4 ms·

IMO having a hippocratic oath for software engineers is entirely pointless. There are plenty of people who would say the words with no intention of living up to

IMO having a hippocratic oath for software engineers is entirely pointless. There are plenty of people who would say the words with no intention of living up to them - not everyone is going to share your values. I can't say for sure, but I have a feeling that the hippocratic oath is not what's stopping an unethical doctor from behaving unethically. Instead, it's the risk of lawsuits and loss of their license to practice medicine that keeps them in line. I just don't think software could match the very real consequences to unethical behaviour that doctors face. We don't have a concept of a "licensed software engineer", and even if we did, there's nothing stopping an unethical engineer from working on their own. Doctors can be blackballed from hospitals, clinical trials, etc. Are we going to blackball software engineers from touching computers? The above being said, I do believe that software engineers should try to be ethical. However, I do not think there's any mechanism that could be implemented that could force this behaviour, and any attempt to do so is simply a way for its promoters to say "look how good I am", and less so an honest attempt at making the world a better place.

ecmascript 6y ago
For sure, I am one of these people you mention. I feel very little to no loyalty to any company I have ever worked for. The reason is that they can and would fire me at any time if the conditions where right. Hence, I am ready to move to another position at any time if the conditions are right (pay, benefits etc). If they want me to take an oath I would probably not take the job today but if they would pay me a ridiculous amount for example, I would most likely take the job and just say the oath or whatever you have to do and just never care about it again. Just because I am forced to say something doesn't mean I believe it. Maybe it's because I am a natural rebel that hates to be told things, despises "mission statements" or "company values" but I feel like there is a lot of people like me.

ecmascript 6y ago

For sure, I am one of these people you mention. I feel very little to no loyalty to any company I have ever worked for. The reason is that they can and would fire me at any time if the conditions where right. Hence, I am ready to move to another position at any time if the conditions are right (pay, benefits etc). If they want me to take an oath I would probably not take the job today but if they would pay me a ridiculous amount for example, I would most likely take the job and just say the oath or whatever you have to do and just never care about it again. Just because I am forced to say something doesn't mean I believe it. Maybe it's because I am a natural rebel that hates to be told things, despises "mission statements" or "company values" but I feel like there is a lot of people like me.