-The tragedy lies in the entirely preventable nature of these deaths and in the strained resistance of the tobacco industry to acknowledging its ethical responsibilities.
-The industry knew full well, these authorities contend, that they were causing serious illness and death on a tremendous scale
-It is clear that steady smokers will in general lose from ten to twenty years from their nonsmoking life expectancy, regardless of the specific disorder from which they die
-The first reason concerns probabilities and populations rather than certanties and individual persons
-With statistical causes, the connection between cause and effect is often not immediately seen as it does in the case of smoking and cancer
-In the case of the Challenger, on the other hand, the connection between cause and effect was close in time
-The tobacco industry has engaged in an aggressive program of misinformation, obfuscation, denial, and opposition that has clouded the connection between smoking and disease in minds of the public
-For over fifty years the statistical connection between smoking and cancer and other diseases has been known and generally accepted among scientists. Each year this knowledge is reinforced as more and more studies show the same statistical connection. Heavier smoking and over a long periok correlate with greater incidences of disease and shorter life expectancy
-The technique of the sophists as traditionally represented do seem to closely resemble those of the tobacco industry, and our ethical judgement of them is similarly negative
-In the case of the tobacco industry, the knowledge of harmful effects was known with practical certainty, regardless of the industry's denial of such knowledge
-Therefore they knowingly and willfully brought certain disease and death to a portion of their consumers and did so over the course of several decades in direct defiance of the urgings of governmental and medical authorities. They were also conscious of their continuous deception as they schemed for language and arguments to avoid any public acknowledgement of what they well knew
DOCUMENTS
-The tobacco industry in 1997 negotiated some of the terms of an out-of-court settlement of gigantic magnitude, on the order of 350 billion dollars over a period of years
-The tobacco industry had never, until very recently, lost a case in the courts over the damaging effects of its products, their addictiveness, or their advertising methods. On the face of it, this fact might appear to suggest that they were in the right
-Every time a case has approached a culmination that might yield a decision unfavorable to the industry, the industry has negotiated an out-of-court settlement
-Many of the documents we have to work with are worded in obtuse, contorted ways to disguise their direct substance
-The industry has taken active steps to distance itself from the information it already had. Files were purged and potentially incriminating documents were shredded.
-The industry tried to conceal any potential "smoking guns"
1950s
-In the early 1950s several medical research reports were published linking smoking with lung cancer, other cancers, and other diseases
-The HIll and Knowlton memorandum stated the problem is not one of concern for health but for public relations. Their plan was to form a research group supposedly independent of the tobacco industry
1960s
-The the early 1960s the surgeon general appointed an advisory committee to investigate the health effects of smoking. The industry had to respond to governmental concerns from such a high level.
-Disagreement as to whether the evidence warranted using the term "cause"
-The document states that its true purpose was not disinterested science but public relations propaganda intended to oppose genuine scientific research
-No industry was going to accept that its product was toxic or even believe it to be so
1970s
-The had become highly interested in filtered cigarettes as a way to respond to increasing health concerns among the public and in government
-The tactic they settled on was to try to justify the filtering of cigarettes on the basis of only a perception among the public that smoking is linked to health problems, without actually acknowledging the reality that smoking causes health problems
1980s
-The control of information by lawyers in order to prevent disclosures that would be detrimental to the industry was tightened.
-Lawyers struggled to find a way to make the industry's activities appear defensible
-The language and the argument of a report could also be reworked by lawyers and managers to water them down, make them seem more tentative, or otherwise obfuscate the full meaning and significance of the information.
1990s
-Public and private outcries, governmental inquiries, legislative actions, and judicial suits are finally beginning to take their toll
GRAPHICAL IMAGES
-The meaning we might ascribe to an image can be strongly influenced by the context in which it appears
-We are less likely to read carefully the required fine-print notice warning us that all cigarettes, including Camels, cause terrible diseases and death.
-The industry deliberatley aimed its advertising to the age group least likely to resist their messages and least likely to be concerned with their health whether immediately or in later years
STAR WARS
Hope VS. Reality
-Much of the technical communications about the software planned for SDI have to do with the prospective future rather thatn the real, immediate present
-It might have been more ethically responsible and in keeping with standard government practice to have consulted more thoroughly with recognized technical and scientific experts on the feasibility of claims made for Star Wars
-The mission assigned to SDI changed substantially over time
Context
-Definite, objective topics such as computer software programs and the performance we can expect of them, often carry with them a heavy burden of judgment, both technical and ethical
-The question is only whether appeals to national security should be allowed to exaggerate, distort, or misrepresent realistic technical matters
Overview of SDI
-"Technical optimism" is the assumption that any problem can be solved by technological means and than this technology can be devised if onyl sufficient will, money, and talent are applied to the problem.
Congressional Office of Technology Assessment
-Four misapprehensions regarding the stated goals of the president's plan:
- Individual, separate devices such as lasers are not the same as the total system in which they would be used together, which would extremely complex
- SDI is unlike any prior technical program such as the Manhattan project
- Hopes for entirely new technologies cannot be realistic. "Such breakthroughs are not impossible, but their mere possibility does not help in judging the prospects for the perfect defense"
- Accurate predictions cannot be made about the performance of this complex system. There is, and can be, no realistic test of the system before hand; all possible outcomes cannot be anticipated
Congressional Hearing
-The debate over SDI was particularly heated and was particularly concerned about the possibility unethical misrepresentation of technical feasibility
-Its purpose was not defense per se but leverage in negotiations for arms control and reduction arguments
SDI Documents, Pro and Con
Pro
-Proponents would not, however, directly emphasize technological feasibility
-Celebration of past technological achievements generates a sort of patriotic fervor that distracts one from considering the realities of SDI
-There are many sides to the problem of preventing nuclear war
Con
-The hardware was thought to be at least remotely feasible, the vitally important software was seen as fundamentally infeasible
Parnas
-Parna's statement takes a definite ethical stance that is clearly articulated, firmly defined, and appropriate for the context
-He also takes care to explain that his conclusions are expert professional judgments from someone with military software experience
-Parna's chief point is that no software system could possibly be developed along the lines required by SDI that would be "trustworthy"
Star Wars Boycott Pledge
-No other technical and scientific issue in modern times-except for the development and proliferation of nuclear weapons themselves-has so stirred this community. This sense of ethical responsibility was coupled with a civic responsibility and burst forth dramatically in the form of the public Star Wars Boycott Pledge
-Signing the pledge was a selfless gesture that could do real damage to their reputations and livelihoods
Technical Claims about Air Operations
-GAO examined in detail the validity of claims made by various sources about the air operations during Desert Storm, particularly about the effectiveness and suitability of new weapons systems such as precision guided munitions and the F-117 stealth attack aircraft
