Social Responsibility of Informatics

The last years have clearly shown that Informatics is not anymore only a solid and pervasive scientific discipline with a huge potential for technological innovation, but it is also deeply affecting the fabric of our society. More and more, informatics systems automatically control our lives, regulate our personal and social relations, and take decisions directly affecting ourselves, other people and the whole society. This situation is often perceived completely only when something wrong happens. The literature includes a significant number of situations where technical problems, software bugs in many cases, have caused significant incidents with loss of money and human lives. Moreover, the experience is showing that the more we increase the power and autonomy of our informatics systems, the more the criticality of incidents increase.

Scientists and technologists cannot forget being first of all human beings, and - as such - cannot forget about the social impact of their science and technology. This has been true at least since Hippocrates introduced the Oath which became the reference code of ethics for physicians. Now Computer Scientists find themselves in a similar situation. In fact, while the increasing automation offered by informatics could allow humankind to achieve huge possibilities of progress, it could also dramatically affect not only everybody's quality of life, but also fundamental rights of individuals and society.

It is therefore becoming mandatory that our scientific community reflects on the "Social Responsibility of Informatics" and makes sure that this "social responsibility" perspective is more and more integrated into our teaching and research.

During the ECSS, prominent academics, industry leaders and decision makers discussed the importance of responsibility assigned to us by an unbelievably powerful technology, offering food for thought in state-of-the-art lectures, an engaging panel discussion and examples of successful stories.

Invited Keynote Speakers:

• Tony Belpaeme, Ghent University
• Virginia Dignum, Umeå University
• Mireille Hildebrandt, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
• Luciano Floridi, University of Oxford (remote participation)
• Paola Inverardi, University of L'Aquila
• Bernd Stahl, De Montfort University

Panellists:

• Guglielmo Tamburrini, University of Naples (Panel Chair)
• Philip Larrey, Pontifical Lateran University
• Peggy Valcke, KU Leuven
• Hannes Werthner, TU Vienna