THE UNIVERSITY OF

NEW SOUTH WALES

Lecture 5: Engineering as Social Experimentation I

(Chapter 3, Martin & Schinzinger, Ethics in Engineering)

Ethics & Electrical Engineering

Practice
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 Introduction
Objective:
Relate ethical theories to engineering practice
A useful perspective:
View engineering activities as social experiments:
Engineers create experimental situations through innovation
Society participates in these experiments as subjects
Uncertainty about outcomes implies risk:
Important to identify & quantify risks where possible
Decision makers may make biased decisions unless
accountable for (uncertain) outcomes
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 Roles of experimenter & subject
Ethical issues for engineers as experimenters:
Duties to experimental subjects
Rights of experimental subjects
Assessment of costs & benefits of the experiment
Relationship between experimenter & subject:
Legal framework:
Legal obligations on experimenter, but these may not
address innovative situations
Codes of ethics:
Primary responsibility lies with the experimenter
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 The Engineering Process
Concept

Engineering: Corporate
Design context:
Produce Timepressure
Install Costpressure
Operate Secrecy

Intendedoutcomes: Externalcontext:
Usersatisfaction Uncertainty
Companyprofits Legalframework
Socialimpacts
Unintendedoutcomes
Environmentalimpacts
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 Examples
Computers:
Developed & adopted over about three decades
Significant impacts on society:
Not well understood or nor always predicted, e.g:
The Y2K bug
However largely accepted as a positive technology
Nuclear power stations
Developed & adopted over about three decades
Significant impacts on society:
Not well understood nor always predicted, eg. Chernobyl
Widespread concern & installed capacity in decline
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Experimental attributes of engineering
Incomplete understanding of implications:
Insufficient time or money
Commercial advantage (desire for secrecy)
Uncertainty about impacts (sometimes unknowable)
Participation of experimental subjects:
Products or services often target non-engineers
Subjects share responsibility if voluntarily accept risk
Reasons for monitoring outcomes:
Commercial purposes (e.g. product improvement)
Precautionary purposes (e.g. manage risk)
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 Nature of subjects & impacts
Subjects:
Individual consumers, groups or society as a whole:
Those who can make informed choices, and
Those requiring advocates:
Disadvantaged, future generations, other species & the
environment
Impacts:
Health, safety & the environment
Changes to social structure & social status:
Income & wealth distribution
Lifestyles & personal empowerment
Education,
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Features of engineering experiments
Absence of a control group ( equivalent non-
participants):
Products & services usually offered to all
Benefits may such that they cant be withheld from
a particular group
Society may have little prior understanding:
Innovative products & services
Uncertainty in future impacts (positive or negative)
Informed judgements are difficult to make:
For both experimenter and subject
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 Informed consent
Stakeholders:
Experimental subjects, experimenters, others who
can affect the outcome, or may be affected by it
Stakeholders have a right to informed consent:
A voluntary & conscious decision made on the basis
of all relevant information
Issues:
Identification of stakeholders (present & future)
Adequacy of information
Decision making opportunity & capability
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 Issues for informed consent
Voluntary participation not always possible, eg:
Technology that has widespread effects on the public:
For example, the Y2K bug
Future generations or citizens of other countries
Stakeholders may be hard to identify, eg:
Those affected by the Chernobyl nuclear accident
Proxy group can represent unknown
stakeholders:
Adequate diversity & information
Adequate decision making competence
Strongly
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 Current examples
Consideration of an Australian Republic:
Constitutional convention, referendum
Introduction of genetically modified (GM) foods:
Companies have not always revealed GM ingredients
Legal requirements under development
Electromagnetic radiation from cellular phones:
Some companies provide information, headphones
Telephone caller ID:
Defaults on but off would allow informed consent
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 Summary
Engineering is a form of social experimentation:
Innovation with social & environmental impacts
Uncertainty & risk in outcomes
Stakeholders have a right to informed consent:
Information, opportunity, decision making capability
Problems in implementation:
Lack of a control group & corporate pressures
Difficulty in identifying stakeholders
Irreducible uncertainty

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