I don't think the software industry has quite got its head around the idea yet that it is possible for our field to produce a technology that is as harmful as t

I don't think the software industry has quite got its head around the idea yet that it is possible for our field to produce a technology that is as harmful as tetraethyl lead. We kid ourselves that the worst thing software can do is a Therac-25-style bug. So long as it's 'just software', though, with no hardware interfaces plugged into actual living people, how badly can we possibly screw up? That sense that 'well, at least we're not the tobacco or petroleum industry', puts a real limit on the degree to which software people are willing to engage with the ethics of what they do.