THE ETHICS OF MODELING

This paper considers the professional responsibilities and ethical iss ues associated with engineering modelling. The ethical issues are firs t delineated. Several engineering cases of faulty modelling (and their disastrous consequences) are next presented, with suggestions as to h ow greater sensitivity to ethical considerations might have prevented the problems, The issues are then extended to large-scale economic sys tem modelling with an example taken from the recent past of engineerin g-economic system modelling. Conclusions are made regarding the essent ial importance of the connections between modelling and ethics. Copyri ght (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.