Hardware Sustainability

Questions to Consider Surrounding the Technology Boom

1. How have personal electronic devices improved medicine?
2. How have electronics in general improved medicine?
3. How have electronic devices improved the environment?
4. How many mobile devices do individuals have on average? Why are people not keeping their devices longer?
5. What is e-waste, and how much e-waste accumulates in one year?
6. Can e-waste be recycled? What are the benefits?
7. Where is e-waste from the U.S. currently discarded? What happens to the e-waste?

Ethical Issues and the Technology Boom

Use ethical frameworks to discuss issues related to the technology boom.

1. Virtue ethics: How would a virtuous person address the technology boom? What virtues would help them to discover this solution?

2. Deontology: Is there a set of rules that should be followed to create a more ethical outcome?

3. Utilitarianism: Who is affected by the technology boom? What benefits exist and for whom? What costs are imposed and to whom? Can you think of a solution where the benefit to the most people is higher than the cost to most people?

4. Can you think of an analogy that would clarify an ethical approach to the technology boom?