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ETHICAL DILEMMAS IN THE WORK PLACE
Orin Kuehl (obk3@pitt.edu)
INTRODUCTION
Virtual Reality would be the next big improvement
in video games and the full body immersion suit would be the
perfect controller for it. We finally have the technology and
software to make it possible. Everyone would want to be the
first to buy it. They would be able to enjoy and directly
interact with the virtual three dimensional environment. But
what if there is a flaw in the full body suit? A potentially
deadly flaw that had purposely been built into the suit so that
it fails and forces customers to buy new ones?
Every day engineers face ethical decisions
concerning the products they are developing. On one side you
have management who are looking to make a profit by selling
the product. Then on the other you have the customer’s
desires and safety. Engineers have a duty to look out for both
parties when developing products and sometimes the best for
one party is mutually exclusive of what is best for the other
party. An engineer still has to find that middle road to
accommodate both parties.
In this piece, I will outline a scenario in which I am
developing a virtual reality system and am confronted with a
situation in which the well-being of the public directly
contradicts what my project manager wants us to do. I will
consult two engineering code of ethics and several other
sources to reach a decision on how to solve the dilemma.
THE SCENARIO
I am working at a technology startup in the future,
Virtual, that is finishing designs for its virtual reality system.
Virtual reality is the creation of a three dimensional image that
the user can interact act with in some shape or form through
electronics. Virtual does that by using a headset to project the
image, a full body suit to be the controller and a console to
run the games. My boss, who is the owner, is worried because
a rival firm is going to be able to role it’s product out before
Virtual can. He is afraid that our rival will corner the market
before we even enter the market. Finally he’s also worried
about long term profits for the company. The system looks to
be too durable and many customers won’t need a new virtual
reality system for at least a decade there by causing the
company to have huge sales at the beginning and very few
over an extended period of time.
The Product
Virtual’s virtual reality package will come with a
headset, a full body immersion suit and a console with a
University of Pittsburgh, Swanson School of Engineering 1
2014/10/28
receiver on it. These pieces work together to create the three
dimensional world that the user will experience.
The headset is the output unit. It will encompass your
whole head and face to hold the display in place over your
eyes and the headphones over your ears. We created the three
dimensional image by projecting two images directly onto the
eyes of the user. These images are not the same and are
strategically off from each other to make it seem as if your
eyes are staring at a hard three dimensional object right in
front of them. The headphones will create a surround sound
affect and give the user a sense of direction based on sound
also. The volume in each earpiece will be adjusted higher or
lower depending on which side the sound is being emitted
from in the game relative to the user’s avatar. If the sound is
supposed to seem like it is coming from the right of the avatar,
the right earpiece will emit the sound a lot louder than the left
earpiece.[1]
Next is the input unit of our system, the full body
suit. This is the truly innovative part of Virtual’s system in
that the user doesn’t use an electronic controller to control the
in game avatar, instead the user will be able to control the
avatar with his or her body. The suit is a battery pack and a
giant circuit of emitters that encompasses the whole body.
The receiver picks up the signals from every single emitter to
translate the user’s body position into data that the system can
use to create a skeletal image of the user’s body position. This
position is replicated by the user’s avatar. [1]
The battery pack of the leotard suit is modular with
several batteries in series that cover the chest and back so that
there isn’t one big battery, instead they are spread out to
disperse the weight and allows the suit to move with little
hindrance. The batter powers both the head set and the
emitters. One thicker but heavily insulated cord is connected
to the headset while a network of little wires is woven into the
suit powering the emitters. The battery pack can run several
hours without a recharge and has a port on the back to charge
with. [1]
The emitters are small and cheap. They emit at a
frequency of 2.5 gigahertz so that the receiver can pick them
up. The small size of the emitters allows the suit to move in a
fluid fashion and allow us to build some redundancy into the
system by putting in extra emitters in case one fails, the suit
as a whole will still work as an input unit. [1]
Finally for cases where the avatar will have to travel
long distances, the user can use buttons built into the hand of
the suit allows the user to allow the computer to take over and
simulate the avatar walking. This allows the user to rest and
prevents them from having to walk all over a room. [1]
The Problem
Orin Kuehl
My team and I are working on the final designs of
the virtual reality system when our project manager, who is a
business man not an engineer, comes to visit us. He explains
that the suit is too durable. The failure rate of the system is
too low to force enough repeat customers in the years after the
introduction of the suit. This would allow the company to earn
immediate profits, but after a few years the company would
go bankrupt. To prevent this, our project manager asked us to
build flaws into the suit to force customers to return. The
reason for the flaws to be in the suit was that families would
buy multiple suits to fit each family member, but only one
console. The suits represented the most sales.
My team and I did as our project manager requested
and started doing further tests. The suits with the failure rate
increased, were prone to short circuiting so our project
manager was happy. However, further tests showed that these
shocks could reach the user and cause painful shocks and
minor burns. My team was also worried about the effects of a
shock on a person who had a pace maker. After discussing the
dangers, we approached our project manager.
means that an engineer must inform their employer of the
possible consequences of what the employer asks them to do
to prevent backlash onto the employer that could possibly
tarnish the company’s image.
These codes of ethics are resources that I would
consult if faced with the dilemma described above. They
show my responsibility as an engineer to both the company
that employs me and the public that would buy the product,
and my responsibility is not to just produce new technology.
Another resource I’d consult is my mother. She is a
manager at a branch of a bank. As the manager she is in charge
of sales at her branch. We have talked a lot about the decisions
she has made on whether to set up a loan for a customer or to
tell the customer that they can’t apply for the loan due to bad
credit or the loan would be too risky for the bank to accept.[4]
She would be able to understand my dilemma and be able to
explain the business point of view.
I would also read Ready Player One by Earnest
Cline. The setting is 2044 when the Earth’s ecosystem has
collapsed and whole countries are starving. The protagonist,
Wade, is searching for a treasure that he plans on using to
build a space ship to send him into space so that he can escape
Earth. As the plot goes on, he sees how people’s lives are
miserable and that if he was to use all of the money to build a
space ship, they would still be starving. He saw that the space
ship didn’t improve anyone’s life except his own. [5] When I
read this book, I see how one person’s decision could mean
the difference between the status quo and a better future for
humanity.
THE ETHICS
Every engineer has a code of ethics they must follow.
These ethics are set forth to give the engineer a basis on which
to decide whether the product they developed is safe for
public use. They also help to set the balance between doing
what is right for the engineer’s employer and the public. The
National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) and the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering Computer
Society (IEEE Computer Society) both have set forth code of
ethics for engineers.
NSPE states that an engineer must “hold paramount
the health, safety and welfare of the public”. [2] Our suit
would be an issue of public safety and health because it could
cause injury or death. As an engineer it is important that this
product doesn’t reach the public. When General Motors was
forced to recall over a million cars due to its ignition failures,
people lost faith in them because they released the product
and knew that their product was faulty. The recall damaged
the integrity of engineers because they released the product
while knowing the dangers that their technology posed to the
public.
IEEE Computer Society’s code of ethics states that
“engineers shall advance the integrity and reputation of the
profession consistent with the public interest” [3] and General
Motors engineers did not do that. They damaged the public’s
view of their engineers and the public does not trust them.
Engineers have to be careful of this because if the public does
not trust them, then the innovations that they develop won’t
be used.
Finally, both NSPE’s and IEEE Computer Society’s
code of ethics state that “an engineer must act in the best
interest of their employer”. [2][3] An engineer must be
willing to listen to what their employer wants in a product and
try to implement it to the best of their abilities. This also
CONCLUSION
I would advise any engineer facing this situation to
contact their project manager and try to reach a new solution
to the problem. The public safety must always be upheld so
that no one is hurt or killed by a product the engineer
developed. Any deaths due to the product would be a negative
reflection on the engineer’s employer. The employer could
get sued or fined to the point that it is driven out of business.
Another thing is that it reflects negatively on the engineering
profession as a whole. The public might not be willing to trust
any new innovations that are developed even if they would be
a dramatic improvement in their lives due to the fear that they
could be injured or killed by the new technology.
If the engineer is unsure whether a product is
dangerous or lethal, he or she should consult the code of ethics
for engineers and anything else that could relate to the
situation he or she is dealing with. These sources would give
multiple view points on what should be done and the potential
consequences of a potential decision. The engineer would
then have to decide which decision has the least amount of
detriments. This way we can both create new technologies
and have the public accept and use them in their lives every
day.
2
Orin Kuehl
REFERNECES
[1] J. Hruska. (2014). “CES 2014: Wearable gaming
exoskeleton pairs up with Oculus Rift for the ultimate virtual
reality
experience.”
ExtremeTech.
(online
blog).
http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/?verb=sr&
csi=262325&sr=HLEAD(CES%202014%20Wearable%20g
aming%20exoskeleton%20pairs%20up%20with%20Oculus
%20Rift%20for%20the%20ultimate%20virtual%20reality%
20experience)%20and%20date%20is%202014
[2] (2007) “Code of Ethics for Engineers” National Society of
Professional
Engineers.
(online
article).
http://www.nspe.org/resources/ethics/code-ethics
[3] (1999) “Software Engineering Code of Ethics and
Practices” IEEE Computer Society. (online article).
http://www.computer.org/portal/web/certification/resources/
code_of_ethics
[4] E. Kline (1999) Ready Player One Random House (print
book).
[5] P. Kuehl. (2014, October 15). Interview
Additional Resources
(2014) “Public Health and Safety-Delay in Addressing Fire
Code
Violations”
NSPE
(online
article)
http://www.nspe.org/sites/default/files/BER%20Case%20No
%2013-11-FINAL.pdf
(2014)
Online
Ethics
Center
(website)
http://www.onlineethics.org/Resources/Cases.aspx
(2014)
Web
Guru
(website)
http://www.webguru.neu.edu/professionalism/researchintegrity/ethics-case-studies
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Orin Kuehl
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