Hubris & Humility
Humility has been a theme of my thinking for this semester and I think it has strong implications as an ethical virtue.
This is especially the case when talking about technology.
I first started thinking about writing this blog post when I listened to the first of songs off of J Cole's Forest Hills Drive album. It struck me that I had not often heard a rapper talk about not being on top, and about a struggle that was relatable (something other than "started from the bottom, now we're here"). And I realized that it took a lot of humility on his part to rap about that. The chorus of the song that sticks in my mind is "no such thing as a life that's better than yours" and I think this is something that engineers need to hear, also, if they think of engineering as something that makes life better.
I'm defining humility as "the acknowledgment of limitations on your ability to achieve or control outcomes". Defining it like this, it sounds relevant to engineering, doesn't it? Technologies of humility are designed and used with the acknowledgment that the designers and engineers do not know everything about the outcomes of the technology. The technology is recognized to be out of the control of the people who make it. Not only that, but the environment in which the technology plays a part is out of the control of the designers and engineers as well. Technologies of humility are defined in opposition to technologies of hubris, where engineers assume that every variable can be controlled for, and believe that the results of the technology will play out exactly as theorized.
Research questions surrounding these constructs are perhaps the most interesting to me. I think it's hubris that prevents us from acknowledging certain unpalatable parts of ourselves. Hubris deters us from recognizing technology as intentionally or unintentionally racist. It encourages us to think that all technology is "progress", whatever progress means, even if it means colonization. Hubris is what makes engineers think that they are in the right, that there is no ethical dilemma, without even checking. It took a lot of hubris for the engineers of D.C.'s water crisis to claim that they were pioneers in the knowledge about lead-in-water, rather than the criminals and liars that they were.
And I don't think that all engineering is hubristic. But based on my engineering education, and on the culture of engineering education, it seems that if engineering is humble, that is by accident rather than by design. I hope to do something about that.
This is especially the case when talking about technology.
I first started thinking about writing this blog post when I listened to the first of songs off of J Cole's Forest Hills Drive album. It struck me that I had not often heard a rapper talk about not being on top, and about a struggle that was relatable (something other than "started from the bottom, now we're here"). And I realized that it took a lot of humility on his part to rap about that. The chorus of the song that sticks in my mind is "no such thing as a life that's better than yours" and I think this is something that engineers need to hear, also, if they think of engineering as something that makes life better.
I'm defining humility as "the acknowledgment of limitations on your ability to achieve or control outcomes". Defining it like this, it sounds relevant to engineering, doesn't it? Technologies of humility are designed and used with the acknowledgment that the designers and engineers do not know everything about the outcomes of the technology. The technology is recognized to be out of the control of the people who make it. Not only that, but the environment in which the technology plays a part is out of the control of the designers and engineers as well. Technologies of humility are defined in opposition to technologies of hubris, where engineers assume that every variable can be controlled for, and believe that the results of the technology will play out exactly as theorized.
Research questions surrounding these constructs are perhaps the most interesting to me. I think it's hubris that prevents us from acknowledging certain unpalatable parts of ourselves. Hubris deters us from recognizing technology as intentionally or unintentionally racist. It encourages us to think that all technology is "progress", whatever progress means, even if it means colonization. Hubris is what makes engineers think that they are in the right, that there is no ethical dilemma, without even checking. It took a lot of hubris for the engineers of D.C.'s water crisis to claim that they were pioneers in the knowledge about lead-in-water, rather than the criminals and liars that they were.
And I don't think that all engineering is hubristic. But based on my engineering education, and on the culture of engineering education, it seems that if engineering is humble, that is by accident rather than by design. I hope to do something about that.
Thank you for the post! I am confused now what I would like in engineering: humility or hubris. I would like the engineer/engineering to know all the aspects of the science it is applying to but I also understand that every science is interconnected to other and it may not be possible to know all the outcomes. However, it is difficult to understand which science the engineering is not taking into consideration. If it is known then rather than informing that the engineering does not know the impacts on the particular science it will be better to find the impact and work on it. I wish you work on it and when you work on it, I hope things will become more clear to me.
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