While advances in science and technology have a positive impact on human life, they can also lead to negative impacts, such as military weapons and environmental degradation. To prevent this, engineers need to be ethically responsible, and universities should strengthen engineering ethics education so that engineers can make the right decisions.
Today is the age of science and technology. Science and technology are closely related to our lives, and they allow us to live in abundance. On the other hand, it also threatens humanity by creating military weapons, environmental degradation, and safety accidents. In such a double-edged sword, engineers who develop technology in a technological society need something more than technology. That something is engineering ethics, and universities need to strengthen their education in this area. Here’s why.
First, engineering ethics education contributes to the public discussion of organizational issues. This can reduce technological catastrophes. More engaged engineers who are not just technicians will consider the social impact and ramifications of what they do, and a culture where they feel free to speak up and discuss even negative outlooks. The importance of this culture is illustrated by the Challenger disaster. In 1986, the manned spacecraft Challenger, carrying seven people, exploded in midair 73 seconds after launch. The explosion was caused by a rubber component called an O-ring that lost its elasticity at low temperatures and failed to do its job. This single technical glitch ended humanity’s costly dream of going into space. But the reason this tragedy is still haunting many people today is not simply because a manned spacecraft exploded, or because humanity’s dreams were dashed. It’s because this technological disaster was already foreseen by some engineers. At the time, Tyocall engineer Roger Boisley had discovered a technical flaw in the O-ring and raised the issue, but was ignored by management and his fellow engineers. In particular, his fellow engineers technically agreed with his O-ring problem but disagreed with his request to postpone the launch. This was because there was an unspoken culture of not doing anything that would disappoint the president and damage the company’s image. If his fellow engineers had actively agreed with Roger Boisgary and asked for the launch to be postponed, the outcome would have been different. For management, a single engineer’s request to postpone a launch could be ignored, but a group of engineers’ requests would have been harder to ignore. Similarly, a culture of objective discussion and debate within an organization, not just about what sounds good, but also about what sounds bad, can prevent technical disasters. To create such a culture, individual engineers need to be familiar with the concepts of anticipating the potential impact of their work and being able to resist it when it is socially negative. This is the core content of engineering ethics, so educating engineers on ethics can help create the right culture to prevent technological catastrophes.
Second, engineering ethics education can address issues of loyalty and collective responsibility. The loyalty problem refers to the contradiction between an individual’s interests and the interests of society. Generally speaking, belonging to an organization creates a sense of loyalty to that organization. Even if the safety of a company’s product is flawed, it’s considered a breach of loyalty to disclose it to the outside world. Such was the case with the Challenger disaster. The reason his fellow engineers didn’t join Roger Boyserly in calling for a delayed launch was because they felt it was loyal to the company to ignore the faulty O-ring and not tarnish the company’s image externally. This loyalty issue implies that engineers are blindly loyal to the organization they work for. This is an important issue in engineering ethics because engineers often do what others tell them to do, and the ramifications of technological developments are unpredictable. However, an individual’s loyalty is not limited to the company. There are also loyalties to society and the state. However, most people will prioritize their loyalty to the company. Compared to the abstract society or country, the company is a tangible organization. When there is no engineering ethics, loyalty to society is weakened, but when ethics is strengthened through ethics education, engineers’ loyalty to society is strengthened and they are not blindly loyal to the company. This lack of blind allegiance to profit-driven companies can help them oppose the development of catastrophic technologies that pose a threat to humanity, such as chemical and nuclear weapons. It also solves the problem of collective responsibility, which sometimes seems to follow the law of conservation of energy. The more people involved, the less individual responsibility there is. Collective responsibility refers to a situation where responsibility is shared by a large number of people and no one wants to take responsibility for an event. When an engineering problem occurs in a large organization, the engineers in that organization often blame others and don’t feel they are at fault. This makes accountability unclear and makes it take a long time to fix the problem at its root. But when ethics are in place, people feel more accountable, which prevents them from trying to pass the buck. In a culture where people are willing to admit their problems, information exchange is more open, accountability is clearer, and the root cause of problems can be found more quickly, creating an efficient feedback system.
Third, engineering ethics education instills a sense of responsibility in engineers. The problems engineers face are diverse, and how to solve them involves specialized skills and knowledge. In some cases, the problems are so specialized that it is difficult for laypeople and even other engineers to recognize them. In addition, today’s technology has reached a point where it threatens the survival of humanity. For example, there are many potentially threatening technologies, such as nuclear power plants and electromagnetic waves from electronic devices. If engineers continue to develop technologies recklessly in such an advanced and technologically advanced society, the future of humanity could be seriously threatened. The technologies that engineers work with can have a tremendous impact on humanity, and the development of science and technology must be carefully guided to create the right society. To do this, engineers need to be responsible for what they do, and engineering ethics education helps build this sense of responsibility. Engineers’ responsibility and good ethics are required in a variety of situations, not just in cases of extreme damage such as the Challenger disaster and ozone depletion. For example, if a government official who is an engineer has to choose between the better products of Company A and Company B and is bribed by Company A, or if a company receives funding to build a time machine but knows that the time machine is impossible, should the company continue to receive the funding?
In this way, ethics training for engineers can contribute to a corporate culture of openly discussing organizational issues, addressing issues of loyalty and collective responsibility. It also helps them to take responsibility and make good decisions in the big and small problems they frequently face. Therefore, universities need to strengthen the teaching of engineering ethics to engineering students.
