Consequences of Computing:
A Framework for Teaching
Importance of the Dimensions - Page 16 of 36
All technologies are used in a world where consumers, users, and the public rely on them to work well. Since error-free design is both impossible to achieve and to measure, computer professionals must become familiar with the inevitable risks associated with technology. But to simply say computer professionals are responsible to produce safe products is not to provide much guidance to people making design decisions under deadline. Careful ethical reflection can help to untangle what is meant by 'responsible', how that responsibility is shared and allocated among designers, users, buyers, etc., and what actions and powers are associated with responsibility. For instance, when medical technology harms patients, who is "responsible" for this harm? Answering this question entails at least separating legal from moral and ethical responsibility. But it also requires analyzing designer's responsibility for being aware of the conditions under which their designs were used, and their responsibility for correcting errors (and perhaps seeking out errors) when they are reported [35, 39].
Only computer professionals who are aware of the complexities of professional responsibility can begin to see their way through them. Simplistic answers ( e.g. "it was legal") often obscure the real issues. Designers of safety critical systems will always have to make choices and tradeoffs in design and implementation. Some acquaintance with the ethical dimensions of these choices and practice in identifying and evaluating the ethical issues will make for more thoughtful and informed design decisions.
Property rights
Even the straightforward issues in the area of property rights are not
as simple as they seem. The ACM code of ethics pledges its members to respect copyright and
other property laws, and in some cases (e.g. a company making multiple copies of a word
processing program to avoid paying for one for every secretary) it is easy to determine that a
harm has been done. But what do we mean by harm in an age when technology makes information
infinitely reproducible without degradation of the original? Is software a service or a
product that can be owned? Even the law on patent, trade secrecy, and copyright is mutating
to conform to the new technology, and computer professionals who are unaware of the legal and
ethical issues are likely to stumble across these issues in even simple design and
implementation issues. Thus, careful consideration of both the legal and ethical issues
involved in property rights is now essential to the training of computer professionals.
Although students should surely be informed of the law in these matters, they also need to practice careful thought regarding property rights. Since opinions vary from culture to culture, and from technology to technology, computer professionals need practice in reasoning about property rights in a manner that avoids both simple legalism and naive relativism. Good training in this area will allow computer professionals to contribute to public policy debate from informed practice.
