[ExI] [Extropolis] New project for EFF (maybe)

[Adrian Tymes]

I am not aware of any industry, save certain government institutions where
ethics (or lack thereof) demonstrably impacts performance, where there is
both a large labor force and enough workers who care about ethics to
meaningfully enforce ethics.

On Thu, Dec 14, 2023 at 3:26 PM Keith Henson via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> What I am proposing here is a cultural shift.
>
> I suspect programmers feel guilty about writing code to make things fail.
>
> If a substantial number of them said this is unethical and we won't do
> it, chances are the companies would quit asking.
>
> Companies are concerned about their reputation and being known as a
> company that forces programmers to do something considered unethical
> is not going to enhance their reputation.
>
> It's a long shot I know, but might be worth talking up.
>
> Keith
>
> On Thu, Dec 14, 2023 at 1:45 PM efc via extropolis
> <extropolis at googlegroups.com> wrote:
> >
> > Excellent idea Keith.
> >
> > Having a masters degree in philosophy, I'm a bit "damaged" so I always
> > make it a point to try and have a discussion with my students about the
> > ethics of technology and make them think about the world and future they
> > want to help shape through their technical work in the future.
> >
> > I think this is a conversation that should start early, and that
> > technologists should have often, but it is not enough.
> >
> > As long as you are dependent on a salary, and the ask seems relatively
> > small and insignificant, it is all too easy to choose the path of least
> > resistance and then justify it to yourself or just forget about it.
> >
> > Perhaps with some kind of organization helping out in some way, it might
> > make that choice a little bit easier on individuals who feel that they
> > have no other choice due to financial reasons.
> >
> > Best regards,
> > Daniel
> >
> >
> > On Thu, 14 Dec 2023, Keith Henson wrote:
> >
> > > Hi Cindy, John
> > >
> > > My response to an article on slashdot about hackers that removed the
> > > code that bricked trains.
> > >
> > > If there were social support, programmers could just refuse on ethical
> > > grounds to write the code that bricks a train or anything else.
> > >
> > > Long ago when I was faced with something similar, I was just fired.
> > > If there was an organization that made such behavior public in a way
> > > that seriously hurt the reputation of a company, they might think
> > > twice about such abuse.
> > >
> > > Would we have to start a new organization for programmers or is there
> > > an existing one that could take on this function?  The EFF comes to
> > > mind, but open to other suggestions.  I will ask the EFF if they would
> > > consider this.
> > >
> > > Keith
> > >
> > > Keith
> > >
> > >
> >
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