Software Engineer's Code of Ethics

The definition given in the book of a "Profession" is a bit narrow (I think). M-W defines profession as : a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation b: a principal calling, vocation, or employment. So, in my opinion, a profession does not require a code of ethics, and some of the other things that the book claims professions require. Now, this is not saying that a Code of Ethics is entirely without warrant. They are very useful for guiding people in professions, and keeping professional people accountable.

The Code presented in the chapter makes for some dry reading, but that is how all legalese documents read. It is a fairly straightforward set of ethical guidelines for software engineers, and I think it does a decent job of covering most ethical bases, and giving the leeway to actually be a useful ethical Code.

What I thought was more interesting about the chapter was the latter portion about whistleblowing. I had never really thought about it, but there are tons of complications to "telling" on your superiors. That would make an interesting paper in itself: When to Blow the Whistle or When Managers Go Wrong.

-Reece

Wealth, Modernization, Technology and a lot of other things

There is a ton of stuff in the latest chapter. The book covers everything from AI taking over the world, to division of wealth and technology to whether universities should be state funded. Its a ridiculous amount of information. First, about the outsourcing of jobs: I don't think there is really anything American's can do about it. Because we have a free economy, companies need to produce their goods and services for the lowest cost. Lets face it, it costs much less to hire people from India, whom for the most part do pretty much the exact same thing. The company doesn't really lose anything. The same stands for technology and automation. It is much cheaper for companies to use computers to many jobs, but the chapter did make the point that you need people to make and maintain the machines.

Globalization is another issue dealt with in the chapter. Mostly it seems like the world is quickly becoming a drastically smaller place, and we need to learn to live with each other, or bad things are going to happen. (Or, we can just colonize Mars)