The Ethics of Software

The Ethics of Software

1. Advances in parallel computing mean Internet traffic can be monitored in real time and illicit activity automatically detected.

   • wireless communications

2. How are software engineers to understand the social and ethical challenges of such advances?

   • It recommends behavior such as having good documentation, rejecting bribery, and refraining from the use of illegal software.

3. Computer systems are designed and implemented to support human purposeful activity

   • its success lies in the extent to which it enables others to engage in activities directed toward a goal.

4. At the heart of a service ethics is the development of empathy—the virtue of putting ourselves in other’s shoes, of learning about their environment and concerns.

   • This requires immersion in the client’s world, and seeing ourselves not as technicians, but as servants of human purposeful activity developing an ethics-in-use.