Dombrowski: (1) Tobacco and Death and (2) Star Wars

Ch 6: Tobacco and Death: When Is A Cause Not A Cause?
- Dombrowski: “”…this chapter more than some others seem to take a particular side on the “debate”””.
- Sophism: a confusing or illogical argument used for deceiving someone (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophists)
- Recent Years:
(a) Sophists showing power of language to shape ideas and opinions and even knowledge itself
(b) Demonstrated effective power of language to challenge prevailing structures of power and authority
- Why was public outraged by the ethical lapses in technical communication associated with the Challenger disaster and not deaths caused by cigarettes?
(a) Challenger – witnessed on television, scarred millions of people, deaths quick and violent
(b) Cigarettes – witnessed by few, deaths slow and painful
Answer: publicity
- Technical and Scientific Information used for corporate and personal gain:
(a) disguising self-serving posturings as technical facts
(b) disguising grim reality as pleasurable indulgences
(c) disguising knowledge as beliefs
Misleading the public and evading ethical responsibilities
Cause
Reason #1: Concerns probabilities and populations rather than certainties and individual persons
- Most people see causation as a fairly direct and mechanical matter
- Another meaning: Statistical Causation – a probability of what will happen in a population or group but says nothing about particular individual cases
- People care about themselves first and populations second (do not realize they are the same thing)
Reason #2: Misinformation, obfuscation, denial, and opposition
- Statistics – one of the most important tools of medicine and public health in modern times
John Stuart Mill – one of the major figures in logical reasoning of the twentieth century
(a) Method of “concomitant variation” by which an increase in an independent variable leads to an increase in a dependent variable, and a decrease yields a decrease (one causes another even though we do not know why)
- Examples statistical causation: public safety, medical community
- Smoking related deaths transcend genders and race; therefore, no other conceivable factor could explain the strength of the observed correlation other than smoking itself (known for over fifty years)
- Unknown: specific, microscopic mechanisms by which smoking causes cancer and other diseases
- Causation is fundamental to examining the role of ethics in technical and scientific communications about smoking and disease
- Sophists are traditionally known as hustlers and charlatans
- Sophists clashed with Aristotle and Plato over the use of rhetoric
- Sophists = Tobacco Industry
- Tobacco decision makers:
(a) know that smoking increases risk for cancers and death
(b) create documents and debate for the tobacco industry knowing the facts
- Challenger decision makers:
(a) not certain mission would end in a disaster
(b) took dangerous risks to achieve organization’s goals
Conclusion: Tobacco decision makers behaved much more unethically than the Challenger decision makers
Documents
Tobacco Industry
(a) sophistical treatment of causation
(b) ability to identify a few legitimate scientists to argue on the issue of causation
(c) Enormous financial and legal resources to use in defense
- Supported by states for tax revenue
- Uses money to settle out of court if about to lose
- Plaintiffs die before jury deliberates
- Tobacco Industry is very secretive / careful about documents (do not leave “smoking guns” around)
- Charges against Tobacco Industry (on an unprecedented magnitude):
(a) fraud
(b) conspiracy
(c) negligence
(d) false advertising
(e) product liability
1950s
- Tobacco Industry needed better public relations to counter against the American Cancer Society
- Published “A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers” which is widely cited by the Tobacco industry:
(a) articulates a position central to the industry’s subsequent justifications of its activities (causation and proof have not been demonstrated
(b) shows frank disdain by the industry of scientific, medical, and technical research accepted by nearly all medical and scientific professionals outside the industry
(c) attempts to lay upon industry a mantle of scientific honesty and rigor that has been found to be false and deliberately misleading
- Summary: basically attempts to say that industry is a protector of public health and an authority on scientific rigor
- 4 points in document
(a) lung cancer has many possible causes (doesn’t mention smoking was extremely common)
(b) “no agreement among the authorities”
(c) “no proof that cigarette smoking is one of the causes”
(d) conclusions drawn from statistics can be misleading or confusing
- Tobacco Industry uses words to mislead public
- Tobacco Industry’s statements mixed with serious and comic meanings allowing industry to defer either way
1960s
- US Surgeon General became involved
- Tobacco Industry running out of reputable scientists willing to endorse them
- Nicotine found to be addictive
- Tobacco Industry: protects itself over health of public
1970s
- introduced filters to cigarettes
- told public that it was done because of perception of public that smoking is linked to health problems
- Tobacco Industry “technical documents” acknowledges health hazard then denies it (tries to go both ways)
- People became interested in health of non-smokers (started banning smoking)
- Inversions of meaning and opposition to generally accepted knowledge – hallmarks of sophistical argumentation
- mid 1970s: ignorance is bliss (industry closed down research into effects of smoking because of all the bad health information they were finding)
- public and government kept in the dark by having reports written under supervision of lawyers (lawyer-client confidentiality)
1980s
- Control over information tightened even more
- Reports limited to snippets in order to limit potential damaging information
- Lawyers were present every step of the way in scientific research
1990s
- Secret documents come to light from whistleblowers and disgruntled insiders
- Tobacco Industry backed into a corner from private and public perspective
- Liggett Group (Major Tobacco Company) admitted nicotine was addictive in 1997. Other tobacco companies distance themselves away from it.
- States start suing Tobacco Companies successfully
A Single Word
- Management says nicotine is not addictive
- Documents appear that indicate otherwise (management knew as well)
- Industry defers to public health authorities by putting statements such as “Smoking causes cancer.” on boxes but not necessarily agreeing with the statements
Graphical Images
- Words difficult to pin down regarding their meaning, interpretation, and ethical significance. Graphical Images are even harder (photographs, etc.)
- The charm of diversions is an old theme running throughout the history of rhetoric and ethics.
- R.J. Reynolds: launched campaign geared towards children (ages 9 to 24) to smoke his brand of cigarettes after studies showed that most people were faithful to the first brand of cigarettes smoked
- David McLean (Marlboro Man) was forced to smoke up to five packs of Marlboros a day in order to get the right advertising effect
- Graphical images also used to teach children about the harmful effects of smoking
Ethical Appraisal
- Aristotle
Aristotle does not approve of the tactics used by the Tobacco Industry. The industry was unethical and was dishonest in their debate for why smoking is not unhealthy. Debate was pointless because the truth of whether smoking cigarettes is harmful to one’s health is already apparent.
- Kant
Tobacco documents are clearly unethical because they do not act in a manner which could become a universal principle applying to everyone. The Tobacco Industry has not treated everyone in a way which they would want to be treated. They have continually opposed those working for the public good for the benefit of their industry.
- Utilitarian
Utilitarian perspective weighs cost against benefits. Question is to whom? The Tobacco Industry’s plan follows that idea; however, few people outside the industry would view it as ethical.
- Feminist Perspective and Ethics of Care
The actions of the Tobacco Industry is unethical because they are impersonal corporations driven by their own goals and do not care that many people die a slow, painful death as a result of smoking.


Ch 7: Star Wars: Hope vs. Reality
Examine ethical issues in technical communications involving claims about the software that was to be used in the Star Wars nuclear missile defense system.
- The speculation of communicators had gone too far in the Star Wars Missile Defense System. Went so far as to speculate about technologies that had not been discovered yet, and also suggested a present technical reality that did not exist.
- Claims about the feasibility of and effectiveness of Star Wars were buried in language that freely intermixed past and present technical reality with future goals and wishful expectations.
Context
- Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), also known as “Star Wars” after the movie, was to protect the US from annihilation by the nuclear missiles of the Soviet Union.
Overview of SDI
- President Ronald Reagan proposed SDI on March 23, 1983 as a way to defend the US against a nuclear attack.
- Startling announcement because:
(a) vast scope
(b) unanticipated by the public
(c) astronomical expense of the proposed system
- Speech doesn’t offer plan but a goal of the form of a “vision of the future”
- Speech noteworthy not only of important military statement but also for its ethical and moral components as well.
- Value dimension gives speech its ethical thrust.
- Show powerful influence of values in shaping public discourse and technical claims about a highly technical topic.
A Complex System
- 5 key areas
(a) surveillance, acquisition, tracking, and kill assessment
(b) directed energy weapons
(c) kinetic energy weapons
(d) survivability, lethality, and key technologies
(e) systems concepts and battle management
- 4 phases of missile flight
(a) boost
(b) post-boost
(c) midcourse
(d) terminal
- idea for redundant system that tries to intercept missile at each of the four phases (would have to be quick so entirely computer automated)
- ground, air, space, and submarines working together flawlessly and seamlessly. Not to mention having to operate in space and prepare for different strategies such as subsequent missile attacks after they empty themselves and not have all counter defenses work at the same time. Does not help that the US military has a bad record when it comes to software and hardware (imagine surviving the conditions of space).
Congressional Office of Technology Assessment
- Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) report was fairly optimistic but with significant concern
- Four “misapprehensions” regarding the stated goals of the president’s plan
(a) Separate devices such as lasers are not the same as the total system, which is complex
(b) SDI is unlike any prior technical program such as the Manhattan project
(c) Hopes for completely new technologies cannot be realistic
(d) Accurate predictions cannot be made about the performance of the complex system. No realistic test of the system beforehand. All possible outcomes cannot be anticipated.
- Concerns that system (millions of lines of code) would have to operate flawlessly the first time
- Draws 3 conclusions from the chapter on software
(a) Experience shows that large, complex software systems cannot be reliable and would always have unresolved issues
(b) No guarantee that the system would not fail during battle as a result of software error. High probability of failure drawn from experience with the BMD (Ballistic Missile Defense) system
(c) No adequate models exist for the development, production, test, and maintenance of software for full-scale BMD systems
Congressional Hearing
- 2 questions
(a) Does the person share the president’s view that Star Wars would render nuclear weapons “impotent and obsolete”?
(b) Does the person share the view of Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger that Star Wars would be a “reliable and total” system of protection against nuclear weapons?
- President’s science advisor, George Keyworth, basically said that the purpose now was not defense but leverage in negotiations for arms control and reduction agreements.
- Director of SDI Organization, Lt General Abrahamson, presented the goals, aims, and intentions as practical realities.
- The exchange between Senator Tsongas and various others showed that seemingly definite technical information can be derived from speculation and wishes and from backward reasoning that might not hold up under scrutiny.
SDI Documents, Pro and Con
+ Pro
- Moral, political, or ideological statements used to try to convince others
- Goal reduced from protecting the US and allies to arms deterrent
- Optimism about new technologies yet to be discovered and anything was possible in America
+ Con
- Infeasibility
- Overwhelming consensus of nation’s technical community is that there is no prospect whatever that science and technology can, at any time in the next several decades, make nuclear weapons “impotent and obsolete.”
- Examples used to show human and software error makes president’s vision impossible
- Amount of resources involved and current technology is impossible
Parnas
- David Parnas: father of software engineering and has experience in designing military software systems.
- The technical is ethical and the ethical is technical for Parnas
- Statement on SDI is an exemplary model of clear, effective, and ethical technical communication in many ways.
- Statement is highly technical yet clear. General but not vague. Direct, incisive, and entirely clear. It has consistent focus and a clear, coherent development of its arguments, which all deal with crucial points.
- On the contrary, SDI supporters very lengthy explanation and very technical. Reader feels compelled to fold out of exhaustion, confusion, or intimidation.
- Clear about the need for truthfulness and for frank, open discussion in public about technical and strategic realities.
- Point was that there was no software that could be developed that would be trustworthy in the sense that it would work 100 percent of the time when it was needed to
- Ethos: a rhetorical term referring to believability on the basis of perceived character
- Parnas also gives credibility to his statements by giving his qualifications as a software engineer and a military systems designer.
- Resignation from panel adds to credibility because he had nothing to gain by resigning but a good bit to lose.
- Everybody on pro SDI panel had something to gain by continuation of project, and Parnas was the only qualified person on the panel
- Parnas explains his sense of professional ethical responsibility that motivated his action.
- As a professional:
(a) I am responsible for my own actions and cannot rely on any external authority to make my decisions for me.
(b) I cannot ignore ethical and moral issues. I must devote some of my energy to deciding whether the task that I have been given is of benefit to society.
(c) I must make sure that I am solving the real problem, not simply providing short-term satisfaction to my supervisor.
- need only to be true to their professional responsibilities
- No inconsistencies between professional responsibilities, public, civic responsibilities, and personal responsibilities.
- Plato, Aristotle, Kant, feminist ethicists, and an ethic of care perspective approve of the way Parnas acts and his caring concern for the public good through honest, open discussion.
- Utilitarianism disagrees because the personal good oftentimes will disagree with the public good or professional good.
- Whistleblower because he made to light wishes of his colleagues for him to shut up. He also made the panel seem unqualified, selfish, ineffective, and unethical.
- Awarded the first Norbert Weiner Award for Social and Professional Responsibilities by the organization Computer Professionals for Social Responsibilities in 1987.
Star Wars Boycott Pledge
- Sense of ethical and civic responsibility by the community showed in the form of the Star Wars Boycott Pledge.
- Department of Defense tried to get many scientists and technical experts to support them.
- Signers were communicating about the technical, political, and ethical matters.
- Petition included 15 Nobel Prize winners and over 50 percent of the faculty of the top twenty US physics departments along with 3700 scientists, engineering professors, and researchers at over 110 academic institutions.
- Sociologist Michael Nusbaumer says “Scientists of all types are increasingly aware of and are being held responsible for their science and its relationship to larger social and political issues.”
Patriot: Small-Scale SDI
- Patriot Missile Defense system : small Star Wars system
- Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) still develops missiles to intercept incoming warheads
- Patriot Missiles were less likely to intercept SCUD missiles during the Persian Gulf War as time went on.
- Our responsibility as technical communicators is to try to ensure as best we can that our representation of information corresponds to the reality.
Technical Claims about Air Operations
- Example when it comes to the discrepancy between claims and reality (a large one in this case).
Ethical Appraisal
+ Aristotle
- Undecided: unclear whether supporters could be characterized as representing a virtuous persona or whether they deny any suggestion over feasibility and realistically
+ Kant
- Undecided: same dilemma (in what way were the supporters of SDI acting: virtuous or themselves)
+ Utilitarianism
- Ethical if carried through with intended purpose (defense)
- Unethical if carried through knowing it would be ineffective
+ Feminist Perspective and Ethics of Care
- Feminist perspective opposed to military
- Defense of US and Allies shows caring
- On the other hand unethical considering SDI supporters tried to stop dissenting voices
+ Resignation of David Parnas
Aristotle – ethical (sought the true, good, and right in this matter)
Kant – ethical (treating audience as he himself would wish to be treated and his sense of duty prevails)
Utilitarian – ethical (actions avoided fruitless costs on a program that would fail)
Feminist – ethical (showed caring towards the public)
Parnas’s statement is an exemplary model of ethical technical communication considering he could have just said nothing and taken the easy way out.
Conclusion
- SDI had a laudable goal.
- Many reasons for SDI not working. Most important was software would not work as needed.
- Concern for security can cloud our judgment over highly technical matters.
- Our ethical responsibility as communicators is to make sure that our hopes and wants do not cloud our claims about our technical abilities.