to consider include (but are not limited to):
Which feedback loops are particularly important and why?
Which delays should the reader pay attention and what the implications for interventions intended to improve the system?
Are there any archetype patterns in play? Is there the potential for an archetype to emerge?
What are the leverage points in the system? That is, where can one intervene in the system to create desired changes in it? Leverage points where a relatively small amount of effort leads to significant changes in the system are particularly important to identify and discuss. How can these be used to enhance ethical outcomes for system stakeholders?
Instructions:
Your discussion of the dynamics of the system should be informed by the research you have compiled on your topic. Please make sure to incorporate and cite the sources you pulled on your SIA topic. See Format section below for required citation style.
Your discussion should also address (a) who/what counts as a stakeholder and who/what does not and (b) the time horizon adopted for the model. In other words, your discussion should address who/what you say counts and over what time period.
Your discussion should be brief but informative regarding the noteworthy dynamics of the system as you have modeled it. This includes important feedback loops, noteworthy delays, and/or actual (or potential) archetypical behavior.
Identify and discuss at least one leverage point in the system.
Part III: Application of Virtue Ethics (approximately 700 words)
There are multiple ways to frame the positive and negative implications of a given technology. In this assignment, you will use virtue ethics to do so. A useful and important place to begin is by examining how the technology you have chosen impacts the eudaimonia of the stakeholders involved. You can think about, for example, how the positive and negative consequences (e.g., benefits and drawbacks) associated with your technology impact stakeholders; often these can enhance or interfere with the pursuit of a happy (eudaimon) life.
From here, then, you will identify and apply one virtue that you think is especially relevant to the engineers/computer scientists making decisions about this technology. What is the virtuous decision with respect to the technology and why? Finally, your discussion should incorporate the insights developed from the CLD. Recall that Aristotelian virtue ethics requires both right motivation and efficacy. Efficacy requires understanding the system that one is operating within.
Instructions:
Examine how your technology impacts the happiness (i.e., eudaimonia) of the various stakeholders involved. Note: someone or something counts as a stakeholder if they are affected by the technology even if they are not the intended user/beneficiary.
Identify a virtue that you think is especially relevant to the engineers/computer scientists who are deciding if and how to deploy the technology you are analyzing. You should define what the virtue is, why it is important to engineers/computer scientists, and what extremes (i.e., excess and deficiency) it avoids.
Discuss what the virtue you have chosen has to say about the technology. What is the virtuous thing to do according to the virtue and why? Your discussion should draw on insights from your CLD (virtue requires right efficacy as well as right motivation).
Format for Written Portions of Assignment:
Your entire write-up should be approximately, but no more than, 1,500 words in length. Significant shortfalls are typically a sign of underdevelopment. Significant overages often indicate the need to be more concise and focused.
You should draw on the sources you pulled for your SIA research as well as those covered in the class. Regardless of the source, any idea or insight that you use that is not your own needs to be cited. This is true for paraphrased material as well as direct quotes. You are required to use APA citation format in this assignment (both in-text citation and works cited). Please note, your works cited list does not apply to the word count limit.
Please use 10-12 pt. Times New Roman, Calibri, or Arial type font.
Please use 1.5 line spacing and 1inch margins.
When identifying ethical issues and crafting solutions to these, it is important to recognize the system within which we are operating. Listing the components of the system and visualizing the relationships between them can aid the development of effective solutions; a requirement of many ethical approaches/principles. Doing so can also help us avoid unintended, negative secondary or tertiary consequences associated with our decisions.
In this assignment, you will need to develop a causal loop diagram (CLD) that captures the dynamics associated with your social impact analysis topic.You will need to, in effect, visualize and describe the system. This should facilitate the development of a nuanced and defensible application of virtue ethics to your topic.
Recall that a CLD is an idealized, graphical representation of a system and its causal dynamics. Given that this idealized representation is also a simplified version of the actual system, you will need to make careful and deliberate choices about which variables you include, which you do not, and, critically, why. You also need to be clear and explicit about what time horizon you adopt. A good CLD should be understandable to the non-expert. It should also be useable. For example, the CLD should forecast how an intervention intended to improve the system (vis-à-vis ethical outcomes) is likely to play out in the system; including secondary and tertiary impacts.
I recommend drafting an initial hand drawn CLD and then creating one using Vensim for submission (see link below).
Part I: Develop a Causal Loop Diagram
Workflow for Developing a Causal Loop Diagram:
Identify the most significant variables in your system. This can include stakeholders, raw material sources, production facilities, disposal sites, etc. A helpful place to begin is to think about the systemic context your technology (topic) is being deployed in. How does the system behave without the technology? How will the technology positively and negatively impact the structure and dynamics of the system?
Where one exists, identify the relationship between variables including important details such as direction of influence. Is the influence between variables A and B, for example, unilateral? Bilateral? Does A act proportionally on B (e.g., as A increases, so does B or, as A decreases so does B)? Inversely? Indicate the direction of influence using positive (+) and negative (-) signs respectively. Go through this process in each instance where there is a causal relationship between variables.
Identify feedback loops and classify/label these as either reinforcing or balancing loops.
Review your causal loop diagram for any system archetypes – do you see any familiar patterns? If so, identify these.
Are there any feedback delays? These are important to identify when thinking about the dynamics of the system as well as potential leverage points.
Instructions:
Complete a causal loop diagram following the steps above; preferably in Vensim.
Format
Preferably created in Vensim and copy-pasted (from Lock view) into a Word document (see Burgess et al. article for example of this). Please note: I will also accept a neat, hand-drawn diagram that is color coded and pasted into your Word document as a picture. The diagram needs to be inserted above the write up. Your diagram and write up must be submitted in one Word document.
Please use blue lines to indicate proportional relationships (i.e. arrows) and red lines to indicate inverse relationships (i.e. arrows). Include a positive sign at the arrowhead of blue lines and a negative sign at the arrowhead of red lines. That is, you must indicate influence polarity with either a positive or negative sign.
Label reinforcing loops with an R in the center of the loop and balancing loops with a B in the center of the loop. When there is more than one of either, label as R1, R2, etc. and/or B1, B2, etc.
Where appropriate, identify feedback delays. Please use double parallel lines to indicate these.
Part II: Diagram Discussion (approximately 800 words)
Your CLD should be such that you do not need to explain why you chose each variable and the relationships between them. That is, the causal logic should be clear based on reviewing the diagram alone. Your discussion in this part, then, should focus on significant aspects of the diagram. Some questions to consider include (but are not limited to):
Which feedback loops are particularly important and why?
Which delays should the reader pay attention and what the implications for interventions intended to improve the system?
Are there any archetype patterns in play? Is there the potential for an archetype to emerge?
What are the leverage points in the system? That is, where can one intervene in the system to create desired changes in it? Leverage points where a relatively small amount of effort leads to significant changes in the system are particularly important to identify and discuss. How can these be used to enhance ethical outcomes for system stakeholders?
Instructions:
Your discussion of the dynamics of the system should be informed by the research you have compiled on your topic. Please make sure to incorporate and cite the sources you pulled on your SIA topic. See Format section below for required citation style.
Your discussion should also address (a) who/what counts as a stakeholder and who/what does not and (b) the time horizon adopted for the model. In other words, your discussion should address who/what you say counts and over what time period.
Your discussion should be brief but informative regarding the noteworthy dynamics of the system as you have modeled it. This includes important feedback loops, noteworthy delays, and/or actual (or potential) archetypical behavior.
Identify and discuss at least one leverage point in the system.
Part III: Application of Virtue Ethics (approximately 700 words)
There are multiple ways to frame the positive and negative implications of a given technology. In this assignment, you will use virtue ethics to do so. A useful and important place to begin is by examining how the technology you have chosen impacts the eudaimonia of the stakeholders involved. You can think about, for example, how the positive and negative consequences (e.g., benefits and drawbacks) associated with your technology impact stakeholders; often these can enhance or interfere with the pursuit of a happy (eudaimon) life.
From here, then, you will identify and apply one virtue that you think is especially relevant to the engineers/computer scientists making decisions about this technology. What is the virtuous decision with respect to the technology and why? Finally, your discussion should incorporate the insights developed from the CLD. Recall that Aristotelian virtue ethics requires both right motivation and efficacy. Efficacy requires understanding the system that one is operating within.
Instructions:
Examine how your technology impacts the happiness (i.e., eudaimonia) of the various stakeholders involved. Note: someone or something counts as a stakeholder if they are affected by the technology even if they are not the intended user/beneficiary.
Identify a virtue that you think is especially relevant to the engineers/computer scientists who are deciding if and how to deploy the technology you are analyzing. You should define what the virtue is, why it is important to engineers/computer scientists, and what extremes (i.e., excess and deficiency) it avoids.
Discuss what the virtue you have chosen has to say about the technology. What is the virtuous thing to do according to the virtue and why? Your discussion should draw on insights from your CLD (virtue requires right efficacy as well as right motivation).
Format for Written Portions of Assignment:
Your entire write-up should be approximately, but no more than, 1,500 words in length. Significant shortfalls are typically a sign of underdevelopment. Significant overages often indicate the need to be more concise and focused.
You should draw on the sources you pulled for your SIA research as well as those covered in the class. Regardless of the source, any idea or insight that you use that is not your own needs to be cited. This is true for paraphrased material as well as direct quotes. You are required to use APA citation format in this assignment (both in-text citation and works cited). Please note, your works cited list does not apply to the word count limit.
Please use 10-12 pt. Times New Roman, Calibri, or Arial type font.
Please use 1.5 line spacing and 1inch margins.