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The Farmer & Farmer Review . Modern Medicine . The Ethics of Code

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We understand the potency of drugs and medicine — both to do harm and to heal — so we entrust the FDA to regulate them. If a given drug is found to harm more than it heals, we’re encouraged not to use it. But sometimes a drug is so addictive that we use it anyway — even if it hurts us — and we go to extraordinary lengths to obtain another dose. For this reason, harmful drugs are often very good for business (see: Mexico), because, maddened by addiction, users stray from rationality and reason just to get their fix, regardless of the cost. A lot of software is designed to be addictive. In Silicon Valley, the addictivity of a given piece of software is considered an asset. Companies strive to make their products “viral” and “sticky” so that “users keep coming back” to “get their daily fix.” This sounds a lot like dealing drugs. It might be good for business, but is it good for people? As citizens, there are some things we could do. We could introduce citizen oversight for software compan

The Farmer & Farmer Review . Modern Medicine . The Ethics of Code We understand the potency of drugs and medicine — both to do harm and to heal — so we entrust the FDA to regulate them. If a given drug is found to harm more than it heals, we’re encouraged not to use it. But sometimes a drug is so addictive that we use it anyway — even if it hurts us — and we go to extraordinary lengths to obtain another dose. For this reason, harmful drugs are often very good for business (see: Mexico), because, maddened by addiction, users stray from rationality and reason just to get their fix, regardless of

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