Instructions: There are three (3) topic areas listed below that are designed to measure your knowledge level specific to pervasive computing and converging technologies. You must respond to #2 and select any other one of these topic areas providing appropriate responses in essay form. In most cases the topic area has several components. Each must be addressed to properly satisfy requirements.

State-wide and in most professional industries, there has been a mandate that college students be more proficient in their writing. While this is not a writing class, all writing assignments will be graded for grammar, syntax and typographical correctness to help address this mandate.

Pay attention to what you are being asked to do (see Grading Rubric below). For example, to describe does not mean to list, but to tell about or illustrate in more than two or three sentences, providing appropriate arguments for your responses using theories discussed in our text. Be sure to address all parts of the topic question as most have multiple parts. A verifiable current event (less than 4 years old) relevant to at least one of the topics you respond to is a fundamental component of your quiz as well. The text book for this course cannot be used as a reference to a current event. For each chapter quiz and final quiz you are required to find and include at least one reference and reference citation to a current event less than 4 years old (a reference with no date (n.d.) is not acceptable) in answer to at least one question. This requires a reference citation in the text of your answer and a reference at the end of the question to which the reference applies. You must include some information obtained from the reference in your answer. The references must be found on the internet and you must include a URL in your reference so that the reference can be verified.

You should type your responses directly under the appropriate question. Be sure to include your name on the quiz. Only the first two (2) questions with answers will be graded. Include your name in the document filename. Your completed quiz must be placed in the appropriate eCollege Dropbox, no later than 11:59pm on the due date. Do well.

1. (a) Identify and describe three different (unique) potential social and ethical concerns (not mentioned in our text) arising as a result of converging technologies. (b) Defend your answer. Please elaborate (beyond a yes or no answer) and provide your “theoretical” rationale in support of your responses. (knowledge)
2. Evaluate the arguments that were examined for and against future research in nanotechnology. Given the potential advantages and disadvantages of future development in this area, which side’s arguments do you find more convincing? Do the criteria provided by Weckert for when research in a particular area should and should not be allowed offer us any guidelines for research in nanotechnology? Which kinds of ethical guidelines need to be built into research and development in this field? Please elaborate (beyond a yes or no answer) and provide your “theoretical” rationale in support of your responses. (comprehension)
3. In their goal of designing “moral machines,” Wendell Wallach and Colin Allen argue that we do not need to develop artificial moral agents that have full moral agency. They believe that machines need to have only functional morality to be able to accomplish their objective of building moral machines. (a) What do Wallach and Allen mean by “functional morality” and how is it different from full moral agency? (b) Do you agree with their claim that questions about whether AMs can be full moral agents actually distract from the larger goal of researchers in machine ethics who aim to build machines that are capable of “acting appropriately in morally charged situations?” Explain. Please elaborate (beyond a yes or no answer) and provide your “theoretical” rationale in support of your responses. (comprehension)