If you read the introduction of me, you should know that I’m a student who is studying computer science to become a game developer and hypocritically, doesn’t play games. one thing I didn’t mention in the post is, I had an extreme game addiction. My game addiction started from the first year of the elementary school and gradually got into an obsession. ever since my father bought a computer for me and sister, I played computer games for 10 hours to 14 hours a day until high school sophomore year, I had the fight with my sister. I don’t remember exactly why we fought but I remember I said “I will die if I don’t play games” and she said, “then just die”. I was very mad that I can’t play games and she got mad at me play games all day, I grabbed the keyboard and destroyed it. at the moment where my conscious came back from overwhelming anger, I noticed I have a serious game addiction. I wish I could say I ended up playing games and lived my life to the fullest but the truth is, I played games until 2nd year of the college. However, because of the incident, I felt miserable when I realized I played games for hours. it gradually made me stop playing games and when I declare my major in computer science, I swore to myself, I will not make a game that could ruin someone’s life and I will make a game that helps people and change the view of the game industry.
despite my oath, if I work for a company or someone, there could be a situation where what you are building is unethical. Bill wrote an article of his experience, The Code I’m Still Ashamed of” and it made me think what if I was Bill and I noticed that lines of code that I wrote harmed people? what can I learn from his experience?
Bill built a website for a client and he felt ashamed that a girl who was taking the medicine that has addressed on the website has killed herself. I think it is very important to address what he did was ethical or unethical. In my opinion, it’s both.
“2.6 Honor contracts, agreements, and assigned responsibilities.” - ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
He followed the requirement that has given and the client was very happy with the result. He did best he could do it in his job for the client and the company. it was ethical and professional, however before he jumps into that, he should’ve considered whether what he is building is ethical or unethical.
“1.2 Avoid harm to others.” - ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
when he was working on the project, he knew it is pushing one medicine and it’s specifically targeting teenage girls. I think it is enough reason for him to search more about the medicine before he starts to work on the project. I can’t conclude the project was unethical because it could have saved thousands of teenage girls’ life and one poor girl has died by its side effect or something else. However, Bill thinks it was unethical and there must be a good reason. in this case, working on a project not knowing its ethical or unethical was not ethical.
“2.4 Accept and provide appropriate professional review.” - ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
what if you find the project is unethical and you are involved? I think giving up or resign from the company is least professional behave anyone could have because it’s not ethical to the company, the client, and user because they are going to make it anyway. instead, you should talk with the company and the client why it is unethical and needed to be rearranged. maybe the company and the client are less pleasant the process and the result but you are eliminating unethical consequences that could happen like Bob’s experience.
summary of what I learn from Bill’s experience is, look through the project and determine whether it’s ethical or unethical before you start the project and if you find something not ethical to you, you should talk to a supervisor or the group and do best you could do in the project for the company and the client with professionalism.