Kismayo university
Faculty of computer stud
Course: computer ethics
lecture10 : Responsibility
Presented by: Ahmed Mohamed Elmi
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WHAT IS MORAL RESPONSIBILITY IN COMPUTING?
In the early 1980s Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL)
manufactured and sold a cancer radiation treatment
machine called the Therac-25, which relied on computer
software to control its operation. Between 1985 and
1987,theTherac-25caused the deaths of three patients and
serious injuries to three others(3).Who was responsible for
the accidents? The operator who administered the massive
radiation overdoses, which produced severe burns? The
software developers who wrote and tested the control
software, which contained several serious errors? The
system engineers who neglected to install the backup
hardware safety mechanisms that had been used in previous
versions of the machine? The manufacturer, AECL?
Government agencies? We can use the Therac-25 case to
distinguish among four different kinds of responsibility (4,5).
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Causal Responsibility
Responsibility can be attributed to causes: For
example, ‘‘the tornado was responsible for
damaging the house.’’ In the Therac-25 case,
the proximate cause of each accident was the
operator, who started the radiation treatment.
But just as the weather cannot be blamed for
a moral failing, the
Therac-25 operators cannot be blamed because
they followed standard procedures, and the
information displayed on the computer
monitors was cryptic and misleading.
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Role of Responsibility
An individual who is assigned a task or function is
considered the responsible person for that role. In this
sense, a foreman in a chemical plant may be
responsible for disposing of drums of toxic waste, even
if a forklift operator actually transfers the drums from
the plant to the truck. In the Therac-25 case, the
software developers and system engineers were
assigned the responsibility of designing the software
and hardware of the machine. In so far as their designs
were deficient, they were responsible for those
deficiencies because of their roles. Even if they had
completed their assigned tasks, however, their role
responsibility may not encompass the full extent of
their professional responsibilities
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Legal Responsibility
An individual or an organization can be legally
responsible, or liable, for a problem. That is, the
individual could be charged with a crime, or the
organization could be liable for damages in a civil law
suit. Similarly, a physician can be sued for mal
practice. In the Therac-25 case, AECL could have been
sued. One kind of legal responsibility is strict liability: If
a product injures someone, then the manufacturer of
the product can be found liable for damages in a
lawsuit, even if the product met all applicable safety
standards and the manufacturer did nothing wrong.
The principle of strict liability encourages
manufacturers to be careful, and it provides a way to
compensate victims of accidents.
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Moral Responsibility
Causal, role, and legal responsibilities tend to
be exclusive: If one individual is
responsible, then another is not. In
contrast, moral responsibility tends to be
shared: many engineers are responsible for
the safety of the products that they design,
not just a designated safety engineer.
Furthermore, rather than assign blame for a
past event, moral responsibility focuses on
what individuals should do in the future. In
the moral sense, responsibility is a virtue: A
‘‘responsible person’’ is careful,
6 considerate, and trustworthy; an
kismayo university 5/15/20
Moral Responsibility cont…………
Responsibility is shared whenever multiple individuals
collaborate as a group, such as a software development
team. When moral responsibility is shared, responsibility is
not atomized to the point at which no one in the group is
responsible. Rather, each member of the group is
accountable to the other members of the group and to
those whom the group’s work might affect, both for the
individual’s own actions and for the effects of their
collective effort. For example, suppose a computer network
monitoring team has made mistakes in a complicated
statistical analysis of network traffic data, and that these
mistakes have changed the interpretation of the reported
results. If the team members do not reanalyze the data
themselves, they have an obligation to seek the assistance
of a statistician who can analyze the data correctly.
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Moral Responsibility cont…………
Different team members might work with the statistician
indifferent ways, but they should hold each other accountable
for their individual roles in correcting the mistakes. Finally, the
team has a collective moral responsibility to inform readers of
the team’s initial report about the mistakes and the correction.
Moral responsibility for recklessness and negligence is not
mitigated by the presence of good intentions or by the absence
of bad consequences. Suppose a software tester neglects to
sufficiently test a new module for a telephone switching system,
and the module fails. Although the subsequent telephone
service outages are not intended, the software tester is morally
responsible for the harms caused by the outages. Suppose a
hacker installs a keystroke logging program in a deliberate
attempt to steal passwords at a public computer. Even if the
program fails to work, the hacker is still morally responsible for
attempting to invade the privacy of users.
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Moral Responsibility cont…………
An individual can be held morally responsible both for
acting and for failing to act. For example, a hardware
engineer might notice a design flaw that could result in a
severe electrical shock to someone who opens a
personal computer system unit to replace a memory
chip. Even if the engineer is not specifically assigned to
check the electrical safety of the system unit, the
engineer is morally responsible for calling attention to
the design flaw, and the engineer can be held
accountable for failing to act. Computing systems often
obscure accountability (5). In particular, in an embedded
system such as the Therac-25, the computer that
controls the device is hidden. Computer users seem
resigned to accepting defects in computers and software
that cause intermittent crashes and losses of data.
9 Errors inuniversity
kismayo code are called ‘‘bugs,’ ’regardless of whether
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they are minor deficiencies or major mistakes that could
WHAT ARE THE RESPONSIBILITIES
OF COMPUTING PROFESSIONALS?
Responsibilities to Clients and Users
Whether a computing professional works as a consultant to an individual
or as an employee in a large organization, the professional is obligated to
perform assigned tasks competently, according to professional standards.
These professional standards include not only attention to technical
excellence but also concern for the social effects of computers on
operators, users, and the public. When assessing the capabilities and
risks of computer systems, the professional must be candid: The
professional must report all relevant findings honestly and accurately.
When designing a new computer system, the professional must consider
not only the specifications of the client but also how the system might
affect the quality of life of users and others. For example, a computing
professional who designs an information system for a hospital and should
allow speedy access by physicians and nurses and yet protect patients’
medical records from unauthorized access; the technical requirement to
provide fast access may conflict with the social obligation to ensure
patients’ privacy.
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Computing professionals enjoy considerable freedom in
deciding how to meet the specifications of a computer
system. Provided that they meet the minimum
performance requirements for speed, reliability, and
functionality, within an overall budget, they may choose to
invest resources to decrease the response time rather
than to enhance a graphical user interface, or vice versa.
Because choices involve tradeoffs between competing
values, computing professionals should identify potential
biases in their design choices (6). For example, the
designer of a search engine for an online retailer might
choose to display the most expensive items first. This
choice might favor the interest of the retailer, to maximize
profit, over the interest of the customer, to minimize cost.
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Even moderately large software artifacts (computer programs)
are inherently complex and error-prone. Furthermore, software
is generally becoming more complex. It is therefore reasonable
to assume that all software artifacts have errors. Even if a
particular artifact does not contain errors, it is extremely
difficult to prove its correctness. Faced with these realities, how
can a responsible software engineer release software that is
likely to fail sometime in the future? Other engineers confront
the same problem, because all engineering artifacts eventually
fail. Whereas most engineering artifacts fail because physical
objects wear out, software artifacts are most likely to fail
because of faults designed in to the original artifact. The
intrinsically faulty nature of software distinguishes it from light
bulbs and I-beams, for example, whose failures are easier to
predict statistically.
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To acknowledge responsibilities for the failure of software artifacts,
software developers should exercise due
diligenceincreatingsoftware,andtheyshouldbeascandid as possible
about both known and unknown faults in the software—particularly
software for safety-critical systems, in which a failure can threaten the
lives of people. Candor by software developers would give software
consumers a better chance to make reasonable decisions about
software before they buy it (7). Following an established tradition in
medicine, Miller (8) advocates ‘‘software informed consent’’ as a way
to formalize an ethical principle that requires openness from software
developers. Software informed consent requires software developers
to reveal, using explanations that are understandable to their
customers,therisksoftheirsoftware,includingthelikelihoods of known
faults and the probabilities that undiscovered faults still exist. The
idea of software informed consent motivates candor and requires
continuing research into
methodsofdiscoveringsoftwarefaultsandmeasuringrisk.
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Responsibilities to Employers
Most computing professionals work for
employers. The employment relationship is
contractual: The professional promises to
work for the employer in return for a salary
and benefits. Professionals often have
access to the employer’s proprietary
information such as trade secrets, and the
professional must keep this information
confidential. Besides trade secrets, the
professional must also honor other forms of
intellectual property owned by the
employer: The professional does not have
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kismayo university
or
Every employee is expected to work loyally on behalf of the
employer. In particular, professionals should be aware of potential
conflicts of interest, in which loyalty might be owed to other
parties besides the employer. A conflict of interest occurs when a
professional is asked to render a judgment, but the professional
has personal or financial interests that may interfere with the
exercise of that judgment. For instance, a computing professional
may be responsible for ordering computing equipment, and an
equipment vendor owned by the professional’s spouse might
submit a bid. In this case, others would perceive
thatthemarriagerelationshipmightbiastheprofessional’s
[Link]’sequipmentwouldbethebest choice, the
professional’s judgment would not be trustworthy. In a typical
conflict of interest situation, the professional should recuse
herself: that is, the professional should remove herself and ask
another qualified person to make the decision.
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Many computing professionals have
managerial duties, and some are solely
managers. Managerial roles complicate the
responsibilities of computing professionals
because managers have administrative
responsibilities and interests within their
organizations in addition to their
professional responsibilities to clients and
the public.
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Responsibilities to Other Professionals
Although everyone deserves respect from everyone else,
when professionals interact with each other, they should
demonstrate a kind of respect called collegiality. For
example, when one professional uses the ideas of a
second professional, the first should credit the second. In
a research article, an author gives credit by properly citing
the sources of ideas from other authors in previously
published articles. Using these ideas without attribution
constitutes plagiarism. Academics consider plagiarism
unethical because it represents the theft of ideas and the
misrepresentation of those ideas as the plagiarist’s own.
Because clients cannot adequately evaluate the quality of
professional service, individual professionals know that
their work must be evaluated by other members of the
same profession. This evaluation, called peer review
occurs inuniversity
kismayo
both practice and research. Research in
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computing is presented at conferences and is published in
Because computing professionals work together, they must
observe professional standards. These standards of
practice are created by members of the profession or
within organizations. For example, in software
development, one standard of practice is a convention for
names of variables in code. By following coding standards,
a software developer can facilitate the work of a software
maintainer who Subsequently modifies the code. For many
important issues for which standards would be appropriate
theoretically, however, ‘‘standards’’ in software
engineering are controversial, informal, or nonexistent. An
example of this problems the difficulties encountered when
the IEEE and the ACM attempted to standardize a body of
knowledge for software engineering to enable the licensing
of software engineers
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Senior professionals have an obligation to mentor junior
professionals in the same field. Although professionals are
highly educated, junior members of a profession require
additional learning and experience to develop professional
judgment. This learning is best accomplished under the
tutelage of a senior professional. In engineering, to earn a P.E.
license, a junior engineer must work under the supervision of a
licensed engineer for at least four years. More generally,
professionals should assist each other in continuing education
and professional development, which are generally required for
maintaining licensure. Professionals can fulfill their obligations
to contribute to the profession volunteering. The peer review of
research publications depends heavily on volunteer reviewers
and editors, and the activities of professional associations are
conducted by committees of volunteers.
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Responsibilities to the Public
According to engineering codes of ethics, the
engineer’s most important obligation is to
ensure the safety, health, and welfare of
the public. Although everyone must avoid
endangering others, engineers have a
special obligation to ensure the safety of
the objects that they produce. Computing
professionals share this special obligation
to guarantee the safety of the public and to
improve the quality of life of those who use
computers and information systems.
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As part of this obligation, computing professionals should enhance
the public’s understanding of computing. The responsibility to
educate the public is a collective responsibility of the computing
profession as a whole; individual professionals might fulfill this
responsibility in their own ways. Examples of such public service
include advising a church on the purchase of computing equipment
and writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper about technical
issues related to proposed legislation to regulate the Internet. It is
particularly important for computing professionals to contribute
their technical knowledge to discussions about public policies
regarding computing. Many communities are considering
controversial measures such as the installation of Web filtering
software on public access computers in libraries. Computing
professionals can participate in communities’ decisions by
providing technical facts. Technological controversies involving the
social impacts of computers are covered in a separate article of
this encyclopedia.
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When a technical professional’s obligation of loyalty to the employer
conflicts with the obligation to ensure the safety of the public, the
professional may consider whistle-blowing, that is, alerting people outside
the employer’s organization to a serious, imminent threat to public safety.
Computer engineers blew the whistle during the development of the Bay
Area Rapid Transit (BART) system near San Francisco (9). In the early
1970s, three BART engineers became alarmed by deficiencies in the design
of the electronics and software for the automatic train control system,
deficiencies that could have endangered passengers on BART trains. The
engineers raised their concerns within the BART organization without
success. Finally, they contacted a member of the BART board of directors,
who passed their concerns to Bay Area newspapers. The three engineers
were immediately fired for disloyalty. They were never reinstated, even
when an accident proved their concerns were valid. When the engineers
sued the BART managers, the IEEE filed an amicus curiae brief on the
engineers’ behalf, stating that engineering codes of ethics required the
three engineers to act to protect the safety of the public. The next section
describes codes of ethics for computing professionals.
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