Lab Activity: Digital Humanities

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Lab Activity: Digital Humanities

This blog reflects on the lab activity related to Digital Humanities in which we were asked to play the Moral Machine game, watch three video segments, and write a reflective summary of the experience. The task was assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad Sir as part of our course work. The purpose of this activity was to explore how digital technologies, especially Artificial Intelligence, interact with human ethics and decision-making. Through the game and the videos, we were encouraged to think critically about how machines are programmed to make moral choices and how human values influence those choices.

Experience and Learning Outcome of the Moral Machine Activity



While playing the Moral Machine game, I was placed in a situation where I had to make immediate moral decisions in different hypothetical scenarios involving a self-driving car. In each situation, the autonomous vehicle faced an unavoidable accident, and I had to choose which group should be saved. These scenarios often forced me to decide between different categories of lives—for example, young people versus elderly individuals, wealthy people versus poor people, humans versus animals, or passengers inside the car versus pedestrians crossing the street.

Making these decisions was challenging because none of the choices felt completely right or fair. Every option involved a loss of life, which created a moral dilemma. The game showed that ethical decisions cannot always be reduced to simple rules or algorithms. Instead, they require careful consideration of values such as fairness, responsibility, social norms, and human empathy.

The activity also demonstrated how advanced technologies like artificial intelligence must deal with moral questions that humans themselves struggle to answer. When autonomous vehicles are programmed, developers must decide which ethical principles should guide the machine’s behavior in life-and-death situations. This reveals that technology is not neutral; it reflects the moral assumptions and cultural values of the people who design it.

Learning Outcomes

1. Understanding the Complexity of Ethics

One of the most important lessons from this activity is that ethical decision-making is extremely complex. There is rarely a single correct answer in moral dilemmas. Each choice involves balancing different values, such as saving more lives, protecting the vulnerable, or respecting legal rules. The scenarios in the game demonstrated that even a simple decision can involve complicated ethical reasoning.

2. Awareness of Personal Bias

While making choices, I realized that my own beliefs, cultural background, and emotional reactions influenced my decisions. For instance, I sometimes felt inclined to save younger people rather than older individuals or humans rather than animals. This showed me that moral judgments are often shaped by personal bias and social conditioning. Recognizing these biases is important when designing ethical systems for technology.

3. Ethics in Artificial Intelligence

The activity also highlighted the importance of incorporating ethical principles into artificial intelligence systems. As technologies such as autonomous cars become more common, they may need to make rapid decisions in emergency situations. If these systems are not carefully programmed with ethical guidelines, their decisions could create serious social and legal issues.

4. Development of Critical Thinking

Finally, the Moral Machine activity encouraged deeper critical thinking. It pushed me to ask difficult questions such as:

  • Is one life more valuable than another?

  • Should a machine prioritize saving more people or protecting the passengers inside the vehicle?

  • Should legal rules, such as crossing at a signal, matter more than factors like age, profession, or social status?

These questions helped me understand that technology is closely connected with philosophy, ethics, and society. Therefore, interdisciplinary fields like Digital Humanities are important because they examine how human values shape the development and use of digital technologies.

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