This is not a new issue by any means, and judging by a quick look at the archives, even its treatment in The Iron Warrior is far from novel. That said, it’s the type of issue that is difficult to overemphasize the importance of. I hope this article will act as a simple reminder to everyone to be as cognizant of the implications of their employment choices, and how they direct their energies, as possible.
As future engineers, you have a responsibility not only to yourself but to your planet and your society to be very critical of the type of work you do and the type of interests you advance. Although a lot of the work done by engineers, especially by co-op students, seems relatively politically neutral, nothing is politically neutral when framed in a broader context. An inadequate attempt to ensure graduating engineers have some semblance of an understanding of this is seen through the mandatory List A elective courses, but even this (depending on your choice) can leave you with a greater understanding of the ontological problems of medical ethics than the workings of the society in which you live.
In my more cynical moments, I wonder if this is not almost by design. It’s not a secret that engineering course loads are time-consuming and fairly elective-barren (especially for non-technical electives), and I’ve found through personal experience (and I doubt I am alone in this) that during school terms, my ability to educate myself politically and keep up with world affairs is certainly diminished. This is obviously not a Waterloo-specific anomaly — friends in technical programs across Canada and in the US, as well as common sense, lead me to believe that this is basically a reality for engineering (and many science) undergraduates across North America. I’m not arguing that this isn’t largely by necessity (it simply takes a lot of time and work to become technically competent), but I would venture to say it is also a convenient reality for the advancement of several morally ambiguous aims.
There are a lot of very difficult practical problems out there in the world waiting to be solved. The importance of the engineer and scientist in solving these problems is paramount — this is reflected in the salaries given and the lengths certain companies and governments will go to retain their very best engineers, for they are, in some cases, what allows them to function and remain competitive. The effect the invention of the atomic bomb has had on the global political landscape can be debated ad infinitum, but the fact remains that without scientists and engineers, it could never have become a reality. Most of us will never have to face a moral dilemma on the magnitude of Oppenheimer, but collectively, the choices you make do have an enormous difference.
Do adequate research on prospective employers; some come pre-packaged with pretty obvious moral dilemmas (e.g., the Department of National Defence), but there are many others which have much less obvious moral implications and require some digging. Always be wary of concentrations of information and power in relatively few hands, regardless of how noble their intentions seem (I can think of several such companies who actively recruit from Waterloo and I’m sure you can too). Remember that it is never in the interest of corporate power to have you understand what you are doing on a large scale and question the moral validity of it; it is 100% up to you. If anything, you might even expect these corporations to exert whatever pressure they can on our educational institutions to ensure we are LESS aware of these implications, and though my research into the extent this happens (especially in Canada) is admittedly limited and outside the scope of this article, the idea is plausible. Why did PDEng exist (i.e., ‘how to be a good worker’) on work terms instead of courses on the effects our jobs are having on the global social landscape? Shouldn’t we be empowering engineers to take the consequences of their actions into their own hands, instead of turning them into ever-more unquestioning instruments of corporate power? I’m not attempting to pass plausibility and speculation as evidence, but it is prudent to think about examples like these and question who they are really in service of.
The rewards to put on the blinders and take the cushy salary are enticing, but then, they always have been in every sector of society, and engineering is no different. It is easy to feel like an isolated case and that you should just ignore these things – after all, you’ve done the work to get to where you are, you may feel you should take whatever job you can get – and this atomizing effect is precisely how good people make questionable choices. I personally think that engineering is one of the more interesting cases of this phenomenon, however, since without engineers, a lot of the actual work doesn’t get done. You truly have more power than you realize.
Remember that technology can be beautiful and can be a great democratizer, but in the wrong hands it can be an instrument of oppression of ever-increasing complexity. Keep this in mind as you apply for co-op jobs, and more importantly as you go through full-time interviews and become more permanently integrated into society’s institutions (regardless of what path you take after graduation). As a segment of society with relatively specialized knowledge which can effect real change on the quality of life of people, you are in a unique position to use that knowledge responsibly. I urge every reader of this article to not let this fact slip into the periphery.
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