ETHICS OF AUTOCAD
What are the ethics behind AutoCAD? Are there any ethics at all? If we look at AutoCAD from the point of view of it being nothing more than a computer program which enables us to draw pictures and layouts of structures, such as buildings, bridges, and art with great ease and with the ability to change and modify plans at a whim, then one could say it is a great asset. AutoCAD allows people to do great things like change the world for the better of mankind by improving our standard of living and by allowing us to do more work in a shorter time frame. Scales of projects are only limited by one’s imagination and by how big one can dream. Within AutoCAD there are many tools that allow dreams to become reality. One can make any shape or design, any angle or curve that is desired; the possibilities are endless. The tools within AutoCAD can be used for good and beauty.
On the other hand, what about the unethical side of AutoCAD? While AutoCAD enables mankind to build structures with ease, it is contributing to the development of untouched land; it is also affecting the wildlife of this planet, making species more endangered as they lose more and more of their habitat. Mankind is able to change the face of this planet with the tools that are available. One affect AutoCAD has on the Earth is that it permanently changes the natural state of land by the introduction of new materials, for example, when someone builds a bridge that is over a kilometre long or when someone builds the tallest building in the world. All the materials that go into these projects have to come from somewhere and be taken away from something else or destroy a piece of land. While there are good things about the building itself, like all the jobs the project will create, from an environmental point of view it is draining natural resources for one single project. What happens to the land when the world’s biggest dams and dykes are built? Mankind may not know the consequences of those projects yet as “…it is always harder to see the bigger impact while you are in the vortex of a change.”[1] For instance, what happens if these are the reason for the changing weather patterns or the cause of hundreds of animals dying? People continue to build bigger and bigger with no end in sight; it is within some to prove that they are the biggest, the brightest and the best at whatever project they under take. In the article, Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us, Bill Joy agrees stating, “…with each of these technologies, a sequence of small, individually sensible advances leads to an accumulation of great power and, concomitantly, great danger.”[2] This mentality may become mankind’s demise.
At first thought about the ethics of AutoCAD, one may think it to be absurd and a waste of time to think about. However, upon further thought, it is evident that there can be an unethical side to AutoCAD, even though it is known to enrich our lives by making it possible to conquer new structural feats. But when you step back and look at it from a different perspective one begins to see how there could be an unethical side. In conclusion, “given the incredible power of these new technologies, shouldn't we be asking how we can best coexist with them? And if our own extinction is a likely, or even possible, outcome of our technological development, shouldn't we proceed with great caution?”[3]
Neither one of these structures would have been possible without the design capabilities of AutoCAD. What are the environmental issues with building structures as big and as complex as these?