Pennock's books look interesting and I wish I had more time to digest
them. "Curiosity and the Moral Character of Science" especially so.
His parting line "Integrity in science involves a community of
practice, unified by its shared values." is really powerful. We cannot
do it alone.
Notwithstanding stumbling across a new atom bomb, physicists have it
easy compared to computer scientists, I would say.
Our problem is that to the extent we are scientists, in the business
of "Truth", our lot now inescapably intersects with the scurrilous
worlds of advertising, surveillance and malinfluence - the world of
deception and concealment. Computing is embattled to maintain its
integrity against the worst sides of its principle funding and
applications.
One cannot neatly separate out contemporary software issues of
privacy, dignity, agency and freedom, from scientific integrity while
using tainted tools - which is what I think Pennock means by a moral
community of practice.
His parting line "Integrity in science involves a community of practice, unified by its shared values." is really powerful. We cannot do it alone.
Notwithstanding stumbling across a new atom bomb, physicists have it easy compared to computer scientists, I would say.
Our problem is that to the extent we are scientists, in the business of "Truth", our lot now inescapably intersects with the scurrilous worlds of advertising, surveillance and malinfluence - the world of deception and concealment. Computing is embattled to maintain its integrity against the worst sides of its principle funding and applications.
One cannot neatly separate out contemporary software issues of privacy, dignity, agency and freedom, from scientific integrity while using tainted tools - which is what I think Pennock means by a moral community of practice.