Fr. Michael McFarland earned a bachelor’s degree at Cornell University in 1969, majoring in physics, and a master’s degree (1978) and Ph.D. (1981) in electrical engineering (computer engineering) at Carnegie Mellon University. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1975, and studied at the Weston School of Theology where he earned a master’s degree in divinity and a Th.M. in social ethics. He was ordained a priest in 1984.
He worked as a consultant at AT&T Bell Laboratories, and continued his collaboration there while teaching at Boston College for 10 years as an associate professor of computer science. In addition, he has done extensive teaching, research, writing and speaking in computer ethics.
In 1996, Fr. McFarland became dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. He left in 2000 to become the President of the College of the Holy Cross, where he served until January 2012.
After a sabbatical at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, where he helped establish a program in Internet Ethics, he became the Treasurer of the USA Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus, overseeing finances, investments, property and health care benefits for the approximately 540 Jesuits in the Province.
Social responsibility
Technology, Power and Social Justice
Technology has become so pervasive and powerful that we cannot ignore the way it shapes our communal life. Therefore, in addition to being concerned about the rights and protections due individuals, we need to look seriously at issues of justice and other civic virtues. To be human is to exist in a rich web of relationships, not just one-to-one, but organized into increasingly complex social structures.
David Kirkpatrick
Human Values for a Technologized Age
Session Description: How do we think about technology differently as the world continues to be blighted by suffering, hatred and grotesque inequality? And what of privacy, distraction, and overweening corporate and government power? How can tech reaffirm fundamental human values? Does the tech industry and innovation community need a clearer focus?
Conferences
Techonomy 15
Technology as scapegoat has driven fears since at least the industrial revolution. That is as true as ever today, with fears of privacy intrusion, our devices inducing inattention, withdrawal from human contact into screens, job-killing robots, and innumerable business models being destroyed.
