Engineering as Social Experimentation

1
Engineering as Social Experimentation

• To undertake a great work, and especially a work
  of a novel type, means carrying out an
  experiment. It means taking up a struggle with
  the forces of nature without the assurance of
  emerging as the victor after the first attack.
• - Louis Marie Henri Navier (1785
  1836)

2
Role of Experimentation in the Design Process

• Preliminary tests or simulations of concepts
• Components and modules tested prior to detailed
  design
• Cycle of test and modification through production
  
• Beyond specific elements of design, each project
  taken in a totality can be viewed as an
  experiment

3
Contributors to Experimental Nature of Projects

• Project carried out in partial ignorance
• Parts functionality availability
• Luxury of waiting until all relevant facts are in
  not available (ability to work with partial
  knowledge is one talent crucial to an engineers
  success)
• Outcomes of projects are generally uncertain
• Unknown risk may attend even a seemingly benign
  project
• Effective engineering depends on knowledge gained
  both before and after products are released
• Monitoring cannot be limited to in-house
  development

4
Informed Consent

• Keystone of properly conducted experiments
  involving human subjects
• Main elements
• Volunteerism absence of force, fraud, or
  deception
• Knowledge all the information needed to make a
  reasonable decision (not just what they request)
• Competence consenter is competent to process the
  information and make rational decisions

5
Morally Responsible Engineers as Social
Experimenters

• A primary obligation to protect the safety of
  human subjects and respect their right of consent
• A constant awareness of experimental nature of
  any project, forecasting and monitoring side
  effects
• Autonomous, personal involvement in all steps of
  a project
• Accepting accountability for the results of a
  project

6
How this Earmarks a Style of Engineering

• Conscientiousness people act responsibly to the
  extent that they conscientiously commit
  themselves to live according to moral values.
• Moral values transcend a consuming preoccupation
  with narrowly conceived self-interest
• A sense of awareness is implied
• A role as a social guardian but not to suggest
  that engineers force, paternalistically, their
  own views of the social good upon society

7
How this Earmarks a Style of Engineering

• Relevant Information conscientiousness blind
  without factual information
• Moral concern involves a commitment to obtain and
  properly assess all available information
• Obligation to grasp the context (uses) of ones
  work
• Since our vision is limited and projects are
  experimental, ongoing monitoring is crucial

8
How this Earmarks a Style of Engineering

• Moral Autonomy authenticity in moral conduct
  and principles
• Kant Moral beliefs and attitudes held on the
  basis of critical reflection rather than passive
  adoption
• Commitment to action (not abstract or merely
  verbal)
• Professional Societies such as IEEE can be a
  source of employee moral support

9
How this Earmarks a Style of Engineering

• Accountability acceptance of moral
  responsibility for their actions
• Willing to submit ones actions to moral scrutiny
• Open and responsive to assessment of others
• Willing to present morally cogent reason for
  ones conduct
• Resistant to a narrowed sense of accountability
  when working under external authority that may
  promote fragmentation, diffusion, meeting
  schedules, and limited roles

10
Commitment to Safety
A thing is safe if , were its risks fully known,
those risks would be judged acceptable by a
reasonable person in light of settled value
principles.
11
Effect of Information on Risk Assessment

• Imagine unusual disease expected to kill 600
• Two alternative programs to combat disease
  proposed
• Program A 200 people will be saved
• Program B 1/3 probability that 600 will be
  saved, and 2/3 probability that no people will be
  saved
• Which program do you favor?

12
Effect of Information on Risk Assessment

• Imagine unusual disease expected to kill 600
• Two alternative programs to combat disease
  proposed
• Program C 400 people will die
• Program D 1/3 probability that no body will die,
  and 2/3 probability that 600 will die.
• Which program do you favor?