Towards a more representative politics in the ethics of computer science

Abstract

Ethics curricula in computer science departments should include a focus on the political action of students. While 'ethics' holds significant sway over current discourse in computer science, recent work, particularly in data science, has shown that this discourse elides the underlying political nature of the problems that it aims to solve. In order to avoid these pitfalls---such as co-option, whitewashing, and assumed universal values---we should recognize and teach the political nature of computing technologies, largely through science and technology studies. Education is an essential focus not just intrinsically, but also because computing students end up joining the companies which have outsize impacts on our lives. At those companies, students both have a responsibility to society and agency beyond just engineering decisions, albeit not uniformly. I propose that we move away from strict ethics curricula and include examples of and calls for political action of students and future engineers. Through such examples---calls to action, practitioner reflections, legislative engagement, direct action---we might allow engineers to better recognize both their diverse agencies and responsibilities.