b"And so we are inevitably heading for disaster. new engineering discipline.Other industries, asComputer engineers developed the Boeing 737 a result of government pressure, are severelyMax MCAS system which apparently led two regulated.But our industry equally has thedierent and experienced professional flight potential to cause a truly major disaster, unlesscrews to dive their loaded passenger aircraft to we act to change our own behaviour and howdoom. Computer engineers at Volkswagen we build computer solutions.developed emissions systems to defeatregulatory testing standards for diesel engines, The focus of our industry, the emphasis of ourpotentially seriously damaging the health of teaching to the next generations of computerpopulations almost worldwide. Computer engineers, and the goal of our academic andengineers deliberately hacked democracy in commercial research should surely now becomemultiple jurisdictions, including Australia, India, safety and best practice. How do we know thatKenya, Malta, Mexico, the United Kingdom and this computer solution is safe to use?How dothe United States,at Cambridge Analytica. we know that the answer is really 42, how andSooner or later, a team of computer engineers why did the machine generate that answer andor even just a single engineer - will, in a single is it actually correct?How can we assert puttingfailure, directly cause the death of tens of our own professional reputations and careers onthousands of people.A utilities failure, an the line, that our computer solutions first of allaircraft crash over a highly populous area, an will and can never do any harm?automation failure involving a noxious or highlydangerous substance,let alone military We do indeed rule the world:humankind hascalamities: it is just a matter of time. Given become dependent on what we build. Ourhumanity's dependence on computers responsibility is thus awesome. We surely nowworldwide, and given the fragility of most have the burden of ensuring that our creationscomputer solutions, somewhere sometime are safe to use, professionally developed andsomething truly awful is going to happen.designed, and ethical in their behaviour.Medics take the Hippocratic Oath: in eect, firstof all never do any harm. Chris Horn The computer industry - the programming tools,the methodologies,the processes andprocedures we use - is currently largelyunregulated,chiefly because it is a relatively0057"