From the movie "Flash of Genius" about Robert Kearns, the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper:<p>"I can't think of a job or a career where the understanding of ethics is more important than engineering," Dr. Kearns continues. "Who designed the artificial aortic heart valve? An engineer did that. Who designed the gas chambers at Auschwitz? An engineer did that, too. One man was responsible for helping save tens of thousands of lives. Another man helped kill millions."<p>"Now, I don't know what any of you are going to end up doing in your lives," Dr. Kearns says, "but I can guarantee you that there will come a day when you have a decision to make. And it won't be as easy as deciding between a heart valve and a gas chamber."
I find it bit weird to derive any ethics from Star Wars.<p>All characters change sides way too often (first rebels, then republic/empire, then again rebels, then again republic...). Dart Vader commits genecide and destroys a few planets (including Leia's homeworld), but there is happy family reunion with Leia and Luck at the end... Jedis are good guys, but they never bother to send someone for Anakins mother, who is a slave...<p>I would not be surprised if Death Star construction was initiated during the Old Republic. The same way Clone Army was created by some Jedi guy.
To anyone who hasn't seen Rogue One yet... I think it's the best Star Wars movie since Empire. Worth your time. Amazing fast-paced character development and arcs (compare Star Wars to Suicide Squad if you really want to be impressed or see how badly it could have turned out), wonderful little cameos, rich visuals that show what the prequels could have been, and paramount a superbly written and acted story.<p>(Spoilers)<p>The ambiguous ethics of sending an assassin to kill Galen because The Rebellion didn't believe how he could leak truthful information (and keep this mission secret from Jyn in order to get her help locating her father) was especially well done. The concept of sides, Empire or Rebellion, being unclear to people until they join one was also woven in nicely -- normal people just want to go about their lives free from conflict.<p>The most hotly debated topic between me and my friends though wasn't about ethics, it was about if Donnie Yen's character was using The Force or not. (Of course he was, and in prior movies plenty of characters used The Force before becoming Jedis.)<p><a href="https://dorksideoftheforce.com/2016/04/08/rogue-one-a-star-wars-story-who-is-the-staff-wielder/" rel="nofollow">https://dorksideoftheforce.com/2016/04/08/rogue-one-a-star-w...</a><p>Rogue One's story certainly muddies the waters a bit, but the fact Star Wars is willing to embrace more complexity and a blurring of the lines is great for the franchise and mature fan base. Someone woke up and realized that the value of the Star Wars ins't just how many lunch boxes it can sell, they can make a buck telling compelling stories as well. #NoEwoks #NoGungan
Maybe this isn't entirely surprising given the audience, but it seems like most of the comments and discussions here prefer to deal with topics very much contained <i>within</i> the Starwars universe, rather than looking at the parallels the article raises between the moral choices faced by Galen and those faced by we Engineers today.
There's a dozen ways to interpret that I guess. I hope it speaks more to the fandom of Starwars rather than contemporary disregard for the discussion of ethics in engineering.
The most interesting part is: "Galen’s reflection on engineering could have come straight out of real-life engineering discussions of the 1970s. As the historian Matthew Wisnioski captures in his book “Engineers for Change”, many engineers were criticized during the Vietnam War for their role in developing major weapons systems. In the real world, Galen could have become a conscientious objector and left the project, but oftentimes engineers can choose to stay engaged and try to influence the project." <- influencing as euphemism of engineering sabotage of course.
I just saw this yesterday after being cajoled into it by my wife. I had very low expectations, and was pleasantly surprised at how misplaced they were. It was a lot more compelling than the rehashed installment from last year.
"I'm just doing my job" is EXACTLY IDENTICAL to "I'm just doing it for money."<p>I never understand why most people do not realize this and treat one as sacrosanct and an automatic moral dodge but the other as totally morally bankrupt even when people aren't being harmed.
Engineers talking about engineers that should act ethically is good, but self limiting, and even self defeating.<p>For every engineer that builds a terror weapon, every architect that builds a McMansion, every chef that brings out unhealthy food with not fresh ingredient, every school district that fails at educating kids adequately, there is someone with a checkbook that decides who/what gets paid for a goal. All bad or unethical product is ultimately possible because of someone writing the checkbook.<p>If one or even all engineers of an organization disagree and leave due to ethics, the checkbook writer will just go out and hire next batch of engineers.<p>In the fictional story or Star Wars, someone had money (or credits in Star Wars universe) to put the stormtroopers, Star Destroyers, Tie Fighters, a planet with beautiful tropical islands with sandy beaches and competent engineers (but often incompetent security force) to work at building the Death Star.<p>Sure the Emperor has the force to get it done, but in our life, someone gets to dictate what gets built with a checkbook.<p>So, discussing ethics in engineering is great, but even more important imho is, who writes the checks.
Before reading the article I saw the title and turned to my partner to discuss the ethics of engineering. I mentioned that the State is largely powerless without the technical prowess of engineers and that one of the key aspects of engineering is designing and building the machines that make <i>machines</i>.<p>Gavin the bread-maker might be good enough to build an individual tank through trial and error, but one tank isn't enough and a collection of hobbyists isn't enough to arm the State with a worthy arsenal. The hobbyist can build one or a few things, but it takes an engineer to build many. They are force-multipliers.<p>The discussion turned to game theory. I mentioned that perhaps Chartered Engineers should have something like the hippocratic oath, where they would collectively refuse to design things from casinos to war-machines - anything that has the potential to harm society. My partner, who has a background in history and law, suggested it was futile as the State would simply hold them to ransom, either for their family's lives or their own, guaranteeing cooperation from a considerable number.<p>She then suggested that a way of getting around these issues would be to design very subtle flaws, weaknesses or exploits that could only be known by an engineer intimately involved in the project. Funnily enough, that was exactly what the article focussed on: <i>After Krennic captures him, Galen later tells his daughter Jyn that he had a choice: he could have continued abstaining, and let someone else build the Death Star, or he could dive deep into the project, become indispensable to it, and find a way to stop it. He chooses to dive deep, and succeeds in building a subtle flaw in the Death Star design. Then 15 years later, he sends a messenger to the Rebellion informing them of the weapon’s existence, power and most importantly, its fatal flaw.</i>
Ethics should be taught on all levels. It's impossible to predict how a good invention of today would be twisted to serve an ulterior motive tomorrow. Can we get a universal understanding of right and wrong. Not sure. Isn't AK-47 the biggest killer today? That doesn't mean that world would be less bloody without it. More than engineers and inventors, people at large should be less violent. Can that be made possible through ethics? Religion is a way to do that but all it becomes eventually is superstition.
For many more variations on Star Wars in terms of the modern military, check out Angry Staff Officer's posts:<p><a href="https://angrystaffofficer.com/category/star-wars/" rel="nofollow">https://angrystaffofficer.com/category/star-wars/</a><p>One of my favorites is "Skywalker on Trial":<p><a href="https://angrystaffofficer.com/2016/07/11/skywalker-on-trial-the-galactic-code-of-military-justice/" rel="nofollow">https://angrystaffofficer.com/2016/07/11/skywalker-on-trial-...</a>
Related IRL, you can sign this pledge to refuse to build a Muslim registry: <a href="http://neveragain.tech/" rel="nofollow">http://neveragain.tech/</a>