Ethical Design
Ethical Design
Solutions to problems do not exist in a vacuum—there are always impacts environmentally, economically, and socially.
Starlink, developed by SpaceX, provides satellite internet access to remote and regional areas, improving communication and access to services. However, the large number of satellites has raised ethical concerns about space debris, environmental sustainability, and interference with astronomical research. This shows how ethical design requires engineers to balance social benefits while considering long-term impacts across different sectors.
Ethics first design
Ethics should come first in every design choice, and not be added on as an afterthought.
Regardless of if you care about a choice, or you've walked into the project having already made up your mind without considering ethics, you are still making a choice and need to rationalise and justify why you made that choice.
Think Big
Approach your system from a global perspective – not just your workshop. Approach your thinking that you are designing for mass production. Easier to imagine material waste, consider the embodied energy and carbon footprint, and any byproducts of your system when you are considering making 100,000 units instead of your sing4le unit.
Justifying Your Choices
Decisions you make in the development of your system need to be justified against ethical considerations with social, economic, and environmental considerations.
Ethical Choice Model
There is no one true way to make a choice, but there are plenty of models to help guide your decision making. You are welcome to research your own, or implement this model to help guide not only your decision making, but provide a clear structure for writing justifications around your choices.
• Users
• Stakeholders
• Community
• Environment] C[Possible impacts
• Social
• Economic
• Environmental
• Cultural
• Safety
• Usability] D[Weigh trade-offs
• What is gained?
• What is lost?
• Who / what is harmed?] E[Justify your decision] A --> B --> C --> D --> E
You are designing a simple electrotech project. Perhaps it is a motion sensor alarm system. You need to make a choice on how to power it.
Will it be battery powered, mains powered, solar powered with a rechargable battery, or purely solar powered with no battery?
Breifly consider one pro and one con for each option.
For each option consider:
How does this choice impact the environment?
What are the setup and ongoing costs?
Who benefits from this choice, and who might be disadvantaged?
Make a choice, justifying why you chose that power source, but noting one limitation.
This work task is exactly what you have to do for design decisions you make throughout your folio. This is not an essay; it is documentation showing you've considered options and made a decision thinking about broad impacts of your system.
Did SpaceX consider streaks of satellites across space research? Was is overlooked, or was it considered and the choice was made to deploy anyway?