With great power comes great responsibility

30 Nov 2017

What is ethics?

Software engineers or any profession that have impacts on other people life need to have a code of ethics in which they can reply on to make a decision for their action. That decision needs to be based on their moral and humanity, not by what they were told or what make them feel pleased.
Although a software engineer doesn’t build a bridge or a car, but there are many bridges and cars out there are relied on computer software in order to operate, a small mistake in some lines of code can cause a serious damage to the product or worse, the human life. Therefore, software engineers should take their responsibility as serious as any other engineers whose works can affect others’ life either in a good or bad way.

ACM Code of Ethics

Each professional society of engineers adopts and enforces its own codes of practice. Computer science in general, we follow the ACM Code of Ethics to give us the basic idea about what we should and should not do. However, it’s strongly recommended that we should only use the code as a tool, a guidelines to practice, NOT a checklist in order to solve problems. The ACM Code of Ethics is not a programming code nor an algorithm, it contains words that were written based on the basic moral of humanity that everyone should know. Its purpose is to help software engineers to establish the foundation of their decision making that will help to develop a good judgement of their actions. On top of that foundation, we should build up with experience and consciousness. We should do what we feel like the right things to do, not just because others tell us that it’s right.

What is ACM Code of Ethics about?

Ethics is not only about avoid harm to other but also about how we contribute to the society and the world, how we change life of people who we knows and those who we never meet, and how we make the world somehow better than it wouldn’t have been without us.

Doing good is not something that matters only to missionaries, social workers and philanthropists. To live a ‘good life’ is to make a positive contribution to the world through your existence, to be able to say at the end of your life that in your short time here, you made the world at least somewhat better than it would have been without you in it.

Excellent doctors contribute health and vitality to their patients and medical knowledge to their interns and colleagues; excellent professors cultivate knowledge, insight, skill and confidence in their students and contribute the benefits of their research to the wider community; excellent lawyers contribute balance, fairness and intellectual vigor to a larger system of justice.

Computer Scientist

Creator of C language, Co-creator of Unix operating system. Nowadays, the C language is widely used today in application, operating system, and embedded system development, and its influence is seen in most modern programming languages. Unix has also been influential, establishing computing concepts and principles that have been widely adopted.

"When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die"

Computer scientist, mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher and theoretical biologist.

Alan Turing is considered by many to be the father of modern computer science as the world knows it. He invented the Turing machine which is the foundation of modern computer.

"Sometimes it's the people no one can imagine anything who do the things no one can imagine"

Who are we obligated to?

As a software engineer, we have to be responsible not only to the people who we interact with everyday like our employers, our family, our friends, our neighbors, but we are also responsible to all other people who is potentially impacted by our actions. A software engineer with strong ethics should never be shortsighted about his/her own actions. Making money is great; however, we should never put profit above the well-being of others. A decision to ignore the consequences of our action is not an ethical decision, and such decision is dangerous that should be avoided.

Why being ethical is important?

Being ethical is as important as being professional. A profession that is respected by the public must also have a strong ethics background. For example, the public give more respect to professions such as doctor or professor than to a salesperson or a retail clerk. The reason is not because lack of skill or experience because to become a good salesperson or a retail clerk must require some specialized skills to do their jobs. It’s all about trust.
In the public’s eyes, a doctor or a professor is someone they can trust. A sick person would trust a doctor with his life because he/she knows the doctor has made a commitment to save lives. And a student would trust his/her professor’s lectures because he/she knows that the professor has also made a commitment to share the knowledge that are well gathered throughout his/her life to the students. And trust is not something given for free, it has to be earned. A doctor earned trust for saving lives, a professor earned trusts for given valuable lesson, what about software engineer? As a software engineer, you should keep asking yourself this question. Reading ACM Code of Ethics may give some good hints.

How to practice to live and work ethically:

1. Self-Reflection/Examination:

If you ever admire someone who you want to become, you should learn to change and improve in a way that one day when you met them, they would also respect your actions and be proud of how your admiration to them has made you the person you’ve become.

2. Looking for Moral Exemplars:

Most people spend their time to judge other’s actions and despise other’s failure to feel good about themselves. However, they did not notice that by judging other’s action doesn’t make them become any better. Instead, they should learn to help, share the difficulties with others. Try to put themselves in their shoes, and learn to figure out how to overcome the difficulties together. These actions does not only help to improve our experience, but it also helps to enhance our social relationship with others.

3. Exercising our Moral Imagination:

If you have watched the Avengers: Civil War the movie, after their fight with the Ultron in Sokovia, many people considered them as heroes; however people who lost their loved ones in the batter of Sokovia has considered them as enemies. Anyway, my point is what seems to be a good intention isn’t always a good action without thinking about the consequences. That’s why you should exercise your moral imagination because sometimes, the things you do that seems to be harmless, could cause massive damage somehow somewhere down the road without your attention.

4. Acknowledging your own moral strength:

Practicing ethical actions would only make your life easier, but not the other way around. However, sometimes, practicing ethical actions requires a lot of strength and courage. It’s not easy to turn down a high-paying job or a good amount of money, but you should ask yourself that do you feel right about what you’re doing? And if you do it, what would be the consequences? Choosing what’s right is not easy, but that’s a decision that you would never have to regret.

5. Seeking the Company of Other Moral Persons:

Sometimes, seeking advices from friends who we trust and respect their moral also helps us from being isolated in the process of decision making. Advices from friends with moral character would also help to increase our chance of making the right decision.

Case Study: The man who saved the World

On Sept. 26, 1983, during the Cold War, in Soviet Russia Air Base, the computer displayed a signal that indicated detected five ballistic nuclear missiles were launched (potentially) by the United States and its allies, Stanislav Petrov was on duty that day and his job was to monitor the satellite system and report any potential threat, so the Soviet can response quickly.

Anyway, in his situation, Petrov understands how important his job is, and the consequences that could happen if he makes a mistake. (In this case, World War 3 may, would have happened). Therefore, although according to all the protocols what he was trained, he should have reported the missiles launching right away. However, under his consciousness, Petrov did not feel right. Why only 5 missiles? If the United States wants to destroy the Russian Air Base, they would need hundreds. It could be a computer error.
If he chose to report it, he knows a war could break out between the United States and the Soviet Russia, and so their allies. Hundred millions would die if he trust the computer system, but luckily he trusted his gut, and his gut tells him there is something wrong so it’s not right to react right away. And he was right, it was just a computer error that could have destroyed the World.