Reinhard Messerschmidt, M. A.
Research consultant for digitalization, WBGU
Fellow at CAIS form May to June 2017
Research consultant for digitalization, WBGU
Fellow at CAIS form May to June 2017
This project focuses on the moral challenges associated with the development of digitalization and its effects. The research problems examined relate to areas of individual and societal importance that are fundamentally changing in the context of digitalization, such as privacy, access to information and knowledge, and social inequality.
The aim of the project is to map out the current status of open questions, and, if possible, to add to these questions. For example: Is there a moral right to be forgotten on the web, and what scope should this right have? What ethical problems arise in decision-making through algorithms? What political responsibility does the legislator have in regulating the Internet?
Instead of evaluating technical innovations and their implementation merely retrospectively, I will draw on technical-ethical reflections to discuss morally relevant options for the design of future developments.