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from the Keep-everything-under-digital-lock dept.
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: 4, Insightful) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday August 13 2018, @12:22PM (6 children)
The week that Roger Boisjoly died I was widely criticized for asserting that he failed in his duty to prevent the first Space Shuttle explosion.
What he actually did was to file a safety report with Morton Thiokol's management, who then failed to pass that report on to NASA. Surely Boisjoly did the right thing?
No.
He could have gotten the launch scrubbed if he had been quite a lot louder about the fact that the solid booster's O-Rings lost their resiliency when cold.
He didn't do so.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Monday August 13 2018, @01:37PM (1 child)
Personal responsibility often gets carried too far. I wouldn't be too hard on Boisjoly. The training that engineers receive on such matters is laughably inadequate. No engineering school nor student wants to waste time on non-technical matters. It's the culture. This contributes to the stereotype of the engineering nerd who is indifferent and clueless about social norms, acceptable behavior, and all the soft skills that go with interacting with other people.
Thanks in part to that engineering culture of viewing all non-technical matters as unworthy of notice, let alone study, it would have been exceptional for any engineer in Boisjoly's position to discern that management had buried the report. And then, to further decide to go over their heads and talk directly to NASA, and to have gotten NASA to listen, well, very, very rare.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 14 2018, @07:52PM
Seems to me that the real problem is that the company leadership consisted of non-technical management types who decided to bury the report. Put a real engineer at the head and that might not have happened.
Unless he felt pressured due to company finances and decided to take the risk to save his company or paycheck.. Which means that the real problem was the presence of money as a variable in an equation where it did not belong.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RS3 on Monday August 13 2018, @01:59PM (1 child)
Thank you, MDC. I understand where you're coming from. As often, I see both sides and I'm torn. I've never been involved with anything big like a shuttle, so I can't really say what I would have done. From what I know of the Challenger Disaster, they had previously launched in very cold conditions, saw booster case joint erosion due to "O"-rings not seating during pressurization, and survived it. It's not all ones and zeros, so I can't blame the engineer for not calling in everyone possible. But I do respect your view and you probably know much more than I do.
My experience has been years and years of trying to get various managements to hear and act on my concerns regarding product (hw & sw) problems. I'm weary. The more I've tried, the harder management pushes back, and at some point people get labeled "trouble makers" and "complainer" and "problem child". I'm not aware of ever being labeled as such, but I've heard such labeling of people who I thought were pretty smart and trying to do a good job. I don't know your life's history, but it's possible you've done mostly contract / consulting and not been embroiled in "corporate culture" to know how things are for too many of engineers / programmers. People I've worked with talked about CYA, meaning, document the problem, document who you told about it, move on. Management is usually composed of people who enjoy power and control, whether they were predisposed or grew into it. They have the power to fire you on the spot for seemingly whim. There's no court system- you're out and your life might be very very crushed very fast. You scramble to find another job, or, you try to fight as you lose lots of $. I've never been fired, but I've surely felt great fear having witnessed some very mean bosses. Yes, I am now, as I have many times before, blaming most product defects on management.
I draw strong parallels between Titanic Disaster, Challenger Disaster, and others where short-term profit is the highest priority. Over the years governments have established agencies such as OSHA, EPA, CPSC, etc., to try to push back against the skewed prioritization, but sadly many such as NASA, police, etc., are mostly self-policing.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 14 2018, @08:23PM
It's a systemic issue inherent in the current economic system. The goal to obtain wealth supposedly incentives hard work and ingenuity and efficiency to create value. But in reality it also incentivizes bad behaviour and the creation of negative value:
That's just a few in no particular order, and I'm sure missed some important ones. All of those agencies that are meant to push back against skewed prioritization are just patches treating symptoms. And of course like any badly designed software system, the patches never work right and keep piling up and up until nobody knows how things work anymore. To really solve these problems at the root, you need to cure the disease. You need to change the economic system to one that provides predominantly positive incentives. Unfortunately I don't see this happening in the near future.
(Score: 2) by fishybell on Monday August 13 2018, @02:53PM (1 child)
I was fired for a job for refusing to run a demo for a military customer because of safety issues.
Just because you can yell louder, doesn't mean everyone has the personal fortitude to do so.
The entire setup of safety bureaucracy at NASA is designed to start with a form, and end with a form. He was working within the constraints of the system.
That said, you can't get shit done while working within the constraints of the system sometimes, and getting fired is sometimes the right, moral thing to do. I refused to do something because a couple of no name hicks in Utah were in danger; there's no excuse for anyone not to do the same.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday August 14 2018, @05:18PM
I really hate to ask: did someone else run the demo?