An unsubtle synopsis of the last two decades of my unpublished writing which you should read while you can, because I’ll probably think better of it in an hour or two. “[These words.] I do not think they mean what you think they mean.”
The first clause of the code of ethics for the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta reads:
“Professional engineers, geologists and geophysicists shall, in their areas of practice, hold paramount the health, safety and welfare of the public and have regard for the environment.”
These are the guys who, in the face of this:
EPA temperature projections
Have elected to do this:
Canadian Oil Sands. National Geographic. Photo by Peter Essick
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/03/canadian-oil-sands/kunzig-text
I have written hundreds of pages about technical decision making. I went back to school to train myself in subtle, nuanced consideration so that I could be effective. I slid all the way from logical positivism to poststructuralism. I am sympathetic to the engineering mindset, and the reality that we have to exclude things to make problems solvable.
But sometimes, I still want to grab somebody by the collar, and yell, “What the FUCK are you thinking?!?”
Filed under: WorldView
Please do not think better of it in an hour or two. It couldn’t actually be better. You got it right the first time.
Even in university, when the engineers would come to talk to the computer scientists about us needing professional ethics, we would laugh in their faces…