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This article explores the ethics of large complex systems in the United States of America in three major case studies: the food industry, the pharmaceutical industry and the political/governmental institutions. Using the simple Aristotelian heuristic of good sense, good character and good will, the conclusion is that ethics is not a high priority due in large part to the relentless pursuit of large sums of money at any cost.

This article explores the ethics of large complex systems in the United States of America in three major case studies: the food industry, the pharmaceutical industry and the political/governmental institutions. Using the simple Aristotelian heuristic of good sense, good character and good will, the conclusion is that ethics is not a high priority due in large part to the relentless pursuit of large sums of money at any cost.

This article explores the ethics of large complex systems in the United States of America in three major case studies: the food industry, the pharmaceutical industry and the political/governmental institutions. Using the simple Aristotelian heuristic of good sense, good character and good will, the conclusion is that ethics is not a high priority due in large part to the relentless pursuit of large sums of money at any cost.

Democratic governments raise taxes and charges and spend revenue on delivering peace, order and good government. The delivery process begins with a legislature as that can provide a framework of legally enforceable rules enacted according to the government's constitution. These rules confer rights and obligations that allow particular people to carry on particular functions at particular places and times. Metadata standards as applied to public records contain information about the functioning of government as distinct from the non-government sector of society. Metadata standards apply to database construction. Data entry, storage, maintenance, interrogation and retrieval depend on a controlled vocabulary needed to enable accurate retrieval of suitably catalogued records in a global information environment. Queensland's socioeconomic progress now depends in part on technical efficiency in database construction to address queries about who does what, where and when; under what legally enforceable authority; and how the evidence of those facts is recorded. The Survey and Mapping Infrastructure Act 2003 (Qld) addresses technical aspects of where questions – typically the officially recognised name of a place and a description of its boundaries. The current 10-year review of the Survey and Mapping Regulation 2004 provides a valuable opportunity to consider whether the Regulation makes sense in the context of a number of later laws concerned with management of Public Sector Information (PSI) as well as policies for ICT hardware and software procurement. Removing ambiguities about how official place names are to be regarded on a whole-of-government basis can achieve some short term goals. Longer-term goals depend on a more holistic approach to information management – and current aspirations for more open government and community engagement are unlikely to occur without such a longer-term vision.

This work reviews the rationale and processes for raising revenue and allocating funds to perform information intensive activities that are pertinent to the work of democratic government. 'Government of the people, by the people, for the people' expresses an idea that democratic government has no higher authority than the people who agree to be bound by its rules. Democracy depends on continually learning how to develop understandings and agreements that can sustain voting majorities on which democratic law making and collective action depends. The objective expressed in constitutional terms is to deliver 'peace, order and good government'. Meeting this objective requires a collective intellectual authority that can understand what is possible; and a collective moral authority to understand what ought to happen in practice. Facts of life determine that a society needs to retain its collective competence despite a continual turnover of its membership as people die but life goes on. Retaining this 'collective competence' in matters of self-government depends on each new generation: • acquiring a collective knowledge of how to produce goods and services needed to sustain a society and its capacity for self-government; • Learning how to defend society diplomatically and militarily in relation to external forces to prevent overthrow of its self-governing capacity; and • Learning how to defend society against divisive internal forces to preserve the authority of representative legislatures, allow peaceful dispute resolution and maintain social cohesion.

Researching administrative history is problematical. A trail of authoritative documents is often hard to find; and useful summaries can be difficult to organise, especially if source material is in paper formats in geographically dispersed locations. In the absence of documents, the reasons for particular decisions and the rationale underpinning particular policies can be confounded as key personnel advance in their professions and retire. The rationale for past decisions may be lost for practical purposes; and if an organisation's memory of events is diminished, its learning through experience is also diminished. Publishing this document tries to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort by other researchers that need to venture into how policies of charging for public sector information have been justified. The author compiled this work within a somewhat limited time period and the work does not pretend to be a complete or comprehensive analysis of the issues. --- A significant part of the role of government is to provide a framework of legally-enforceable rights and obligations that can support individuals and non-government organisations in their lawful activities. Accordingly, claims that governments should be more 'business-like' need careful scrutiny. A significant supply of goods and services occurs as non-market activity where neither benefits nor costs are quantified within conventional accounting systems or in terms of money. Where a government decides to provide information as a service; and information from land registries is archetypical, the transactions occur as a political decision made under a direct or a clearly delegated authority of a parliament with the requisite constitutional powers. This is not a market transaction and the language of the market confuses attempts to describe a number of aspects of how governments allocate resources. --- Cost recovery can be construed as an aspect of taxation that is a sole prerogative of a parliament. The issues are fundamental to political constitutions; but they become more complicated where states cede some taxing powers to a central government as part of a federal system. Nor should the absence of markets be construed necessarily as 'market failure' or even 'government failure'. The absence is often attributable to particular technical, economic and political constraints that preclude the operation of markets. Arguably, greater care is needed in distinguishing between the polity and markets in raising revenues and allocating resources; and that needs to start by removing unhelpful references to 'business' in the context of government decision-making.

In May 2005, a research team began to investigate whether designing and implementing a whole-of-government information licensing framework was possible. This framework was needed to administer copyright in relation to information produced by the government and to deal properly with privately-owned copyright on which government works often rely. The outcome so far is the design of the Government Information Licensing Framework (GILF) and its gradual uptake within a number of Commonwealth and State government agencies. However, licensing is part of a larger issue in managing public sector information (PSI); and it has important parallels with the management of libraries and public archives. Among other things, managing the retention and supply of PSI requires an ability to search and locate information, ability to give public access to the information legally, and an ability to administer charges for supplying information wherever it is required by law. The aim here is to provide a summary overview of pricing principles as they relate to the supply of PSI.

This article was written in 1997. After a 2009 review the content was left mostly unchanged - apart from this re-written abstract, restructured headings and a table of contents. The article deals directly with professional registration of surveyors; but it also relates to government procurement of professional services. The issues include public service and professional ethics; setting of professional fees; quality assurance; official corruption; and professional recruitment, education and training. Debate on the Land Surveyors Act 1908 (Qld) and its amendments to 1916 occurred at a time when industrial unrest of the 1890s and common market principles of the new Commonwealth were fresh in peoples' minds. Industrial issues led to a constitutional crisis in the Queensland's then bicameral legislature and frustrated a first attempt to pass a Surveyors Bill in 1907. The Bill was re-introduced in 1908 after fresh elections and Kidston's return as state premier. Co-ordinated immigration and land settlement polices of the colonies were discontinued when the Commonwealth gained power over immigration in 1901. Concerns shifted to protecting jobs from foreign competition. Debate on 1974 amendments to the Act reflected concerns about skill shortages and professional accreditation. However, in times of economic downturn, a so-called 'chronic shortage of surveyors' could rapidly degenerate into oversupply and unemployment. Theorists championed a naïve 'capture theory' where the professions captured governments to create legislative barriers to entry to the professions. Supposedly, this allowed rent-seeking and monopoly profits through lack of competition. However, historical evidence suggests that governments have been capable of capturing and exploiting surveyors. More enlightened institutional arrangements are needed if the community is to receive benefits commensurate with sizable co-investments of public and private resources in developing human capital.

The deification of technology -- The myth of progress -- Killing all the bees : technology and environment -- The coming cataclysm : a runaway train jumps the tracks -- Unmet promises : life as a beta test -- Unintended consequences : the god of technology is a tricky devil -- Involuntary cyborg : no place to hide -- Big data, the surveillance state and the death of privacy -- Artificial intelligence : meet your android overlords -- Death by technology : the nuclear menace and WMDs -- Evolutionary dead end : wrong turn?

Who was Wittgenstein? -- Wittgenstein, neutral monism, and privacy -- Common sense, skepticism, and reductionism -- An ordinary language philosopher? -- Meaning and verification -- Investigating Wittgenstein's practice -- On being fair to Wittgenstein -- Wittgenstein and conceptual relativism -- Language-games -- The wages of empiricism -- Are there objective scientific truths? -- Belief, superstition, and religion -- Wittgenstein on primitive practices -- Religious belief and reductionism -- Are there religious language-games? -- A failed defense of Wittgenstein -- Preconceptions and philosophical descriptions.