If you're in STEM, at what level did you first get taught ethics (in general, and as specifically relevant in your field)?
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@ml Never. It was never an option.
@ml NEVER! And this is a very bad thing!
I have never taken an ethics course, it was never required or even suggested, despite 4 years at a fancy science school (Caltech, BS astrophysics), 2 years at a fancy liberal arts school (Wesleyan, MA astronomy), & 4 yr at nice public university (UBC, PhD astronomy)
Non-biological sciences have a serious problem with acknowledging that courses like ethics are incredibly important. It's real bad (*shakes fist at 14k satellites overhead ready to crash*)
@ml "Never".
@ml First taught about ethics in general in high school, alongside religious studies. Not covered at Bachelors (Physics), didn't do Masters/PhD. Ethics relevant to my professional field (Engineering) never taught formally, "self-taught" as part of becoming a Chartered Engineer.
(UK, BSc was in 2006)
When I was a PhD student there were courses that touched on ethics, but none were ever required and I never took one myself. Since finishing school I've encountered """ethics""" professionally, but this has taken the form of compliance-based ethics training, which is farcical. One of those required us to snitch on our coworkers if we knew they were using marijuana because that was a requirement of the federal government grant that covered the project. This was framed as the ethical choice because someone experiencing reefer madness might do bad things!!!
@ml @quixoticgeek When I studied to become a pharmacist in the mid-80s there was a mandatory course in Law and Ethics, with exams, and YOU DID NOT GRADUATE UNLESS YOU COULD PASS IT. Mostly a science degree but *very* aware that in practice you'd be the last backstop to prevent the medicines supply chain poisoning people and were responsible for public safety.
Now I am thinking of how people sometimes show up to impact hazard meetings to suggest proactively putting nuclear bombs in the sky, without having considered all of the reasons why that would be both illegal and grossly unethical.
@michael_w_busch @ml 😬
Most of the Planetary Defense Conferences:
Nuanced discussions of impact risks, deflection dilemmas, and logistics & ethics of evacuating impact zones.
That one guy:
"Nukes forever!!"
@ml general ethics, in primary school. field’s ethics? i don’t think we have such thing 
@ml I was fortunate enough to have ethics class starting quite early in high school. Then a few more in college.
@ml i'm one of the 10% Masters. Maths undergrad, no ethics. Computer Science post grad: one short ethics course, required (for British Computer Society certification i think). Basically here's how (not) to use computers to kill people. Accidentally they meant. No mention of the holocaust, where computers were used deliberately.