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The Conscience of Computing Professionals: a Code of Ethics - Prof. Don Gotterbarn — Transcript

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0:11i take a positive
0:12rule one i take a positive approach to
0:15codes of ethics
0:16i'm going to make assertions that are
0:18not going to necessarily follow these
0:19slides so i'll try and stay in the time
0:21frame it's a mistake if you think that
0:24the function of a code of ethics in its
0:25primary business is to use as a whip to
0:27hurt people
0:29or to take care of people who are quite
0:32bad
0:33i have a phd in philosophy so i'm going
0:35to give you the answer to the question
0:37that aristotle could never answer
0:40that is what is ethics and ethics as far
0:43as i understand it and codes of ethics
0:45related to professions in computing and
0:47science
0:48is fairly simple it's that behavior
0:52that we can consciously make that has
0:54positive or negative impacts on society
0:58and its citizens and the environment and
1:00so on
1:01there generally is two kinds of ethics
1:03that people talk about
1:05one is a kind of minimalism where you
1:07say well i'm ethical because i'm not
1:10hurting anyone
1:10well i can applaud everyone in this room
1:12because you're all sitting there and not
1:14hurting anyone and therefore you're
1:15doing something ethical
1:17because you've got on okay there's a
1:20much
1:21tougher other side which is the really
1:24fun
1:24side of computing which says i can
1:27actually
1:28prevent harm maybe actually do some
1:31positive things
1:32and that sometimes get labeled as
1:34ethical idealism okay
1:36so we've got this kind of thing where
1:38i'm okay i'm not hurting anybody
1:40or it's my goal to move things forward
1:42now when we talk about a profession
1:44that concept comes has its roots back in
1:47medieval culture where
1:49um priests joined monasteries and
1:52professed allegiance
1:54and part of this professional
1:58professionalism that they had was they
2:00professed a certain kind of service to
2:02vows of poverty and things like this
2:05and they are the people who preserved
2:07education things of that sort
2:09now one of the things that happens is
2:12as a result of being the person who
2:16has special connection with the
2:19information
2:20and has special kinds of knowledge you
2:23get some responsibilities
2:25and you get some rights and we can talk
2:28about
2:29ethics from this generic picture that i
2:32gave you
2:33and parse it up i look at it at
2:35basically three kinds of levels
2:38there's a kind of ethics we have as
2:40citizens where uh
2:41we act nicely toward one another we
2:44don't hurt other people
2:45and things of that sort then as
2:48professionals when you have special
2:50kinds of skills and so on any profession
2:52medicine law
2:54whatever part of the theory is that what
2:57they do
2:58promotes the goodness of society and
3:01you're given a kind of control over
3:04things
3:05because you promise to use your
3:08knowledge in the service of society
3:10okay then he's looking for the mouse
3:14that isn't here
3:16then
3:24okay then what happens
3:27is um when you work in different
3:29professions
3:30there are different particular laws okay
3:33so we can take this and we can say
3:35here's a way of building up there's the
3:38core values where these things are
3:41common
3:42very important phrase here across
3:45cultures
3:47people don't want to hurt other people
3:49in general
3:51people value their respect for one
3:54another
3:55people value the ability to do things
3:57and so on these are called core values
3:59and they cross
4:00cultures you distract from
4:04aside you distract from anything you're
4:06doing in ethics if you spend your time
4:08using phrases like multicultural
4:11the fact that somebody doesn't want to
4:13shake you with their shape with left
4:14hand rather than right hand
4:16has nothing to do with whether you want
4:18to do testing when you're engineering a
4:20product
4:21no matter which hand they shake with no
4:23matter which dna they bow to
4:27if they're software developers they talk
4:29about yes testing is important
4:31okay so there's common core values then
4:34there's
4:34the things where because you're a
4:36professional you bear more
4:37responsibility than the average person
4:39in the street
4:41what happens is if we're walking down
4:42the street and there's someone who gets
4:44injured
4:44if i'm walking there and a doctor's
4:46walking there i should keep my hands in
4:48my pockets while the doctor does his
4:50thing
4:50or help the doctor right the doctor has
4:53a special kind of responsibility
4:56and then there's the specific elements
4:58so okay
5:00bottom level us humanity there's a set
5:03of core values
5:04if you're talking about a code of ethics
5:06every code of ethics
5:08can have certain kinds of common values
5:11in them where you protect life happiness
5:13human freedom
5:14ability to do different kinds of things
5:17security
5:18opportunity to do things autonomy and so
5:20on
5:21now when you talk about this set of core
5:23values i have this funny word harm over
5:25there
5:26because on the first or second slide i
5:29talked about
5:31um ethical idealism
5:35and ethical minimalism and use the word
5:37harm
5:38and when i use the word harm most people
5:41when they hear those things
5:42think of physical harm so i've got to be
5:45careful in building the car
5:46and so on but if this view about
5:50core values that any sustainable culture
5:52has these core values
5:55then if you do something to diminish
5:58them
6:00you're causing harm okay
6:03so this is a slightly expanded notion of
6:05harm
6:07so anything you do to diminish people's
6:08freedom and ability and so on
6:10now of course there's trade-offs that
6:12you have to make in tough decisions all
6:14the time but
6:15so here we have these core values now
6:17when you talk about professionalism
6:19that next level up that also should be
6:22in your codes of ethics
6:25where part of the thing that you're
6:26doing is saying
6:28i as a professional will work in a
6:30certain way
6:32with you when i do things and then you
6:35specific things in codes methods i will
6:38try and do
6:38positive things okay and so
6:42you give me some autonomy in choosing
6:44what i would do and how i design
6:46things there's a certain level of trust
6:49here
6:50but what happens is it's really a social
6:52contract because
6:54the people are saying doctor i'll let
6:57you decide what the rules of doctorhood
6:59are
7:00if you use doctoring for my well-being
7:04and that's the trade-off and we tend not
7:06to think about that
7:08when we talk about professionalism aside
7:11i personally get upset at a lot of the
7:14things i'm seeing going on
7:16in large government reports from
7:19people on one side of the atlantic that
7:22has multiple countries there
7:24and in their reports they say that they
7:26want to do professionalism
7:28one of the two reasons for doing
7:30professionalism and an interest in it
7:32is to increase the gross product
7:36to improve the economy and that's
7:39the least important in my humble opinion
7:43okay so then we have this notion that
7:46you have this higher order of care it's
7:48a fancy name that goes
7:49um with professional service
7:53professionalism again unlike some of the
7:56stuff you're going to see in next week's
7:59discussion with the european union
8:00meeting that you see in some of the
8:02european union reports
8:04it's not its function is not to be
8:07self-serving
8:09okay it's to be other servant
8:13all right uh repeating yourself but
8:16profit is not the primary motivator
8:19when we talk about professionalism
8:22ethics
8:23is fundamental to professionalism okay
8:28when we talk about it being fundamental
8:30to professionalism one of the problems
8:32that
8:33we're now having i have this image of a
8:36wheel
8:37with spokes and a nice rim that moves
8:39smoothly
8:42that wheel the rim that moves smoothly
8:45and moves on
8:46is society we're
8:49talking about professionalism as
8:51learning technical skills
8:54we're going to make you a professional
8:55we have this school that will teach you
8:57c
8:57plus plus and when you graduate you'll
8:59be a c plus plus professional
9:01no you won't you'll have a technical
9:02skill and it's like having a pile of
9:04spokes
9:06every bubble we're going to give you
9:08this other language and it says other
9:10spoke and they're useless what happens
9:13is
9:14the way you use these skills
9:18is what impacts society
9:21and so my image of the wheel is
9:24there's this hub that has particular
9:27shape
9:28things for how your programming
9:30languages will go in and go out there
9:32how your project management will go on
9:34and so on and that's what makes the
9:36wheel
9:37a perfect circle so it rolls and if you
9:40don't bring ethics into this and you
9:42just consider this heap of spokes
9:44you've made a mistake in my humble
9:47opinion
9:48when we talk about professional values
9:50that you may include in a code
9:52uh these are values that are listed in
9:55almost every code
9:56be impartial disclose information others
9:58ought to know respect rights and so on
10:01uh this analysis was done by queen his
10:05ethics book
10:06where he goes through several codes okay
10:10codes of ethics um everybody seems to
10:14want to have a different one
10:16everybody uh austria for example
10:18currently
10:21um the european union wants a european
10:24union version
10:25and what the heck is different about
10:27european union software development
10:30versus malaysian software development
10:32okay
10:33i've given these talks talks like this
10:35all over the world
10:37and it's the same set of facts about the
10:40way you do things
10:42um you a code of ethics now here's this
10:46thing we're going to talk about a code
10:47of ethics
10:48okay one of the things the code of
10:51ethics does
10:52is to teach society it actually
10:54instructs them
10:56about what they can expect from us
10:59that's letting them know
11:00about what the part of the social
11:02contract is
11:04i'm going to be honest with you i'm not
11:07going to cheat on the tests
11:09if i find something's wrong i'm going to
11:11let you know about it i'm going to do
11:12whistleblowing
11:14one of the things that's happened is in
11:16this software engineering code of ethics
11:18that i developed one of the amazing
11:20things to me was
11:21you started getting translations from
11:23all over the world
11:25from china from japan from italy from
11:27croatia where people wanted to adopt
11:29this for
11:30their computing society now what happens
11:33is
11:34self-interest gets in the way and they
11:36take what they like from it and modify
11:38their code and stick it in so it now
11:40becomes
11:41the croatian computer society code or
11:43the australian computer society code
11:46but it's still taking those principles
11:48and incorporating them
11:49okay a code of ethics
11:53is a tool for us because it helps us
11:56make tough decisions if your code of
11:58ethics doesn't do that
12:00it's making a mistake now some people
12:03think in order to make decisions
12:05what they have to do is to list
12:08everything saying you must do mutation
12:11testing when you have this type of thing
12:13you must do path testing when you have
12:15this type of thing
12:16that's wrong that's building the earlier
12:20you're building a code of ethics for
12:24social media or your building
12:26and social media is going to change
12:27tomorrow what you need in a code of
12:30ethics is
12:31here's the things you ought to be doing
12:33this is what you
12:35look to try and do okay
12:38and so when we talk about a code of
12:41ethics it ought to help you do a couple
12:43of things
12:44here's some simple list of skills you
12:46want to get that you ought to be able to
12:48have come out of a code of ethics you
12:50read the code of ethics in order to help
12:52you think about some things you didn't
12:54before
12:55that is identify some problems maybe
12:57identify the causes of those issues
13:00think about what some alternative
13:01actions are
13:03and then actually select workable
13:05solutions for these
13:06now sometimes it may be a fancy moral
13:08solution sometime it may be a technical
13:11solution or something
13:13okay um this is a repeat
13:17uh i've already brought this in
13:22when you annette when you do analysis of
13:24the impact of an action
13:26one of the things you've got to do is
13:28start to consider the stakeholders
13:30outside of the profession sometimes
13:33professions in their codes of ethics
13:36limit who's going to be considered
13:39i know of one country computer societies
13:42one country computer society code of
13:44ethics
13:45that has the only stakeholders being the
13:48customer and the developer
13:50and not the people who are impacted by
13:52the explosion in the airbag
13:54or the way in which you change the
13:55street lights and traffic flows and so
13:57on
13:59what you need to do is to provide
14:03direction to people that is fundamental
14:06principles rather than
14:08detailed individual sentences
14:12it needs to inspire you to think about
14:14who's infected by your work
14:17whether you're treating other human
14:19beings outside of your profession
14:21with a proper respect and who's going to
14:25be empowered by your decisions
14:27okay codes of ethics
14:31are not primarily about prohibited
14:34actions
14:35they're there to encourage you and
14:37direct you
14:39codes of ethics get clumsy when they
14:42start to explain things
14:44about what all of the due process laws
14:46are that belongs in a separate document
14:48if you're going to say you're thrown out
14:50of the society
14:51they should encourage us to do good
14:55and see our actions as contributing to a
14:58broader society
15:01when we have a code of ethics it's a
15:03code of ethics
15:04i know each country has its codes of
15:06ethics but if you really start to look
15:08at them
15:09and you start to look at the different
15:10societies and what they're doing
15:12they're all pushing the same thing
15:15let's do a good job let's experience
15:18some of the excitement of computing
15:21and do positive things
15:24okay um
15:27and that's my story on codes of ethics
15:31ever so briefly
15:34thank you very much

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