Other Software > Developer's Corner
Ethics in Technology
anandcoral:
Sorry for late reply. Was taking care of my ailing wife, my first priority. She is recovering now.
So I can't see where a customer request for a feature would make your company cross an ethical line. So I could be wrong or missing something. But I'm still curious. :huh:
-40hz (September 23, 2015, 11:26 AM)
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Yes it is difficult to say if it can be called ethically wrong. It all depends on the side of the line where one is standing.
I can not say about the real projects, for obvious reasons. All the work the software does fulfills the rules of the accounting books. Just for hint I give below as example.
Compamy X pays a big amount in cheque to Organisation Y which has tax benefit. Then Y encash the cheque and pays back cash to X after deducting some percentage. Now in the books of Y there is a big cash amount. The software auto generates expenses as per rules and the account is closed.
The above is practised all over the world and not considered wrong. But if you see the larger impact, it do not seem ethically right.
May be I am wrong.
Regards,
Anand
Renegade:
I've refused to do jobs because they were egregiously unethical. They would have paid a LOT... sigh... Conscience has a price.
I thought this would make good food for discussion from a higher level (no politics in this, please to keep it above ground).
-wraith808 (September 21, 2015, 06:43 PM)
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Ethics are problematic and eventually degenerate into screaming matches, so it's one of those areas where tact is needed, and a sense for knowing when to just bow out.
For VW, I'm not particularly disturbed by anything they did. But, I don't buy that they have any kind of ethical obligation to obey arbitrary/dubious laws. (I have zero faith in any kind of environmental legislation/regulation as it is too often used abusively.)
What nobody will ask is whether or not the regulations that VW violated are ethical.
The question of ethics should focus on whether the actual emissions are ethical/unethical, and not on any law.
tl;dr - If you're using the law as a measure for morality, you're gonna have a bad time.
tomos:
For VW, I'm not particularly disturbed by anything they did. But, I don't buy that they have any kind of ethical obligation to obey arbitrary/dubious laws. (I have zero faith in any kind of environmental legislation/regulation as it is too often used abusively.)
What nobody will ask is whether or not the regulations that VW violated are ethical.
The question of ethics should focus on whether the actual emissions are ethical/unethical, and not on any law.
-Renegade (September 28, 2015, 11:21 PM)
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another aspect is that, because they have lied and deceived, they will lose a lot of sales.
Re the regulations, having cycled for years in a very busy inner city, I can tell you this:
you cannot filter out diesel fumes. I grew to hate them so much. I had high quality masks/filters, but apparently the only way to block diesel fumes is to block air completely. I've read that they are a proven carcinogenic.
I dont know what the regulations are like in the States, so cant comment specifically about them. But regulating diesel emmisions seems like a very good idea to me.
Judging by this action by VW, the motor industry wouldn't give a toss, if not for the regulations. Unfortunately, I suspect that many (most?) drivers wouldnt care either, but maybe I'm just being cynical there...
Renegade:
Judging by this action by VW, the motor industry wouldn't give a toss, if not for the regulations.
-tomos (September 29, 2015, 05:21 AM)
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That's what I'm curious about. There are positive market forces that provide incentives for auto manufacturers to create cleaner engines. There are also unrealistic regulations that go past the point of diminishing returns, which creates a burden for the manufacturers and drives up prices for consumers. Somewhere in that broad spectrum there are balances for different needs.
But as to whether or not the industry would respond to consumer demand... I'm a bit less cynical than you there. I think most people want clean energy and clean devices/machines/engines, so there would be that segment for cleaner engines in the same way that Volvo built itself on safety.
40hz:
I think this pretty accurately reflects the general mindset in most of the larger corporate world:
Which, to be fair, is really no different than most of the mindset in the non-corporate world.
As my grandfather used to say: Most people are all for doing what's right - as long as it doesn't cost or inconvenience them too much. ;)
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