TriStar Commons

It’s pretty simple to talk about the ethics of business such as lying, cheating and stealing.  Engineering has the ethics issues of honesty as well.  Though that aspects of ethics should not be ignored, what is less common are the issues of the ethics of product development.  Outside the green engineering movement, there is little I’ve seen on this topic that isn’t presented or percieved in a ‘hippy’ or ‘radical’ perspective.

When I was in college, I worked on a weapons program for the Apache Attack Helicopter.   At the time, I wondered if I would persue a career after graduation working in the defense industry and specifically weapons development.  I knew that if the opportunity presented itself, I would have to ask myself some serious questions.  (Note, I consider myself pro-military.)  A soldier doesn’t get to decide if they wish to fight in a war, our military would be useless if such were the case.  Nor does a police officer get to decide what the laws should be.

But, can an engineer decide for themselves as to which products should be developed?  It’s easier to ask if they can decide which products they themselves work on (though still not simple).

An interesting note, later in my career I worked on the Atlas III & V space launch vehicles.  Both of which are direct descendents of nuclear ICBMs.  The development of nuclear weapons perhaps being one of the extreme cases in product development ethics.

Reminds me of the Hacking/Security debate.

STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math.  Did you know that?  It rang a faint bell when I saw it start to pop up in blog headlines.  As soon as I opened a link, I got it; education.  It’s all about educating our youth in technical fields.

Apparently with the economy as it is, and a near record high unemployment rate in technology occupations (http://www.bls.gov/) has sparked a debate over the emphasis on STEM in education.  Not that we as a nation and world don’t need more art appreciation, and multiple language literacy, but does the US need fewer product creators and enablers?

Where’s the value add without technology and innovation?  See http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/training/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218501034

As an avid science fiction reader and engineer, something about the sustainability of energy sources has always caught my interest.  Or more specifically, the long term impacts of converting energy into sources (or types) that we (individually and as a society) can use.  Let me try to explain

Fossil fuels: Relatively easy and well understood.  Organic matter gets converted, we collect it and convert it into heat and then (usually) electricuty.  We all understand that humans use this source at a rate faster than it is naturally created.  So, it is easy to understand that fossil fuels are not sustainable in the quantities needed.

Solar: This one is a little more complex.  Light waves from Sol radiate the earth constantly, we can collect this energy and convert it to electricty.  Nice, useful.  Peak production matches peak demand.  Simple, sustainable?  Maybe…  Even this source is finite, the sun generates a given average amount of energy, a small fraction of that falls upon Terra.  How much of that can we convert before we have social and environemental impacts?  If we converted 100%, then all light would be artificial, their would be no solar heating causing thermal currents in the air or water.  All plants would die (unless artificially fed).  The global environment would be destroyed.  So, how much solar energy can we convert “safely”? 

Remeber, once in the not too distant past humans thought they could dump all their waste into the rivers and oceans with no impact due to the vast volume of water they contained.  We know better now.

Wind:  Not much different from solar.  A finite supply.  Were we to convert a large percentage, what impacts on the jet stream?  On the rotation of the earth?  Climates?

Nuclear:  Perhaps fission and fusion cycles show the greatest promise.  The risks are high (Chernobyl, Three Mile Island), but the quantity of available energy is the greatest.  Though again, a finite amount both when considering available fuel (the earth has a set mass) and waste disposal.  Though perhaps disposal through solar dumping might help.  Perhaps such could even extend Sol’s life expectancy, then again, maybe the impacts would be negative.

Hydrogen Fuel Cells:  Interesting, promising, but can we be narrow sighted enough not to understand even this is a conversion of finite means?  We could go on and on into each resource, but…

See where this is going?  Long term, energy management is the same as mass management and the conversion between the two states.  Sustainability.  What mass and energy can we import, export or convert within our ecosystem and manage the impacts to global environement and society. 

Terra will not remain unchanged, and that’s neither good or bad.  How human society manages Terra, that can be done well or poorly.

A couple of years ago I was at the PTCUser Conference and listened to Dean Kamen speak.  Maybe the topic just resonated with me, maybe he’s a very good motivational speaker.  But either way, what he said has stuck with me.    With my own introspection and observations here’s what I believe:

American society, through television, movies, music and other media, sets the role-models for the youth of our nation.  The people that are exemplafied are; athletes, actors, and musicians.  Not a problem, except which of these tend to get the most exposure?  The ones that are getting divorced, arrested for felonies, going into/out-of drug rehab or otherwise behaviors that even a very open father like myself has no desire to have my children emulate.

Did you watch the MTV Music awards last night?  Perhaps you noticed how many bleeps there were?  Foul language doesn’t offend me.  It just shows me either how limited your vocabulary is, or your ignorance.  Yes, a good explicative here or there is great, and very funny.  But when the censors are constantly having to cut out words…  I hate the idea of imposed censorship, but apparently our media inspired heroes are un-educated, vulgar or just plain ignorant.

So, what do we, or does Dean, do about it?  Change who our children are exposed to as role-models.  Make their extra-curricular activities not just althetics (which I beleive to be very important), but also science, technology, business, philanthropy, etc.   Take a look at US First, wouldn’t it be cool to watch your kid work with friends to build a LEGO robot?  I think so, that’s why I’ve volunteered to start a team. 

What will you do?