Computer Programmers get new Tech Ethics Code
The guidelines come from the Association for Computing Machinery
Technological professionals are the first, and last, lines of defense against the misuse of technology. Nobody else understands the systems as well, and nobody else is in a position to protect specific data elements or ensure the connections between one component and another are appropriate, safe and reliable. As the role of computing continues its decades-long expansion in society, computer scientists are central to what happens next.
Personally, I am quite concerned that our Congress has not attached Responsibility with Rights when it comes to software. If someone is going to claim ownership and rights to a piece of code then protect it with electronic lock or obscurity, why aren't they also held 100% responsible if that code causes mayhem?
We just had a story here about the concerns we have about a hemoglobin based meat substitute ... and what we go through to make damn sure the substance is harmless to life before we introduce it into the food chain... and even *that* has to be completely described and its molecular structure demonstrated.
Can you imagine the uproar if Chemists started releasing anything tasty, that people would eat, and call it "food"? And would our Congress grant them the right to withhold information as to what it was? Then hold them harmless for whatever it did to people?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday August 13 2018, @02:01PM (1 child)
Implying..
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 13 2018, @02:45PM
Well, I admit, I should have realized that VLM would read my comment and be unable to understand why some of the German doctor's work should give one pause and how to apply the analogy to information technology.
But Ethics for Soylentils is Aristarchus' bailiwick. Best check with him.
Disclaimer: let us focus on Mengele's work in the context of the analogy. We will get sidetracked if we worry about the ethnic identity, sexual orientation, disability status, or various intersections thereof in his "patients," moreso if we begin pontificating about Trotskyism vs. nationalist socialism vs. Stalinism vs. libertarian socialism vs. anarcho-capitalist derivations of socialism (anarcho-socialism?) etc.