> We, as software engineers (or working in the field), have the power to not implement these features when our employer asks us to do it.
You don't, but, doctors and structural engineers do.
I was saying for years that a licensing proffeshional body, like the one other proffesions have, would improve things in our industry.
When was the last time a bridge fell down because someone boss bullied a structural engineer into suigning it off? They know you know that any engineer that agrees to do doggy shit is risking their licence, and it's not worth if for them.
This industry would improve significantly if it had a proffeshional body with teeth, and for that you need licensing like doctors and other proffeshions have.
> When was the last time a bridge fell down because someone boss bullied a structural engineer into suigning it off?
Not necessarily that scenario, but this happens all the time. See the recent catastrophe in Turkey.
But I do agree that a tech license to uphold ethics makes sense. The problem is that the negative effects of tech aren't as clear-cut as from a bridge falling down. We still don't know what the long-term effects of social media are. Advertising rules all media, yet it's one of the most manipulative and harmful industries to have ever existed. These are not going anywhere because they have made many people very rich, and now these people have enormous influence over legislators and governments.
Speaking of legislators, they're hopelessly tech illiterate, and unprepared to regulate tech in any way. It took them decades to regulate industries that were literally killing people. How long do you think it will take for them to catch up to Big Tech?
You don't, but, doctors and structural engineers do.
I was saying for years that a licensing proffeshional body, like the one other proffesions have, would improve things in our industry.
When was the last time a bridge fell down because someone boss bullied a structural engineer into suigning it off? They know you know that any engineer that agrees to do doggy shit is risking their licence, and it's not worth if for them.
This industry would improve significantly if it had a proffeshional body with teeth, and for that you need licensing like doctors and other proffeshions have.