Speaking as a software developer, this makes me hate software developers. Why can we only use computers to (further) enrich the absolute worst of the weasels?
treetalker•6mo ago
Not to claim any of these professions is perfect (far from it), but we have medical ethics; legal ethics; and even business ethics.
I know that legal ethics is both required as a course in law school and tested as part of licensure. Likewise, every day attorneys get delicensed for violating legal ethical standards. I presume that the same is true of medical school and licensing, and business school at least. (Though I always found "business ethics" to be a near contradiction in terms, and there is no ethical licensing requirement to practice business that I know of — and very little way to stop unethical business people from continuing to practice.)
We have coders/programmers who repeatedly refer to themselves as "architects" or "engineers". Yet there is no professional licensing requirement to practice programming, let alone ethical licensing or even training.
Is it any wonder that society ends up with huge data leaks; violations of personal privacy; surveillance states; and the like?
The world of software appears to be tolerant of slipshod work and blithe to its lack of professional standards — particularly ethical ones. It seems unable or unwilling to self-police. And one result is unethical conduct, this time at scale.
If software is eating the world and technology is so great, why haven't they solved their own ethical problems? (Tantamount to "doctor, heal thyself" — and I'm looking at you, Andreesen, Thiel, Musk, Palantir, Tesla, and your ilk.)
InitialLastName•6mo ago
To pick a closer analogy, the professions that engineering in the traditional sense (electrical, mechanical, civil) also have professional licensure that includes ethical training in their licensing requirements. However, the goals of both the licensure and the ethical training are centered around "follow standard practices and processes to minimize deaths and avoid undermining the public trust in the competence of your field", not "don't slowly degrade the society around you through your decisions".
fuzzfactor•6mo ago
How many centuries does it take to boil a frog anyway?
I would say people have been needing to avoid this since pre-Medieval transactions.
Unless of course it's to your particular advantage and you're the one receiving the dramatic discount :)
Although the more "dramatic" it sounds, may be an indication that the "special low price" is actually especially high in some kind of a deceptive way.
Now with early electronic computers they had personalized pricing at lots of places like pawn shops or used car lots back when time-sharing mainframes were the only digital option.
Even today sometimes if you are making a significant deal at a legacy "retail" chain, they have to flip back to the old proven POS kiosk emulator having the simulated green CRT display. So they can carefully craft the price of the goods & accessories purchased and comped, using more detailed cost information combined with your very own personal purchasing history. There are also sometimes secret symbols so that they can share the CRT with you without you knowing everything.
All based on natural intelligence, the computer just did the grunt work since the beginning of time.
Whether the "computer" was flesh & blood along with the intelligence or not.
Weasels gonna weas ;)
autoexec•6mo ago
This is why I recommend avoiding scanning QR codes to get prices/menus. You have no way to be sure that the prices that show up on your device are the same as what was shown to the person next to you.
Smeevy•6mo ago
treetalker•6mo ago
I know that legal ethics is both required as a course in law school and tested as part of licensure. Likewise, every day attorneys get delicensed for violating legal ethical standards. I presume that the same is true of medical school and licensing, and business school at least. (Though I always found "business ethics" to be a near contradiction in terms, and there is no ethical licensing requirement to practice business that I know of — and very little way to stop unethical business people from continuing to practice.)
We have coders/programmers who repeatedly refer to themselves as "architects" or "engineers". Yet there is no professional licensing requirement to practice programming, let alone ethical licensing or even training.
Is it any wonder that society ends up with huge data leaks; violations of personal privacy; surveillance states; and the like?
The world of software appears to be tolerant of slipshod work and blithe to its lack of professional standards — particularly ethical ones. It seems unable or unwilling to self-police. And one result is unethical conduct, this time at scale.
If software is eating the world and technology is so great, why haven't they solved their own ethical problems? (Tantamount to "doctor, heal thyself" — and I'm looking at you, Andreesen, Thiel, Musk, Palantir, Tesla, and your ilk.)
InitialLastName•6mo ago
fuzzfactor•6mo ago
I would say people have been needing to avoid this since pre-Medieval transactions.
Unless of course it's to your particular advantage and you're the one receiving the dramatic discount :)
Although the more "dramatic" it sounds, may be an indication that the "special low price" is actually especially high in some kind of a deceptive way.
Now with early electronic computers they had personalized pricing at lots of places like pawn shops or used car lots back when time-sharing mainframes were the only digital option.
Even today sometimes if you are making a significant deal at a legacy "retail" chain, they have to flip back to the old proven POS kiosk emulator having the simulated green CRT display. So they can carefully craft the price of the goods & accessories purchased and comped, using more detailed cost information combined with your very own personal purchasing history. There are also sometimes secret symbols so that they can share the CRT with you without you knowing everything.
All based on natural intelligence, the computer just did the grunt work since the beginning of time.
Whether the "computer" was flesh & blood along with the intelligence or not.
Weasels gonna weas ;)