Ethical Engineering
summary
Engineers' design choices amplify to millions and carry real harm: hardware and software failures like the Challenger O-ring and the Therac-25 radiation bug cause death, data practices expose people (Twitter strips EXIF GPS, curl author denied entry), and features intended to prevent fraud become tools for suppression — e.g. Uber shadow-banning and internal God mode. Concrete mitigations matter: raise risks early, refuse dangerous rollouts, redact small cohorts (<100), encrypt/store minimally, and build technical safeguards (remote gun locks, smart-hammer airbags) rather than shrugging "just because you can."
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chapters (20)
- 0:00Intro
- 0:21About me
- 1:20Audience participation
- 1:56What is ethics
- 3:32Absolute morality
- 5:27Relative morality
- 6:53Individualism
- 7:36utilitarianism
- 8:54Cookie Monster
- 10:13Human Rights
- 12:52Trolley Problem
- 14:02Train Problem
- 20:18Our Responsibility
- 22:13Challenger
- 24:13Uber
- 26:56Guns
- 31:27Data Protection
- 36:54Social Media
- 40:37Whistleblowing
- 41:51Final Thought Experiment
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