In a sense there is no such thing as computer ethics. Stealing by computer is stealing; lying on-line is lying. Yet in every technical profession, including computer science, morality and technology occasionally intertwine. "The study of computer ethics," Deborah Johnson of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute says, "is the study of the ethical questions that arise as a consequence of the development and deployment of computers and computing technologies."

Hotly debated topics in computer ethics include intellectual property, whistle-blowing, fallibility of critical systems, censorship, surveillance, and privacy. Consider, for example, the question of entrusting human lives directly to computers. Computers fly aircraft and spacecraft, control dangerous medical devices, and scan the skies for ballistic missile attack; if certain computers were to err badly enough, anywhere from one person to billions of people might die. Nor can all such scenarios be dismissed as farfetched. Space shuttle launches...