Deck 12: The Problem of Many Hands: Who Is Responsible and Should Anyone Be Blamed

Question 1

Can an engineer be1morally responsible for something he or she is not causally responsible for? Explain.

Answer 1

No Answer.

Question 2

Who was responsible for the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse? Why?

Answer 2

No Answer.

Question 3

Who was responsible for the deaths caused by the Therac-25? Why?

Answer 3

No Answer.

Question 4

What is the problem of many hands, and why is the Titanic disaster a good illustration of this?
5 Discuss the idea that there is sometimes be a gap between the responsibility we assign to the group and to its individual members.

Question 5

The explanation for the structural failure that led to Hyatt Regency walkway collapse is a

A) change in design by the builder to bolt instead of weld joints holding the walkway.
B) change in design which tripled the load on a nut holding the walkway.
C) decision to opt for two steel rods instead of one holding the walkway.
D) All of the above

Question 6

The design change that led to the structural failure

A) was proposed by the builder Havens Steel Company.
B) was officially approved by the designer Jack D. Gillum.
C) can be traced to a single responsible individual who approved it.
D) None of the above

Question 7

Havens Steel's claim that they received verbal approval for the design change from an engineer at Jack D. Gillum with the understanding that a written request would be submitted is irrelevant because

A) no written request was ever submitted.
B) the engineer who gave verbal approval was not qualified to make the decision.
C) the change that was approved by Gillum was not followed by Haven Steel.
D) None of the above

Question 8

RMS Titanic sank on its maiden voyage on April 14, 1912. This a good illustration of the problem of many hands because

A) the captain did not keep both his hands on the steering wheel.
B) the captain was solely responsible for the sinking of the ship.
C) a group of people were jointly responsible for the negative outcome and it was difficult (or impossible) to assign responsibility to each individual member of the group.
D) All of the above

Question 9

The main change in the Therac-25 over previous versions like the Therac-6 and Therac-20 is that the Therac-25

A) used a different source of radiation that is more dangerous to human health.
B) had no mechanical interlocks to set the amount of radiation; radiation amount was controlled by software.
C) was much more difficult to operate properly.
D) None of the above

Question 10

The Therac-25 case primarily raises ethical questions about the

A) lack of adequate training and oversight of programmers and technicians.
B) moral permissibility of using radiation for medical treatments.
C) internal coherence of the NSPE Code of Ethics.
D) None of the above

Question 11

After a patient died of massive radiation overdose in a Therac-25 machine, the manufacturer

A) required all technicians to be retrained.
B) tested the code but could not reproduce the error.
C) found the error but did not fix it after a cost-benefit analysis.
D) All of the above

Question 12

A technician named Fritz Hager revealed that

A) he had not received extensive training by the manufacturer.
B) the error occurred only when the technician typed the commands in quickly.
C) the error was simple to fix but expensive.
D) All of the above

Question 13

An investigation into the code revealed

A) all the code was written by a single programmer.
B) much of the code was in the form of modules lifted from previous version of Therac.
C) the faulty code did not cause harm in previous versions because of mechanical interlocks.
D) All of the above

Question 14

What was the take-home message of the Therac 25 case?

A) Software engineers are never responsible for their actions.
B) Analogue technologies are always safer than digital ones.
C) Bad software can kill people.
D) All of the above

Question 15

Which of the following is a condition for Braham and Van Hees multiagent interactions?

A) For every action, there are at least two individuals who could have prevented it.
B) There is no single individual who can adopt a course of action that will lead to that individual's chosen outcome irrespective of what others do.
C) For every outcome, it is not the case that one agent is responsible.
D) All of the above

Question 16

The fact that not all of Braham and van Hees's three conditions can be satisfied simultaneously does not mean it is impossible to coherently allocate moral responsibility for collective outcomes because we

A) can accept fragmentations in responsibility allocations.
B) can still make an assignment of responsibility after making a theoretical choice.
C) could deny that at least one individual is responsible for every state of affairs.
D) All of the above

Question 17

The problem of many hands occurs when

A) there is a gap in the distribution of responsibility within a group of agents.
B) engineers collaborating on a project do not communicate and a disaster occurs because of joint activity.
C) no single individual is responsible, yet we have reason to believe that someone did something he or she should be held responsible for.
D) All of the above

Question 18

Aristotle maintains we are responsible for our actions just in case we

A) have deliberated about what to do.
B) are able to voluntarily decide and be aware of what we are doing.
C) do what the phronimos would do in our situation.
D) None of the above

Question 19

Legal philosopher H. L. A. Hart thinks we should think of responsibility in terms of

A) liability-responsibility.
B) role-responsibility.
C) causal responsibility.
D) All of the above

Question 20

The common-sense notion of being morally responsible for an act assumes situations in which the

A) agent has causal responsibility.
B) agent has liability-responsibility.
C) act is voluntary.
D) All of the above

Question 21

In the case of the Titanic, the lookout and first officer had what sort of responsibility?

A) Causal responsibility
B) Liability responsibility
C) Backward-looking responsibility
D) All of the above

Question 22

Which of the following led to the massive loss of life in the sinking of the Titanic?

A) An insufficient number of watertight bulkheads
B) An insufficient number of lifeboats
C) The decision to turn rather than maintain a straight course over iceberg
D) All of the above

Question 23

If we believe that a group is nothing over and above its members, and we believe that claims about guilt and blame should depend on claims about moral responsibility, then

A) we have the moral concepts necessary to coherently take on global warming.
B) one can be guilty as a member of a group, but not guilty as an individual.
C) collective outcomes are susceptible to fragmentation of responsibility.
D) None of the above

Question 24

Which of the following has been proposed as a technical solution to smartphone addiction?

A) Phones that shame users for how much time they spend on them
B) More advanced notification settings
C) Phones that give users a weekly report on their activity
D) All of the above