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One day I hope to see a company like this advertise for a technology ethicist. :-) edit: okay, perhaps I should explain: not because I'm looking for a job (I'm
by liedra 16y ago
One day I hope to see a company like this advertise for a technology ethicist. :-)
edit: okay, perhaps I should explain: not because I'm looking for a job (I'm happily employed!) but because it would suggest a desire to actually be proactive about social and ethical issues, which, sadly, so many companies are not (or deliberately avoid).
- dspeyer 16y agoI think an ethicist has to be recruited from the existing engineering ranks to have the internal prestige needed to be effective.
- liedra 16y agoEffective from whose point of view? There's a lot to be said from a fresh perspective on things, especially when it comes to identifying potential problems. I've done a lot of interviews with engineers and worked in industry myself and when you're within the box you don't tend to be able to carry out the necessary reflection very well, if you even think about doing it at all :) Of course it does help to understand what's going on in a company to be internally effective, and it might take a while before an external person is accepted (as always), but in order to identify potentially negative social and ethical impact it can really help to have someone who is open minded and not tied to the particular traditions of the group.