Sponsored by the Office for History of Science and Technology (UC Berkeley)
And the History of Health Sciences Program (UCSF)
Rebecca Slayton
Stanford University
-
Catastrophic Failures and Technical Progress: Risk Communication in Software History
How does a technical field assess and communicate objectively about risks associated with its work? What distinguishes “professional responsibility,” traditionally an attempt to establish expert authority and credibility, from counter-establishment notions of “activism”? This talk examines these questions by showing how the contentious field of “software engineering” historically emerged and evolved in response to public concerns about software risks. I argue that software experts’ perceptions of risk have been strongly shaped by ideological commitments to technical progress, and that this has led them to minimize risks of catastrophic software failures. However, software experts have become more willing to communicate about the limits of technical progress as they have gained a sense of professional establishment. More broadly, these findings suggest that while risk communication is strongly shaped by professional vocation and a selective historical memory, socio-political crises may prompt experts to push beyond established boundaries of professional risk and responsibility, and re-evaluate the risks associated with their work.
4:00PM
Monday, November 5, 2007
279 Dwinelle Hall
UC Berkeley
Office for History of Science and Technology, 543 Stephens Hall #2350
University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-2350
tel: (510) 642-4581, e-mail: ohst@berkeley.edu
