SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 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.