Ethics And Technology: The Ethical Codes Of Technology

Ethics and morality are among the most difficult subjects to define and discuss. Opinions concerning these matters are frequently automatic, held on a preconceived notions and are never subject to verification until after the fact and, often, not even then. To some critics, any use of technology leads to increasing alienation and dehumanization therefore, technology is considered far from moral. However, most people recognize great improvement of the quality of human existence which has been possible only with technology.

For them the issue is to maximize the gains and minimize the losses, stemming from technology. For example, they focus upon the principal practitioners of technology, the engineers, and wish to examine the moral nature of

Ultimately, these duties are crystallized in taboos and are observed automatically. Thus, are ethical codes of behavior born? And so, it is with us today. Ethics constitute the basic codes of civilized behavior, without which our environment, as we know it, would be impossible. Such rules embody the basic constraints each of us agrees to practice in relationships with others. We consent to these constraints in the knowledge that, in so doing, we make the existence of all, including ourselves, more

Corporations are neither as perfect or put together as portrayed by some, nor as evil as portrayed by others. They are simply the economic units in our society that are necessary to supply the goods and services we need. We don’t want to go back to walking down the road hoping, someone had cheap good in their cart do we? No better means to serve this purpose has yet been found. While corporations obviously would prefer to market safe products rather than un­safe ones, they feel justified in asking why they should voluntarily increase the safety of a product if the result is that sales suffer. The provision of safety belts in autos is a good example.

The leveling effect of governmental action is indispensable in producing improvements in product safety and pollution reduction. It does little good to exhort engineers to insist that their ideas on safety or pollution be adopted, if the effect would be to jeopardize their employer’s welfare. If such actions result in damaging their employers, have they properly fulfilled the ethical obligations they accepted when they accepted employment? In return for a salary, there is an implied obligation that an employee will help indulge the employer’s