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You don't actually mean "the rest of society", you just mean some other programmers. Why don't you ask Serena, (the heavy View user mentioned in the article),

You don't actually mean "the rest of society", you just mean some other programmers. Why don't you ask Serena, (the heavy View user mentioned in the article), any of her friends, your mom, a niece or nephew, anyone going to school, or any other random sampling of the population who would know about the app. If you don't think consequences and happy users matter then it's hard to have a discussion about ethics.

ceejayoz 11y ago
> Why don't you ask Serena, (the heavy View user mentioned in the article), any of her friends, your mom, a niece or nephew, anyone going to school, or any other random sampling of the population who would know about the app. And yet, you believe cigarettes are immoral. Why doesn't the same "some of their users like them" argument apply there? Consequentialism is hardly the only ethical theory out there.
- logicallee 11y ago
  you can ask Serena, any of her friends, your mom, a niece or nephew, anyone going to school, or any other random sampling of the population about whether cigarettes are good or bad. Including smokers. If you look at it more deeply, the reason everyone knows the answer to this question is ethical intervention into the marketplace by the government, for example restricting forms of advertising and mandating labeling - in australia in contrast to most products cigarettes can only be sold in an unattractive dark brown drab paper color with no visual branding - this is how a pack of cigarettes looks in australia: http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/1201/356241-australia-bans-branding-on-cigarette-packaging/ http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/1201/356241-australia-bans-brand... - this intervention of course has an ethical basis and is either ethical or unethical. But since apparently you are among the other downvoters here who agree that programmers who have never read a page of ethical reasoning have a black-and-white correct opinion about what is ethical I think we have nothing to discuss. I certainly regret sharing my opinion and will certainly do so more carefully in the future if at all.

ceejayoz 11y ago

> Why don't you ask Serena, (the heavy View user mentioned in the article), any of her friends, your mom, a niece or nephew, anyone going to school, or any other random sampling of the population who would know about the app. And yet, you believe cigarettes are immoral. Why doesn't the same "some of their users like them" argument apply there? Consequentialism is hardly the only ethical theory out there.

logicallee 11y ago
you can ask Serena, any of her friends, your mom, a niece or nephew, anyone going to school, or any other random sampling of the population about whether cigarettes are good or bad. Including smokers. If you look at it more deeply, the reason everyone knows the answer to this question is ethical intervention into the marketplace by the government, for example restricting forms of advertising and mandating labeling - in australia in contrast to most products cigarettes can only be sold in an unattractive dark brown drab paper color with no visual branding - this is how a pack of cigarettes looks in australia: http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/1201/356241-australia-bans-branding-on-cigarette-packaging/ http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/1201/356241-australia-bans-brand... - this intervention of course has an ethical basis and is either ethical or unethical. But since apparently you are among the other downvoters here who agree that programmers who have never read a page of ethical reasoning have a black-and-white correct opinion about what is ethical I think we have nothing to discuss. I certainly regret sharing my opinion and will certainly do so more carefully in the future if at all.