The Not-So-Simple Ethics Involved in Software Engineering
If you ask me, the absolute best series on Netflix is Black Mirror. As a software engineer, I am inherently interested in technology and seeing all of the awesome things that can be achieved with tech. In Black Mirror, it is super cool to see someone’s ideas about what tech can achieve.
However, what really captivates me about Black Mirror is how it illustrates the unforeseen consequences that advanced technology can have, such as when users interact with a piece of software completely different than how it was intended.
When a product is created to provide support and it just ends up causing issues, it’s quite interesting and sometimes even comical.
Some people I know think that Black Mirror is scary. This “scary” side of Black Mirror comes from the presence of the danger that is created when users do everything as planned, but the software does not behave as intended.
These side effects in Black Mirror are sometimes a bit Hollywood-esque. But there have been many real-life examples of these types of side effects in recent times, most specifically the side effects that make the ethics involved in the creation and maintenance of said software seem questionable.
Software engineers are smart people, and we all do our best to make software that…
