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Effectively tortured to death. One of the things that frustrates me with how ethics is taught in computer science is that we use examples like Therac 25, and p
by SCdF 1y ago
Effectively tortured to death.
One of the things that frustrates me with how ethics is taught in computer science is that we use examples like Therac 25, and people listen in horror, then their takeaway is frequently "well thank god I don't work on medical equipment".
The fact that it's medical equipment is a distraction. All software can cause harm to others. All of it. You need to care about all of it.
- whycome 1y agoThat’s why the “died by suicide” language can be problematic. These people were driven by several factors and they were left with no choice.
- arrowsmith 1y ago"Driven to suicide" may be more accurate. And damning.
- jedimastert 1y agoJesus I desperately wish real ethics classes were required for computer science degrees
- lmm 1y agoThe best available evidence is that ethics classes reduce ethical behaviour.
- jedimastert 1y agoI'm going to need a source on that
- UK-AL 1y agoIn the UK they are I think? Well if they want to be BCS accredited.
- izacus 1y agoEthic classes are pointless without ethical liability and accountability of people causing suffering. Yes, even the Jira javascript ticket punchers hould be accountable for what they do.
- jedimastert 1y ago"ethics classes are useless because no one would willingly choose to act ethically" is an interesting stance to take...
- gblargg 1y agoTherac 25 is exactly what I thought of when reading this story. The software didn't have direct hardware control to kill patients with radiation, but it still resulted in thousands of victims.
- mbonnet 1y agoI work on satellites that are intended for use in missile tracking. If I fail in the software, it might not "kill people", but people will die due to the failures. Though, I used to work on fighter jets and SAMs. People do die due to my work.
- hotpocket777 1y ago[flagged]
- CamperBob2 1y ago(Shrug) Some people need killing.
- mousethatroared 1y agoLook your question is not unreasonable and the s answer is interesting, but your tone implies loathing and belittling. Which maybe we (I also work in "defense") deserve to burn in hell, but who are you to be self righteous? For example, if you ever put up a Ukraine flag sticker you'd be a hypocrite too.