IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2021 - 48

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only for themselves but for others. The participants
are called upon develop the ability to name not only
their own value feelings, but also to do so with imaginative
empathy for the others who can be affected
by the SoI.
Analysis and prioritization
The second activity in the second stage of P7000
comprises the analysis and prioritization of the identified
values. The description and specification of
that process is presenting explicitly in terms of MVE.
For example, the criteria for comparing two values
to determine which is higher and which is lower are
quoted from [11, Ch. 2].
To work toward determining EVRs, in this P7000
activity, values are grouped into value clusters. A value
cluster comprises one core value and a number of other
values that are instrumental to achieving it. A core
value need not be a high value. For example, efficiency
is expected to be a core value in most SoIs, but it is a
value at the level of usefulness. Consider an example
of a value cluster from a case study of a medical information
system [18]. In this cluster, Privacy is the core
value, the instrumental positive values are IT Security
and Potential Anonymity of a Patient, and instrumental
disvalues include Lack of Control by Patient, Secondary
Uses of Patient Data Undesired by Patient. This value
cluster gives rise to EVRs such as: 1) there be appropriate
levels of IT security and 2) that there be provision for
patients to express their individual privacy preferences
and have them enforced by the SoI.
These activities call for those performing them to
engage with the realm of values in a manner additional
to that of value identification. Value prioritization
and clustering asks the participants to explore
that realm for the relationships between values to
determine which are core (noninstrumental values)
and which are instrumental to the core values and
how. Prioritization of values explicits a preference
for one over the other and is, according to MVE, an
act of preferring the value-feeling of one over the
other [11, Ch. 4], even if the result is afterward justified
by reason, for example, by reference to criteria.
Reaching toward EVRs is a creative process where
the participants need to find states of value-bearing
for the SoI that realize the value clusters.
this article has examined three aspects of the
role of MVE in P7000. In the " Action and value bearing
in P7000 " section, it was determined that the account
48
of actions of persons and the bearing of values in persons
and things suggests that those who take part in a
P7000 project will experience value-feelings that will
condition their perceptions of VBD that will in turn
impact its acceptance by them and their organizations.
It was found in the " Identification " section that
to seek to identify values for an SoI, from the point of
view of whichever ethical theory, is to encourage a
form of empathy for the real or probable value feelings
of others. The " Identification, MVE, and other
ethical theories " section argued that analyzing and
prioritizing values requires exploration and increased
understanding of the realm of values, for example,
of the relationships between values and the relative
worth of various values. So, these activities of P7000
provide structured opportunities for those who participate
in them to explore the realm of values.
But this exploration has a given end. That end is
to produce specifications that will be realized in an
SOI that bears values and does not bear disvalues.
In the " Identification, analysis, and prioritization
of values in P7000 " section, while describing some
connections between MVE and virtue ethics, we
saw that according to MVE, moral intelligence is
gained through experiences in exploring the realm
of values in order to act so as to bring into being a
state of affairs where values are borne and disvalues
not borne. In other words, these activities of P7000
match the description of the kind of experience that
grows moral intelligence. This observation provides
grounds for a hope that the practice of VBD will provide
experiences and encouragement that will enable
engineers, managers, and firms to innovate so
as to reliably introduce technologies that realize the
highest human values.

Acknowledgment
I am grateful for interaction with the other members
of the IEEE P7000 Working Group, especially
Dr. Ali Hessami, Chair, and Prof. Sarah Spiekermann,
Co-Chair. This document solely represents the
views of the author and does not necessarily represent
a position of either IEEE or the IEEE Standards
Association.
 References
[1] L. Barford, " Contemporary virtue ethics and the
engineers of autonomous systems, " in Proc. IEEE Int.
Symp. Technol. Soc. (ISTAS), Medford, MA, USA, 2019,
pp. 1-7.
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