I strongly believe that engineers should have mandatory ethics classes. Then when they accept a BigTech salary, at least they would know that they trade their ethics for their salary.
I find it alarming how many engineers just don't ever think about the impact technology has on the world.
Education. Engineering and science schools should have good and rigorous ethics courses. Taught by actual philosophers and engineers on the field dealing with ethically sensitive issues (like writing a real-time OS for an airplane, self-driving car etc). An engineer or a scientist shouldn't graduate without the ability to reason about the social and ethical implications of their jobs. Engineers, physicists, scientists, social workers change the world more than most individuals and thus they need the ability to reason ethically more than most individuals.
I don't know about in the US but for my engineering degree at an Australian university there were mandatory Ethics classes. One of the courses we were required to take talked about precisely this sort of thing the long term consequences of technology. I remember debating case studies in tutorial groups about things like Asbestos, CFC's, GM crops, cloning and the like. Being considerate of the unintended consequences of technology was very much something we were encouraged to think about.
Another class we took covered the ethical responsibilities of an engineer, regulatory compliance, liability, disclosure, whistle-blowing and the like I still recall vividly hearing during a lecture the story of American Engineer William LeMessurier who was made aware of critical structural defect in a building he had designed and then risked his career and professional reputation to resolve the problem.
I'm a bit saddened to hear other people have these negative opinions about engineering. A lot of us do take the moral and ethical implications of our work quite seriously.
My university had us take the same ethics class as civil engineers, etc., and there was plenty of case study material where lax standards in engineering (including computer systems) had killed people. We can live without technology, but it's a lot harder to live when the optional technology that a lot of people choose to use starts killing people. It's important for engineers to understand the role they can and should play in advocating for safety and high standards.
It needn't be a focus of the education, but it should be a concern of universities to ensure students graduate with an understanding of the importance of integrity for society's good and how they can ensure their projects are ethical.
Most engineering schools have classes about engineering ethics. When I was an undergrad in UC Berkeley, we not only had an ethics class (called "Social Implications of Computing") but also every single class had ethics sections, e.g. if you're working in a mission critical OS don't forget what happened to Therac-25, if you're writing ML Algorithms don't forget what happened to Uber etc... These were actual parts of classes, mentioned by professors. I think ethics is a very important part of both engineering and being a human being. You cannot make bridges and not be responsible if they collapse. You cannot make an OS and not be responsible if a bug kills bunch of people. Similarly, you cannot write fraud software and go by your day because that's what your boss ordered you to do. Engineers are highly skilled workers and we must have enough consciousness to deny doing a job if it's not ethical. Otherwise, it's just banality of evil.
While it may be a problem that people „unthinkingly do what they are told to do“, I don‘t think requiring engineers to take an ethics class will fix that.
What it does is give people the tools to properly articulate thoughts they are already having. It won‘t make someone an activist who just doesn‘t care.
That's what I'm hoping we can change. When I think of Engineering, I think of trades that tend to have a firm grasp on ethics and take the consequences of what they build very seriously. I know that organizations like the ACM and IEEE espouse those same virtues, and I think they are not only worthy virtues but also important. Something worth being uncomfortable - or even discarded by less ethical companies - in order to defend.
Ethics not being a desirable quality to some (many? That seems too bold to assert) businesses is ironically part of the reason why ethics is so important to hold onto as an engineer. Some businesses would be elated to find software engineers that have discarded their sense of ethics entirely, to the profit of themselves and the harm of our society.
And teach engineers about ethics, too? I feel like it could help, because they are the one making the technology and often getting a ton of money for it.
This will probably be an unpopular opinion, but I really think some technologies should simply not be developed.
Like it or not, engineers have a social responsibility, and this they should be able to refuse to make certain types of products. In other fields (biology and medicine for example), there is a notion of ethics. We need that too.
I find it alarming how many engineers just don't ever think about the impact technology has on the world.
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