Computing applications as social experimentation

Creating a new mode of computing in a laboratory is a technological experiment. Transferring that same new mode computing to the lay public for routine use is a social experiment[1]. This distinction is similar to that between developing chemical compounds in a laboratory and disbursing new drugs on a large scale to the lay public. In the case of drugs, the public has come to expect careful experimentation, serious attempts by professionals to learn about the appropriateness of new drugs and successes and failures, and informed consent. Similar guidelines have not been adopted by engineers or computer scientists. This talk explores the meaning of experimentation and informed consent for the use of especially novel and powerful computer-based technologies.