Throughout this semester I have considered many of the ethical pickles we are finding in our new digital era. Some of those are cheating in academia, organizations intruding in people’s private information, the consequences of violent role playing games. I still have a hard time finding a situation that is so foreign and new that cannot be directly correlated to a physical action that was possible before Al Gore gave us the internet. Thanks Al.

The most salient difference I find in pre-binary and post-binary ethics is the fact that we are continually interacting with a wide variety of people, from all cultures, geographical areas, and ideologies. Our ethics are not so simple and generally accepted as they were before.  We now find ourselves with a more pressing challenge to defy ethnocentrism and find moral standards than can be defended across the globe. A great example is that of Creative Commons. This initiative understands that for them to make a difference, they need to be applicable for person in different jurisdictions, which means the double challenge of language translation and ethical translation.

Still, at an individual level, I see e stronger tie between “real world” ethics and “virtual world” ethics. I use quote signs because I strongly believe, like virtue ethicists, that virtual world is just as real as flesh and bones for the moral stand of a person.

I think if anything, rethinking my digital ethics has been a strong critique towards my overall personal beliefs about what is good and bad, what is acceptable and not.