Talk: So you can sleep at night… ethics in software engineering

Talk description

Title:	So you can sleep at night… ethics in software engineering
Short synopsis:	As software teams in a post-truth world, what are the moral implications of what we do when software doesn’t even have to be malicious to be dangerous? None of what we build exists in a vacuum. To make ethical decisions, we must understand the implications of what we’re building. We have to be well-informed, and aware of the risks; we must be brave, willing to speak up; and we must be humble, and willing to listen. Max size: 500 chars
Long synopsis (optional):	In a post-truth world, software doesn’t have to be malicious to be dangerous. For example, in 2016, Facebook replaced its (human) news editors with an algorithm. Within days, 9/11 conspiracy theories were at the top of the trending feeds of millions of people, presented as 'news.' In this talk, we will discuss the ethical implications of building software in a world that looks more like ‘Black Mirror’ with every passing week. We’ll think about how hubris, shiny object syndrome, and malicious intent can lead to software that has a bad effect on the world. And while the conversation may be uncomfortable, I hope that it will act as a catalyst for people to start discussing ethical and moral outcomes in their teams. We need people to be willing to have these uncomfortable conversations now, more than ever. The first half of the talk is a compendium of case studies (or horror stories), going right the way through from the Therac-25's race condition irradiating cancer patients, to the Egyptian police allegedly using Grindr to persecute gay men. We present this in relation to the 'three poisons' of Buddhism; ignorance, attachment, and hatred. This is not just about people being actively malicious or evil. Plenty of ethically dubious outcomes arise from people getting attached to a neat idea, or plain old incompetence. Following this, we explore some practical things that people can do: how we can combat hubris and arrogance; how we can avoid being seduced into building something that'll make us feel grubby; and how we can advocate in our teams for a visible ethical charter, and embed it into our organisation’s culture—and, if no-one listens to our concerns, refuse to become involved, and leave. I originally wrote this talk at the end of 2016, as Brexit rumbled on and a few weeks after Trump was elected. It seemed like something in the world was broken, and in the time since then, nothing has changed. Huge amounts of time, money, and resources are being thrown at ‘changing the world’ without really thinking about how this new world will work; venture capitalists and engineers seem obsessed with ‘disrupting’ existing markets, in the same way volcanic ash clouds ‘disrupt’ air travel. Every time I’ve given this talk, I have updated the slides with recent news stories and developments, and every time I’ve become more and more worried about the state of the world. I hope that by getting people to think about the ethical implications of the software they build, teams will start to talk, and maybe do something about it. Max size: 5000 chars
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