I’m big into computers and philosophy, and one aspect of philosophy I’m into is ethics. The following is an abstract of an essay I'm writing, please let me know your thoughts on the subject:

Because of some recent events I’ve been thinking on the subject of morality in the digital world. I’ve noticed a willingness in myself to do things with computers that I would find immoral to do in the common world. For example, it would be an extreme set of circumstances that would lead me to break into someone’s physical mail box, but reading their e-mail with out them knowing about it I might do with little thought. A second example would be music, I would not shop lift a CD, but pirating music using Kazaa or E-mule gives me little moral pause. I know some would put forward the idea that the record labels get enough money, or have unfair business practice which may very well be true. However, I do not NEED the music. I could easily do without it and by using P2P to get an mp3 the people who did the work to get the music recorded receive nothing. Both of these examples show how I might do something in the digital world and have no qualms about it, while I would find it morally wrong to do the common world equivalent.

The question is why do I feel ok to cross moral boundaries in the digital world that I would not cross in the common world? Don’t expect much of an answer in this essay, just a general discussion of the topic. I still don’t know the answers myself with any certainty.

One aspect is the lack of physicality, a piece of data does not seem the same as a material object. By pirating a movie or other media via a digital copy I am not depriving someone of a physical object or the ability to use it. However, I’m also not helping in the creation of new content as none of my works (in this case money, a measure of the work I do in economic terms) go to support it. In the case of seeing data that I should not see (e-mail, private data and the like) the lack of physicality seems to make it less real to me. The same phenomenon can be seen on message boards where people who are normally tolerable become complete *******s once they get some sense of annomonity.

Another aspect is my Nietzscheian sense of morality when it comes to the digital realm. Power corrupts, and I feel that I have far more power in the digital realm then I do in the mundane world. I have to ability to do deviant things and get away with it in. I’m using my “Will to power” to shape things they way I wish them to be. Perhaps subconsciously I feel that “Knowledge makes right” when it comes to technology.

I think I’ll post this as is and modify it more once I’ve given it more thought and have received other’s ideas.