The Core Ethical Problems in Information Technology: Beyond the Code
What if the most significant ethical problem in tech isn't algorithmic bias, data privacy, or even job automation? What if these are merely symptoms of a much deeper, more transformative process—the systematic dismantling of what it means to be a human being? For millennia, our value and our very identity have been rooted in a unique bundle of capabilities. Information technology is now systematically taking that bundle apart.
In my book, The Great Unbundling: How Artificial Intelligence is Redefining the Value of a Human Being, I argue that technology is no longer just creating tools. It is actively unbundling the core functions that have defined us: separating intelligence from consciousness, social connection from genuine community, and economic labor from human purpose. This framework provides a new, more powerful way to understand the root cause of the most pressing ethical problems in information technology we face today.
For the AI-Curious Professional, this perspective reveals the deep-seated risks that go far beyond compliance checklists. For the Philosophical Inquirer, it offers a novel framework to analyze technology's profound impact on the human condition. And for the Aspiring AI Ethicist, it provides a unifying theory that connects seemingly disparate ethical issues in tech, from bias and privacy to automation and meaning.
The Unbundling Framework: A New Lens for Ethics in IT
For thousands of years, Homo sapiens dominated the planet because of an evolutionary masterstroke: the integrated human individual. Our analytical intelligence, emotional depth, physical dexterity, and conscious experience were all bundled together. Our societies, economies, and moral codes are all built on the assumption that the mind that has an idea is the same one that feels passion for it and directs the hands to build it.
Information technology, and particularly artificial intelligence, is the great engine of unbundling. It isolates each of these functions, optimizes them in silicon, and in doing so, challenges the primacy of the original human bundle. This reframes the entire conversation around the ethical use of information technology. The debate is not about good or bad code; it's about the consequences of deconstructing our own species.
Unbundling Intelligence: The Rise of Algorithmic Bias and "Soulless" Logic
One of the first and most consequential acts of unbundling is the separation of raw intelligence from conscious understanding and lived experience. This schism is the source of many of the most-discussed ethical challenges of information technology.
Algorithmic Bias as an Inevitable Outcome
When you unbundle problem-solving from context and wisdom, algorithmic bias isn't just a flaw; it's an almost inevitable feature. An algorithm trained on historical data doesn't "know" that this data reflects centuries of societal prejudice. It only knows how to optimize for patterns.
A foundational 2018 study from MIT's Joy Buolamwini and Timnit Gebru highlighted this starkly. They found that commercial facial recognition systems had error rates as high as 34.7% for identifying dark-skinned women, while making almost no errors (0.8%) for light-skinned men. The algorithm wasn't necessarily programmed to be racist; it was simply unbundled from the human understanding of racial history and representation. This is one of the most critical ethical problems in computing: the system unbundles the task of "identification" from the rich, complex, and often painful social context required to perform it ethically.
The Problem of Explainability: Intelligence Without Justification
Another profound ethical issue in computer science is the "black box" problem. Modern AI systems, particularly deep learning models, can arrive at incredibly accurate conclusions without being able to explain their reasoning in a way humans can understand. An AI can pass the medical licensing exams, recommend a stock trade, or even pass the bar exam, but it cannot articulate a "philosophy" of justice or medicine.
It has unbundled the conclusion from the justification. This creates a crisis of accountability. Who is responsible when an unexplainable AI denies someone a loan or misdiagnoses a disease? The programmer? The user? The algorithm itself? This is a core ethical topic in computer science that our legal and social systems are utterly unprepared to handle.
Unbundling Connection: The Ethical Challenges of Social Platforms
Nowhere is the unbundling of a core human need more apparent than in social media. These platforms have systematically unbundled our innate desire for connection, belonging, and validation from the friction and nuance of genuine community.
The Economy of Outrage and Misinformation
The business model of most social media is based on maximizing engagement. As documented by whistleblowers and researchers at institutions like the Center for Humane Technology, algorithms have learned that outrage, fear, and tribalism are powerful drivers of that engagement. The system unbundles the act of "communication" from the goal of "understanding."
The result is a media ecosystem that is optimized for polarization and emotional contagion, not thoughtful discourse. This presents a severe ethical issue in tech: the commercial incentives of a trillion-dollar industry are fundamentally misaligned with the health of our civic society.
Privacy as a Relic of the Bundled Self
Our entire modern concept of privacy is based on the idea of a "bundled" individual who has a sovereign, private inner life. Information technology obliterates this notion. It unbundles every aspect of our existence—our location data, our purchasing habits, our search history, our political leanings, our heart rate—and reassembles these data points into a predictive profile.
This digital doppelgänger is often more valuable to corporations and governments than the "whole" person it represents. The debate over the ethical considerations in information technology like data privacy isn't just about protecting secrets; it's about whether the very concept of a private self can survive in a world of totalizing surveillance capitalism.
Unbundling Labor: Automation, Purpose, and Economic Justice
The most tangible form of unbundling is happening in the global economy. For centuries, human labor—the bundle of cognitive, physical, and social skills—was the primary engine of economic value. AI is now unbundling cognitive and creative tasks at an unprecedented rate.
Beyond Job Replacement: The Devaluation of Human Skill
A 2023 Goldman Sachs report estimated that generative AI could expose the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs to automation. The central ethical problem here isn't just mass unemployment. It is the systematic devaluation of the very skills that have provided generations of humans with not only income but also dignity, identity, and purpose.
When a graphic designer, a paralegal, or a writer sees their bundled expertise replicated by an API call, it triggers a crisis that is both economic and existential. This is one of the most profound ethical issues and information technology—the decoupling of human effort from economic value.
The UBI Debate Re-framed Through Unbundling
From this perspective, policies like Universal Basic Income (UBI) are not merely a left-wing policy proposal. As I argue in The Great Unbundling, UBI becomes a potential civilizational necessity. It is a pragmatic response to a world where the market value of the average human's bundled capabilities trends toward zero. It represents an attempt to create a new social contract that separates basic survival from labor-market relevance, addressing one of the most fundamental ethical issues with computing and automation.
The Response: Towards a "Great Re-bundling" and Ethical Action
Acknowledging the power of the Great Unbundling is not an act of surrender. It is the necessary first step toward mounting a conscious, human-centric response. While the unbundling may be inevitable, how we choose to react is not. This is where we can find our agency.
For the Tech Professional & Ethicist: Building Humane Systems
For those building these systems, the focus must shift from pure optimization to ethical design.
- Prioritize Contestability and Explainability: Design systems that allow users to understand, question, and appeal automated decisions. Don't accept "black box" logic as a given.
- Embed Ethical Frameworks from Day One: Move beyond the "move fast and break things" ethos. Integrate ethical reviews, "red teaming," and diverse stakeholder feedback into the entire product lifecycle.
- Champion Data Dignity: Advocate for models where users have true ownership and control over their data, treating it as an extension of their personhood rather than a raw resource to be extracted.
For the Individual & Leader: Cultivating Uniquely Human Value
For the rest of us, the challenge is to engage in a "Great Re-bundling"—consciously reintegrating our capabilities in ways that AI cannot easily replicate.
- Practice Deep Integration: Cultivate skills that combine different human faculties. Don't just be a critical thinker; be a critical thinker who is also deeply empathetic. Don't just be a creative artist; be a creative artist who is also an effective community organizer. This re-bundling creates a form of value that is resilient to automation.
- Support the "Artisan" Human Economy: Place a premium on human-crafted goods, services, art, and experiences. Championing the work of a human writer, therapist, or craftsman is a vote for the value of the bundled human.
- Engage in the Policy Debate: The ethical problems in information technology are too vast to be solved by individual action alone. We must become fluent in the language of AI policy, advocating for education reform, robust social safety nets, and new legal frameworks that protect human value in an unbundled world.
The ultimate question is not whether technology will continue to unbundle us, but how we will choose to re-bundle ourselves and our societies in a world that no longer requires our original form.
Ready to explore this framework in greater depth? The ideas discussed here are just the beginning. To understand the full scope of this transformation, read The Great Unbundling: How Artificial Intelligence is Redefining the Value of a Human Being.
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