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There is another thread about a Code of Ethics for developers. This is an interesting case study. In many ways what they did was unethical but the result was pr
by maxxxxx 8y ago
There is another thread about a Code of Ethics for developers. This is an interesting case study. In many ways what they did was unethical but the result was probably positive overall. How do you deal with that? Ethics is hard and very dependent on the details of the situation.
- stestagg 8y agoWhat was unethical about what they did? Risky? Sure. But I don't think adherence to corporate policy is an ethical goal
- maxxxxx 8y agoDoing things behind others’ backs is generally unethical. This decision should have been made in the open.
- scarejunba 8y agoAlmost certainly HN would be ranting about the fact that Youtube is _discriminating_ against one in five users or some other crackpot shit.
- aeorgnoieang 8y agoYour comment covers the gamut of ethical theories. A 'code of ethics' is going to be some combination of deontology and virtue ethics and will typically prohibit cases like this post describes. > In many ways what they did was unethical but the result was probably positive overall. And that kind of thinking is the other, newer branch of ethics: consequentialism/utilitarianism. My conclusion is that deontology and virtue ethics are necessary heuristics as actually calculating or estimating the consequences of any action are almost always effectively impossible, but, ultimately, what we care about are exactly those consequences, so we're never able to adequately 'cover' morality without, at least sometimes, explicitly considering them.