For this DEJ Post #9 I decided to do my post on the hot topic headline article we had for module #5 called “Engineering Ethics and The Boeing Scandal” by Robert Prentice.

Text to self: This article really hit me hard as I am currently a Junior studying Computer Engineering at State, the decisions made by the Engineer’s during the Boeing Scandal show the true ethical implications of Engineering. Engineers are trusted with more responsibility than most as they make the final decisions on all things used everyday by people all around the world and are in trusted in this profession to ensure the safety, and ethical implications of any design they work on. This article shows me the invaluable effect of not designing with an impenetrable ethical foundation from the start, as the things I build might have the lives of people depending on them. If my ethical values do not have the best intentions mind from money, professional pressure and or any other relating factors I should not choose this career path as there is no room for error when entrusted with the life of another.

Text to text: This article also heavily reminds me of an almost exact tragedy that I read many articles about and happened in very recent history being the Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant explosion. With the Soviet Union in full control at the time of the disaster we can see the true cost of failing to apply impenetrable ethics into Engineering. As the Soviet Union was at the peak of secrecy during this period of time important information about potential flaws in the RBMK Nuclear reactors such as the plant at Chernobyl was covered up to “Protect” the reputation of the Soviet Union. On top of this core design flaw in the core of the nuclear reactor, the ethical design flaw of Soviet Communism was displayed for the world to see when the plant exploded as the lead engineer who is arguably the most responsible for the incident was heavily persuaded to conduct a safety test for the benefit of his own career within the nation under extremely unsafe conditions. RBMK reactors had been mathematically proven to be impossible to explode supposedly as the lead Engineer thought which is why he proceeded with this test which is still extremely unethical by him to do so. But also shows the ethical lacking of the Soviet Union as they only cared about their truth as a state not the real truth covering up a design flaw that was critical as there was at the time seven other identical reactors in the Soviet Union operating at the time of the incident and they didn’t want to spend the money to fix the issue. This hurricane of conditions set the perfect stage for the worlds worst disaster ever, following the plants explosion we have estimated that at least 200,000 people have died do to this incident alone. As well as the 1000 miles^2 around the plant will not be livable conditions for humans for 24,000 more years an amount of time we as humans cannot really fathom due to our life expectancy.

Text to World: This article shows the importance of ethical foundations in every design of any product or service we use around the whole world. It is the job of an Engineer to understand the long and short lasting ethical implications of the items and procedures they invent. As if every inventor and or Engineer had the same principles as the Boeing 747 MAX scandal management team and engineers, than we wouldn’t be able to safely do anything we do everyday. Such as drive our cars, rely on the stop lights to safely guide us through intersections, and even use our cell phones without fear of them catching fire or exploding. A world where greed and wealth outway and cast a shadow over ethics is a world human beings would not survive as a species. As such it is the ethical responsibility of every single human being to have ethical foundations in anything they do, without such values we wouldn’t be alive today and we would be unable to continue our societal advancement, more discussions need to be held on ethics in our designs to ensure our future. We must learn from our past and never let it repeat as it is the blue print for exactly what we need not do. So let us reflect on this article and learn to put ethics and safety at the forefront of our lives, not money as hard as it may be, and as inciting as short cuts feel.