"I am a computer scientist/engineer" is NOT an excuse for overlooking the social and ethical implications of technology. If this is a dominant attitude, then we need to completely rethink the ways we train technologists, and how we describe what it means to be one.
This "I'm just an engineer" example is also the SECOND time that we've seen this recently - the first being re: the tech that can clearly be used to create fake news video. I guess it's a good thing some of us are working on better data science ethics education because damn.
You can also think of a failure to think through consequences not as one of failing to think ethically, but of failing to think speculatively. In some ways, I feel that we need to be teaching students to be both more imaginative and more cynical.
I'm getting a lot of "this is why we need ethics classes as part of computer science!" in response to this tweet, and as a reminder IT IS in many cases (see my pinned tweet re: a giant spreadsheet!) but that doesn't mean it's being taught well or being internalized.
And my tweet about rethinking how we train and describe technologists wasn't a suggestion for more ethics classes - it was a suggestion that we make it clear that being a computer scientist or engineer AUTOMATICALLY MEANS that you're someone who considers social consequences.
All I want is for there to be a pervasive understanding that if you are not someone who thinks through the consequences and ethics of your work, you're a really crappy computer scientist/engineer/technologist.
This tweet got around yesterday, and the responses have been interesting. One important point is that I'm not saying "make them take ethics classes" (though that could be part of a solution), but rather that we need to change the NORMS around what it means to be an engineer.
I'm also hearing "Everything is risky! We still use FIRE and CARS." Yes, very true. But we also have smoke alarms and seat belts. I'm not saying "There might be harm, SHUT DOWN ALL THE ML RESEARCH!!!" I'm saying "There might be harm, maybe think about how to mitigate it."
Can I use RTs as a measure of impact in a field in my tenure packet?
