• Question: How do you find an ethical use for engineering, when humans are mostly building unsustainable systems of oppression and resource extraction?

    Asked by jackobson17 to Eimear, James, Jonathan, Lána, Willi on 28 Feb 2018.
    • Photo: William O'Connor

      William O'Connor answered on 28 Feb 2018:

      I see engineering being about serving mankind, using Science and Maths to find solutions to problems, to make a better world.
      You can use Science and Maths to do good or to do evil. A knife can be used by a surgeon to remove cancer, or to injure someone. Fire can be used to heat your home and in the engine of an ambulance, or to destroy. A robot can help a sick person, or an invalid.
      Science, Maths and Engineering are instruments which we humans can use to achieve great good or do great bad, or in between.
      In the past we polluted rivers and air with industry. Now we are learning how to clean up rivers and not pollute the air. Engineers are also working on renewable sources of energy.
      So there’s good and bad. You can choose to work on the side of doing good, especially as an engineer.

    • Photo: James Geary

      James Geary answered on 28 Feb 2018:

      I hope for the most part the engineering is put to ethical use,

      wrt building sustainable systems of oppression and resource extraction you have a point. From the dawning of time man has drawn on the natural resources from around him that was readily available in order to support his needs. This basic concept has not changed much since and if we wish to continue to support our needs then we will always need to draw on the natural resources to do so. However your point is very valid as there is a limited amount of natural resources available and the population on our planet is growing at a rate that is putting substantial strain on the available natural resources. So how do we address this from an engineering perspective?
      – More effective design e.g. Longer design life e.g. mobile phone to be designed to last 15 years instead of 3?
      – Less waste of resources e.g. use additive manufacturing that uses only the raw material that is needed rather than that provided
      – Continuation of REACH implementation to prohibit the use of hazardous chemicals
      Engineers design to a specification, that specification is derived from user needs. If the user wants cheap and frequently updated products that is what engineers will deliver. If you change the users needs and change the specification to ethical, sustainable, efficient use of raw materials then the engineer will then deliver that.
      There are no evil villain engineers rubbing their hands together deciding to deplete the planets resources, you and other end users set the specification for design by your purchasing habits. If you want to make a change then convince your school, town, county not to upgrade their mobile every 3 years.

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