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People working on automation systems have a special responsibility, because any small mistakes can be multiplied by the scale the system is used at. Programmin

People working on automation systems have a special responsibility, because any small mistakes can be multiplied by the scale the system is used at. Programming should have a code of ethics.

praptak 7y ago
Without unions the management can pressure you into breaking the code of ethics.
- sokoloff 7y ago
  Enron had union workers. Volkswagen has union workers. Boeing has union workers. I'm not sure that unionization is the silver bullet to ward off unethical behavior.
ghaff 7y ago
The ACM and IEEE both have codes of ethics. That's a very long way from some silver bullet though.
lxhmj 7y ago
I'm inclined to say that if there's a bug in some grading software and some students kill themselves for failing, the problem here is not with the software.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 7y ago
  That’s like saying that if there’s a bug in some missile targeting software and some some students die from playing in the park, the problem is the park that they chose to play in.
  - lxhmj 7y ago
    No it's not, since playing in a park is normal, but killing yourself for getting bad grades is not.
    - 9wzYQbTYsAIc 7y ago
      Working hard for good grades and being disappointed at failure is normal too. Software design could, probably should, have incorporated the social context of failure. This is Asia, India in particular, that we are talking about here - the hyper-competitiveness that these kids go through is probably worse than what medical doctors go through in prestigious schools in the US.
      - lxjum 7y ago
        >Software design should have incorporated the social context of failure. Yeah sure. My bad. Let's be reasonable: if(grade < 5)grade = 5
        9wzYQbTYsAIc 7y ago
        How about if(gradeForStudent(i) < avg(gradesForStudent(i))) flagForReview Still a one liner. You seem to have forgot that the software defect was an error in grading.
  - spamizbad 7y ago
    Wouldn't be the fault of the organization that fired the missile? Especially if they were told ahead of time "This missile's targeting system is only accurate 99.9% of the time so do be careful"
9wzYQbTYsAIc 7y ago
> Programming should have a code of ethics. There is one: https://www.computer.org/education/code-of-ethics https://www.computer.org/education/code-of-ethics

People working on automation systems have a special responsibility, because any small mistakes can be multiplied by the scale the system is used at. Programming should have a code of ethics.

praptak 7y ago

Without unions the management can pressure you into breaking the code of ethics.

sokoloff 7y ago
Enron had union workers. Volkswagen has union workers. Boeing has union workers. I'm not sure that unionization is the silver bullet to ward off unethical behavior.

ghaff 7y ago

The ACM and IEEE both have codes of ethics. That's a very long way from some silver bullet though.

lxhmj 7y ago

I'm inclined to say that if there's a bug in some grading software and some students kill themselves for failing, the problem here is not with the software.

9wzYQbTYsAIc 7y ago
That’s like saying that if there’s a bug in some missile targeting software and some some students die from playing in the park, the problem is the park that they chose to play in.
- lxhmj 7y ago
  No it's not, since playing in a park is normal, but killing yourself for getting bad grades is not.
  - 9wzYQbTYsAIc 7y ago
    Working hard for good grades and being disappointed at failure is normal too. Software design could, probably should, have incorporated the social context of failure. This is Asia, India in particular, that we are talking about here - the hyper-competitiveness that these kids go through is probably worse than what medical doctors go through in prestigious schools in the US.
    - lxjum 7y ago
      >Software design should have incorporated the social context of failure. Yeah sure. My bad. Let's be reasonable: if(grade < 5)grade = 5
      - 9wzYQbTYsAIc 7y ago
        How about if(gradeForStudent(i) < avg(gradesForStudent(i))) flagForReview Still a one liner. You seem to have forgot that the software defect was an error in grading.
- spamizbad 7y ago
  Wouldn't be the fault of the organization that fired the missile? Especially if they were told ahead of time "This missile's targeting system is only accurate 99.9% of the time so do be careful"

9wzYQbTYsAIc 7y ago

> Programming should have a code of ethics. There is one: https://www.computer.org/education/code-of-ethics https://www.computer.org/education/code-of-ethics