ETHICS: A MISSION FOR THE ENGINEERING FEDERATIONS
Abstract Consideration is given to the dilemmas faced by engineers, if and when conflicts arise between the individual's sense of social responsibility and his specific technical interests. A specialized topic included with these is the protection required for whistle-blowers. In general, it is asserted that creating a climate in which ethical behaviour may flourish should be considered as one of the most sophisticated, but also one of the most rewarding, tasks facing the engineering federations. Recommended actions on behalf of IFAC and other engineering federations are outlined. Finally a warning is given against extremist attempts to exploit ethical issues in engineering.
The human role in the age of information
Age of automation entails freedom from most of the common working roles. Signs are changes in employment, unemployment, professional structures, relevance of services, entertainment industry, working hours, and the nature of social relations. Warnings are suggested against voluntaristic interventions, neglect of social, historical relations. New approaches are required in the fields of lifelong education and in the education of socially disadvantaged people. The changes in evolutionary inherited motivations and life styles are critical challenges to mankind. Open society and lessons of system control are recommended.
CONDITIONAL FUZZY MEASURES AND THEIR APPLICATIONS
Publisher Summary This chapter introduces a set function, that is, conditional fuzzy measure and a relation between a priori and a posteriori fuzzy measures. These are very useful for describing any kind of transition of fuzzy phenomena such as communication of rumors, the reprint of color photograph, and the development of human abilities by education. The common characteristics of these phenomena are that the measures describing their status are very vague and that their transitions are influenced greatly by the subjectivity of the people who are involved in such fuzzy phenomena. It is well known that the uncertainty of human behavior is sometimes conveniently expressed by the subjective probability (judgmental probability) in Bayesian statistics. But one cannot say that this is the best way of expressing the fuzziness unless the problem is directly related to decision making.