1. Indo-US workshop at IIIT Delhi Feb10th to 12th,2011 1 Technological Progress and Human Values R Sharan LNMIIT JAIPUR (Earlier at IIT Kanpur) sharan[at]iitk.ac.in

2. Indo-US workshop at IIIT Delhi Feb10th to 12th,2011 2 Contents Why courses on engineering ethics? Wiener and Gandhi. Multicultural issues: Knowing the learner. Sharing the Experience

3. Indo-US workshop at IIIT Delhi Feb10th to 12th,2011 3 Courses on Engineering ethics started in the decade of 1970s. By 1990s courses on computer and information ethics started (Bynum, SEP) Bynum refers to work of Norbert Wiener The Human Use of Human beings. (Cybernetics and Society)

4. Indo-US workshop at IIIT Delhi Feb10th to 12th,2011 4 Norbert Wiener ‘ Thus the new industrial revolution is a two-edged sword. It may be used for the benefit of humanity, but only if humanity survives…It may also be used to destroy humanity, and if it is not used intelligently it can go very far in that direction’ (Weiner,1954: 162)

5. Indo-US workshop at IIIT Delhi Feb10th to 12th,2011 5 Two books (by Norbert Wiener and Mahatma Gandhi) The Human Use of Human beings. (1950/ 1954) Hind Swaraj (1908/1909)

6. Indo-US workshop at IIIT Delhi Feb10th to 12th,2011 6 Hind Swaraj (1909), Chapter on the condition of India Railways, lawyers and doctors have impoverished the country so much so that, if we do not wake up in time, we shall be ruined.

7. Indo-US workshop at IIIT Delhi Feb10th to 12th,2011 7 Gandhi on Technology How can I be when I know that even this body is a most delicate piece of machinery? The spinning wheel itself is a machine; a little tooth-pick is a machine. What I object to is the craze for machinery, not machinery as such.

8. Indo-US workshop at IIIT Delhi Feb10th to 12th,2011 8 Gandhi and Wiener Both advocate technological progress within moral boundary. Moral Boundaries- Wiener: Deontism, Utilitarianism, Phenomenology, Virtue Ethics. Gandhi: Talisman

9. Indo-US workshop at IIIT Delhi Feb10th to 12th,2011 9 Talisman of Gandhi "Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it?"

10. Indo-US workshop at IIIT Delhi Feb10th to 12th,2011 10 How does a Learner of Engineering Ethics look at moral boundary?

11. Indo-US workshop at IIIT Delhi Feb10th to 12th,2011 11 Understanding the learner: Alasdair Macintyre. :”I inherit from the past of my family, my city, my tribe, my nation, a variety of debts, inheritances, rightful expectations and obligations. ---These constitute the given of my life, my moral starting point. This is the part what gives my life its own particularity”

12. Indo-US workshop at IIIT Delhi Feb10th to 12th,2011 12 Indian Situation Education 1660 1862 185719081947 2011 India Morrill Act Europe America Royal Society Gandhi Forgotten

13. Indo-US workshop at IIIT Delhi Feb10th to 12th,2011 13 East India Company Political Independence Post independence economic growth and education

14. Indo-US workshop at IIIT Delhi Feb10th to 12th,2011 14 Stratification of Indian society (i) a small Indian elite trying to be like the western elite; (ii) an Indian middle class trying to follow the Indian elite; and (iii) a large deprived section of people who, like the Indians of colonization era, feel that great injustice is being done to them.

15. Indo-US workshop at IIIT Delhi Feb10th to 12th,2011 15 Experience The students were not willing to accept that there were a large number of deprived persons in India. They thought that this was a thing of the past. Hence, Gandhi’s talisman remained only at a ritualistic level and did not make any real impact.

16. Indo-US workshop at IIIT Delhi Feb10th to 12th,2011 16 Task for Indian scientific and technological elite Look inwards to (i) build scaffoldings which enable even deprived persons to participate in creation of technological progress and (ii) think of moral boundaries within which this should take place. That would be meaningful relevant engineering ethics.

17. Indo-US workshop at IIIT Delhi Feb10th to 12th,2011 17 Steinbeck Nobel Prize acceptance speech 1962 “We have usurped many of the powers we once ascribed to God”.

18. Indo-US workshop at IIIT Delhi Feb10th to 12th,2011 18 Steinbeck Nobel Prize acceptance speech 1962 “We have usurped many of the powers we once ascribed to God”. “Having taken Godlike power, we must seek in ourselves for the responsibility and the wisdom we once prayed some deity might have.”

19. Indo-US workshop at IIIT Delhi Feb10th to 12th,2011 19 Steinbeck Nobel speech 1962(contd) “The danger and the glory and the choice rest finally in man. The test of his perfectibility is at hand. Man himself has become our greatest hazard and our only hope.” Kamayani of Jaya Shankar Prasad?