On Thu, Dec 12, 2013 at 3:51 PM, Eliot Lear <lear(_at_)cisco(_dot_)com> wrote:
Dale,
On 12/12/13 8:57 PM, Dale R. Worley wrote:
I would say that our ethical obligation as engineers is not to decide
what technological policy is best for society, but rather to inform
and educate the public (in all its facets) as well as possible about
the realities and the possibilities of the technology, so that the
larger society can decide how to handle the unavoidable tradeoffs
between various benefits and costs.
Without getting into whether I agree or disagree with you on this point,
I think it's a good way to frame at least some of the discussion.
Thanks for that.
I think it would be a good way for the IETF to frame its work.
We are not going to come to agreement on normative ethics but we should be
able to come to agreement on describing the consequences of technical
decisions and documenting the normative ethical systems that have evolved.
We are not going to come to agreement on issues such as the ideological
commitments underlying bitcoin.
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