Ethical Questions in the Design of Technology

20 important questions on Ethical Questions in the Design of Technology

What is Engineering design?

The activity in which certain functions are translated into a blueprint for an artifact, system, or service that can fulfill these functions with the help of engineering knowledge.

In which different stages can the Design Process be divided?

  1. Problem analysis and formulation
  2. Conceptual design
  3. Simulation
  4. Decision
  5. Detail design
  6. Prototype development and testing

What is the Problem analysis stage?

The stage of the design process in which the designer or the design team analyses and formulates the design problem, including the design requirements.
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In which points in the Problem analysis stage can ethical questions arise?

  • Problem formulation and perspective
  • Formulation of design requirements
  • Specifying design requirements

What are Technical codes?

Legal requirements that are enforced by a governmental body to protect safety, health, and other relevant values.

What is the Conceptual design stage?

The stage in which the designer or the design team generates concept designs. The focus is on an integral approach to the design problem.

What is the Simulation stage?

The stage of the design process in which the designer or the design team checks through calculations, test, and simulations whether the concept designs meet the design requirements.

What are Design criteria?

A kind of design requirements which are formulated in such a way that products meet them to a greater or lesser extent.

What is Organizational deviance?

Norms that are seen as deviant or unethical outside the organizational are seen within the organization as normal and legitimate.

What ethical issues may Manufacture and construction rise?

  • Labor conditions
  • Environment and sustainability
  • Construction safety

When will a Value conflict arises?

  • A choice has to be made between at least two options for which at least two values are relevant as choice criteria,
  • At least two different values select at least two different options as best,
  • And the values do not trump each other.

What is Trumping (of values)?

If one value trumps another any (small) amount of the first value is worth more than any (large) amount of the second value.

Which five ways of evaluation for dealing with Value Trade-off can take place?

  1. Cost-benefit analysis
  2. Multiple criteria analysis
  3. The determination of Thresholds for a design criteria
  4. Reasoning about values
  5. The search for new technical solutions (Value Sensitive Design)

How are the the values weighted in Cost-benefit analysis and what are the advantages and disadvantages?

All values are expressed in monetary terms
Advantage; options are made comparable
Disadvantage; values are treated as commensurable, may be difficult to adequately express all relevant (moral) concerns in monetary terms

How are the the values weighted in Multiple criteria analysis and what are the advantages and disadvantages?

Trade-offs between the different values
Adventage; options are made comparable
Disadvantage; value are treated as commensurable, results depnds on measurment scale

How are the the values weighted in Thresholds and what are the advantages and disadvantages?

A threshold is set for each value
Advantage; the selected alternatives meet the thresholds, no direct trade-off between the criteria
Disadvantage; can thresholds be determined independently from each other, less achieved than possible

How are the the values weighted in Reasoning and what are the advantages and disadvantages?

Values are related to each other and possibly traded off through reasoning and judgement
Advantage; might solve value conflict by reason and judgement
Disadvantage; not all value conflict can be solved this way

How are the the values weighted in Value Sensitive Design and what are the advantages and disadvantages?

Not applicable
Advantage; can lead to alternatives that are clearly better than all of the present alternatives
Disadvantage; does not solve the choice problem in many cases

What is Regulatory Framework?

The totality of (product-specific) rules that apply to the design and development of a technology.

What is Radical design?

Design in which either the normal configuration or the working principle (or both) of an existing product is changed.

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