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Maybe we do need a Engineer's Hippocratic Oath, and a means to police our own. Go look at the latest "Ask HN" thread - there's two projects proudly trumpeting
by vunderba 2y ago
Maybe we do need a Engineer's Hippocratic Oath, and a means to police our own.
Go look at the latest "Ask HN" thread - there's two projects proudly trumpeting their ability to allow applicants to cheat on their interviews. On the FAQ of one of the apps, a common question apparently is if it will work during proctored exams.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42375440 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42375440
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42383928 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42383928
With this kind of loose approach to morality, is it really any surprise that the world is filled with devs who build involuntarily telemetry, spyware, etc.?
- golol 2y agoIt just doesn't make sense. So it is immoral for engineers to design weapons? That's like saying it's immoral to butcher an animal. Sure go ahead, ban butchering animals in your society so everyone can feel good about themselves while they import their meat and thereby outsource the butchering instead. Or you say that everyone just stops eating meat? Fine that works but here the analogy breaks, because everyone won't just stop needing weapons. What I can agree with is that placing a moral cost on engineering designing weapons in some way increases the actual labor cost of weapon R&D, I guess.
- bee_rider 2y agoThey didn’t mention weapons in their post. Which, given the focus of the article, seems intentional. Edit: specifically they seem to have gone for lower stakes examples.
- hackable_sand 2y agoDon't use moral quandary to inject your propaganda. That is how a snake moves.
- halostatue 2y agoThe ACM has a code of ethics to which members are supposed to adhere: https://ethics.acm.org/code-of-ethics/ https://ethics.acm.org/code-of-ethics/