A paragraph to ponder

From the current issue of The Bridge (National Academy of Engineering) by Jameson M. Wetmore - - The Value of the Social Sciences for Maximizing the Public Benefits of Engineering.

"Micro-ethics continue to be at the heart of most educational programs in engineering ethics, but considerable efforts are also being made to encourage engineers to consider macro-ethical issues - issues that an individual engineer alone cannot hope to address.  Examples include how much of the U.S. federal research and development budget should be spent on defense, whether engineers should be rewarded more for researching new technologies to address problems in the developing world than for funding ways of adapting existing technologies to local contexts, and how engineers can ensure that their work produces genuine human good and not just a new technological toy that satisfies a desire for change."