Stieb James A
Department of English, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Sci Eng Ethics. 2008 Jun;14(2):219-33. doi: 10.1007/s11948-008-9067-4. Epub 2008 Apr 30.
It has been claimed that (1) computer professionals should be held responsible for an undisclosed list of "undesirable events" associated with their work and (2) most if not all computer disasters can be avoided by truly understanding responsibility. Programmers, software developers, and other computer professionals should be defended against such vague, counterproductive, and impossible ideals because these imply the mandatory satisfaction of social needs and the equation of ethics with a kind of altruism. The concept of social needs is debatable with no one possessing the authority to impose their version of them. Similarly, the notion of "positive responsibility" is difficult to apply, does not effectively change computing practice, and confuses good (i.e., efficient) computer engineering with good (i.e. moral) computer engineering.
（1）计算机专业人员应对与其工作相关的一份未公开的“不良事件”清单负责；（2）如果不是所有的计算机灾难，那么大多数计算机灾难都可以通过真正理解责任来避免。程序员、软件开发人员和其他计算机专业人员应抵御这种模糊、适得其反且不切实际的理念，因为这些理念意味着必须满足社会需求，并将伦理等同于一种利他主义。社会需求的概念是有争议的，没有人有权强加自己对社会需求的版本。同样，“积极责任”的概念难以应用，无法有效改变计算实践，还将优秀（即高效）的计算机工程与优秀（即道德）的计算机工程混为一谈。
