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: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 13 2018, @01:35PM
The reason programmers aren't organized is that (speaking only for myself of course) we're mostly on the autistic spectrum to varying degrees, which makes it (and again speaking only for myself) extremely unnatural and uncomfortable for us to organize into anything resembling committee or cooperative-style groups.
I give you as a corollary the World Chess Federation, which since 1978 has been run basically as a fiefdom by a succession of dodgy Third World politicians, while the chess players themselves spend their time bickering about inconsequential matters.