Computing's social obligation

Abstract

The cover of the August issue of Communications of the ACM showcases Harvard's impressive experiment integrating ethics throughout its undergraduate computer science curriculum [6]. Anyone currently grappling with exploding enrollments must applaud Harvard's deliberate use of resources to broaden CS education beyond its traditional technical components. In a similar vein, ACM recently updated its professional code of ethics, calling on CS professionals to acknowledge "all people are stakeholders" and to "ensure that the public good is the central concern during all professional computing work," [1] possibly adding to the pressure many in CS education may be feeling to 'up their game' when it comes to their programs' attention to ethics. Unsurprisingly, doing ethics in CS can seem like yet another requirement tasked to an already overburdened system. If one is operating under constraints, perhaps limited by shortages in money and personnel, ethics, or put another way, instilling concern for computing's impact on society, starts to seem like a luxury: something that we all agree is valuable and that would be nice to have if we can afford it. But, what happens if learning about ethics is just as fundamental to software engineering as procedural abstraction or just as crucial to data science as learning to avoid spurious correlation?

A Comparative Study on the Ethical Responsibilities of Key Role Players in Software Development

“…However, some researchers have claimed that some software engineers have not "smelled the coffee yet", as they still do not take responsibility, and instead continue to defer the blame to others. For example, to evade responsibility, some engineers say that there are "too many people" and "too many decisions", according to Herkert et al [27], that "it's a bug" or "computer error", according to Gotterbarn [10], and "I am just an engineer", according to Trim [30]. These are good examples of negative responsibility, as characterised by [10].…”

Perspectives on adherence to ethics standards and behaviour in software development

“…Once again, this was an indication that software engineers fell short of all forms of standards. One protectionism narrative commonly advanced by ethically complicit software engineers is that "I am just an engineer" [10]. This indicates that consideration of ethical standards is a burden on their already excessive technical responsibilities, therefore implying that they cannot be blamed for ethical lapses.…”