Baltimore , Maryland
June 25, 2023
June 25, 2023
June 28, 2023
Engineering Ethics Division (ETHICS) Technical Session _ Monday June 26, 1:30 - 3:00
Engineering Ethics Division (ETHICS)
Diversity
10
10.18260/1-2--43737
https://peer.asee.org/43737
131
Rosalyn W. Berne, Ph.D. is the Olsson Professor of Applied Ethics in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Virginia, and Chair of the Department of Engineering and Society. She also directs the Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science (OEC). As a scholar, Berne explores the intersecting realms of emerging technologies, science, fiction, and myth, and the links between the human and non-human worlds. Published under her name are two academic books: Creating Life from Life: Biotechnology and Science Fiction and Nanotalk: Conversations with Scientists and Engineers about Ethics, Meaning and Belief in the Development of Nanotechnology; a science fiction novel; two award-winning books in the genre of body-mind-spirit (including When the Horses Whisper), and numerous papers and articles. Her newest book, "Animals, Ethics and Engineering" (working title) is under contract to be published in summer, 2024.
The sixth mass extinction is underway. Earth's animal populations have declined by an average of 69% since 1970, partly due to unsustainable use of land, water, and energy, and resulting climate change. This paper submits that engineering education has a critical role to play in helping prepare the next generation of engineers to address this ecological urgency. However, to this will require a new framework of ethics for engineering; one that must first dismantle the nature-technology distinction, and the perceived separation of humans and other animals, which are at the foundation of engineering design and practice. Indeed, non-human animals have long been disregarded and devalued under the rationalist worldview that persists in the culture of engineering. By disconnecting our identity from Earth’s non-human others, essentially treating them as technologies for our use, we human have put not just other animals, but also ourselves at risk. The author offers suggestions for how engineering ethics education might begin to incorporate and address such concerns.
Berne, R. W. (2023, June), Non-human Animals and a New Ethics for Engineering Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--43737
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