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The professional engineers that produce many part of the car do have ethics. https://www.nspe.org/resources/ethics/code-ethics https://www.nspe.org/resources/et

The professional engineers that produce many part of the car do have ethics. https://www.nspe.org/resources/ethics/code-ethics https://www.nspe.org/resources/ethics/code-ethics

kazinator 3y ago
The professional engineers who produce many parts of a car do not have ethics which oblige them to act if someone obtains such a part and adapts it to a nefarious purpose. An automotive engineer doesn't lose sleep at night over the idea that someone might sharpen a piece of a chrome fender using a grinding wheel, and then use it to cut someone's throat. Or strangle someone with a fan belt. That's exactly what this blog is asserting though.
- mitt_romney_12 3y ago
  That's not what the blog author is saying at all. What the author describes in the article aren't products being misused they are products that are explicitly designed to be harmful. A better analogy would be that engineers should refuse to help remove safety features to make a car cheaper.
  - kazinator 3y ago
    Quote "If you write something innocent and later find out that it is being used for evil, you are now obligated to do something about that. You can't ignore it or say you didn't know. You are now stuck and have to do your best to make that situation better." I would say that not only doesn't reflect sound ethics, it's not an example of good mental health.
    - rileymat2 3y ago
      That is vague enough to not be useful. But couldn’t “doing something” be a license change going forward. Seems like a reasonable application of ethics. I don’t see a huge issue here.
      - dcow 3y ago
        > That is vague enough to not be useful. I mean that is the issue. There's nothing novel or insightful about this piece on ethics in the least. "Hand wave, hand wave, software engineers should be obliged to know about and actively mitigate all the downstream effects of their software, but only if it's evil". Yeah, okay, move along.
      - kazinator 3y ago
        It's possibly a huge issue because it could turn a free license into a non-free license. Words in a license will not stop an evil-doer.

The professional engineers that produce many part of the car do have ethics. https://www.nspe.org/resources/ethics/code-ethics https://www.nspe.org/resources/ethics/code-ethics

kazinator 3y ago

The professional engineers who produce many parts of a car do not have ethics which oblige them to act if someone obtains such a part and adapts it to a nefarious purpose. An automotive engineer doesn't lose sleep at night over the idea that someone might sharpen a piece of a chrome fender using a grinding wheel, and then use it to cut someone's throat. Or strangle someone with a fan belt. That's exactly what this blog is asserting though.

mitt_romney_12 3y ago
That's not what the blog author is saying at all. What the author describes in the article aren't products being misused they are products that are explicitly designed to be harmful. A better analogy would be that engineers should refuse to help remove safety features to make a car cheaper.
- kazinator 3y ago
  Quote "If you write something innocent and later find out that it is being used for evil, you are now obligated to do something about that. You can't ignore it or say you didn't know. You are now stuck and have to do your best to make that situation better." I would say that not only doesn't reflect sound ethics, it's not an example of good mental health.
  - rileymat2 3y ago
    That is vague enough to not be useful. But couldn’t “doing something” be a license change going forward. Seems like a reasonable application of ethics. I don’t see a huge issue here.
    - dcow 3y ago
      > That is vague enough to not be useful. I mean that is the issue. There's nothing novel or insightful about this piece on ethics in the least. "Hand wave, hand wave, software engineers should be obliged to know about and actively mitigate all the downstream effects of their software, but only if it's evil". Yeah, okay, move along.
    - kazinator 3y ago
      It's possibly a huge issue because it could turn a free license into a non-free license. Words in a license will not stop an evil-doer.