Newsmaker: Debating the morality behind software development

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newsmaker

Using your logic, wouldn't it also be fair to say that somebody who was instrumental in designing the cell phone would have faced those same issues because a pedophile can use a cell phone for nefarious purposes?
Booch: The question is whether I, as a technologist, add features that potentially eat away at personal privacy but also enable the use of a law enforcement agency to track this person? Which way do I push this because, as a technologist, I have the ability to deliver things to people who don't know how to do that technology. Nonetheless, they are the ones who will make policy that would be impacted by what I create.

Isn't this again an issue for the consumer--whether it be an organization or corporation or some place in the public sector, rather than something you lay at the feet of the people responsible for the creative level? I mean you work for IBM...
Booch: Correct.

So what you do in front of your keyboard is not inherently good or evil. It's what IBM does with that technology which would presumably have an impact. I recall a few years ago a book describing IBM's interactions with the Third Reich before the war.
Booch: Right.

The Web is an incredibly subversive agent and it's the individuals who are going to make the difference, not the policy makers.

So how far can you logically push the argument before it becomes, "well yeah, sure, but..."
Booch: What I love about this discussion is that we're seeing a dialogue here that's starting to open up in the software field. It's already been there in the worlds of physics, chemistry and biology. The very fact that this dialogue is going on (in the computer business) in some ways is a suggestion to me that our industry is beginning to mature because at least these things are on the table.

Do you really think so? Bill Joy's article on the risks of nanotechnology came out and kicked up a fuss. But the morality question you're raising isn't something that gets the time of day in this industry. Look, I've written several columns chastising the powers that be in Silicon Valley for its policy vis-a-vis China.
Booch: Right.

I'm not a China basher and I know the realities of doing business. But there's a stone wall of apathy about this issue. Most people in Silicon Valley don't give damn.
Booch: You see that's where the individual comes into play...and can make some incredible differences. He or she might find ways to penetrate the barriers that these countries put up. It's a moral decision for me to say, "I'm going to actively do that because I believe in the open and free flow of information despite a particular government's policy." An individual can very much make a difference in this regard. The Web is an incredibly subversive agent and it's the individuals who are going to make the difference, not the policy makers.

Allow me to play devil's advocate for a moment.
Booch: Please.

If computer scientists dig in their heels at even the possibility that their work might later get used by organizations that they politically find not to their liking, do you risk being called a Luddite? That is, you're willing to innovate up to this point and no more because peering over the abyss, you don't like what you think you're seeing.
Booch: Well, now you get to a wonderfully deep philosophical issue. Do I hold back? The difficulty is that science has this really sneaky way of oozing through all the pores...Even though I would personally prefer to make the decision to say, "No, I'm not going to do that," I still have the responsibility to educate those who are in a position in the policy-making realm, so that they understand the implications of what they're doing.

In my lectures I tend to end it with this little-bitty sound bite, which talks about how it's an incredible privilege and responsibility to be a software developer. We collectively and literally change the world. I can't think of any other industry that has impacted every other business in the way that we as humans and civilizations connect. What a cool business to be in.

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