Scientists, computer engineers, and mathematicians should take the Hippocratic oath to protect the public from potentially hazardous technologies being generated in tech institutions and labs.
The Hippocratic oath would be instrumental as an ethical pledge by scientists in math and tech fields.
Expressly, they would be compelled to think about whether their research is harmful to society.
Hippocratic oath to resemble a doctor’s pledge
Hannah Fry, an associate mathematics professor at University College London, stipulated that the Hippocratic oath could resemble the doctor’s pledge.
She noted that it would be pivotal because computer engineers and mathematicians were among the custodians of the technology shaping up societal future.
Fry stipulated that the Hippocratic oath was necessitated similarly as it does in medicine. For instance, ethics are taught in the medical field from the first day. This not the scenario in the mathematics field and this trend ought to change according to her.
Fry has been involved in distinctive mathematical research. For instance, she is expected to scrutinize the maths of luck and risk when she presents the 2019 Royal Institution Christmas lectures in December.
Furthermore, she will analyze the way algorithms feeding on data influence all elements of daily life. Fry will also scrutinize some of the challenges that should not be solved through mathematics.
Hippocratic oath instills ethical conduct
Fry proclaims that physicists, computer engineers, and mathematicians have the habit of tackling conceptual challenges to the extent that ethics are usually forgotten.
The moral issue should, however, not be ignored given that researchers are crafting systems pivotal in scrutinizing human frailties as well as selling and gathering personal data.
Fry believes that the Hippocratic oath will be pivotal in ensuring mathematicians and computer engineers incorporate persons’ perspectives into their concepts.
She also felt that the use of algorithms ought to be limited so that dire consequences can be averted.
The Hippocratic oath application in math and tech fields comes at a time when the US is hiking reading and math standards.
In case you did not know…
Hippocrates is a Greek physician who laid the foundations of scientific medicine by freeing medical study from the constraints of philosophical speculation and superstition. He is traditionally but inaccurately considered the author of the Hippocratic oath.
A simple definition of the Hippocratic oath would be a formal promise made by recently-qualified doctors that they will follow the standards set by their profession and try to preserve life.
