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Comment by newtothebay | Hacker News Reader

Humanities knowledge is just a tool which may and may not be used for good. FAANG already hires tons of humanities and social science PhDs to understand user behaviors. Whether that's used for good or ill depends on what the corporations are incentivized to do, not on the number of humanities grads employed.

(I'm speaking as a social science PhD employed at FAANG.)

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So the problem of the blindspots in STEM focused people and the fact that his leads them to just unthinkingly doing what they are told to do ... isn't a problem? Because it depends on what they are being told to do?

I don't buy that, more humanities knowledge distributed among everyone is clearly needed, because our system ensures that the people at the top are more likely to use that knowledge for ill and the lower ranks knowing what is going on can be a check on that.

While it may be a problem that people „unthinkingly do what they are told to do“, I don‘t think requiring engineers to take an ethics class will fix that.

What it does is give people the tools to properly articulate thoughts they are already having. It won‘t make someone an activist who just doesn‘t care.

Many of the people who go into STEM do so because they want to deal with the task put in front of them without it being complicated. They don't want to deal with a bunch of icky emotions, and they don't want to trip themselves up asking murky existential questions about why they're doing what they do. This is a condition of temperament, you can run them through a gristle mill of humanities classes, it doesn't mean they'll internalize it if it isn't what they're inclined towards. You can lead a horse to knowledge, but you can't make it think.

I think your characterization of people who go into STEM is detracting from what could be an otherwise compelling argument. There are stronger reasons why people choose STEM. I agree that adding a few ethics classes won't change ethical behavior outcomes for those who would have chosen STEM programs anyway.

I'm not as certain. I went into college full-on STEMLord type person. Humanities was useless, STEM was the only way forward, etc etc. Graduated much the opposite, wanting to see more people appreciate the Humanities and incorporate them into their work and such.

And it all happened because I took some interesting humanities courses, and had some fun teachers. My two philosophy ones -- a general introduction, then a Philosophy of Science course taught by a person who had actually gotten their undergraduate in biophysics -- really led to some interesting discussion, and got me reading deeper and more across the humanities. Now, that's most of my reading, it seems.

That isn't a STEM thing by any means. It is a societal and organizational thing. When their job and/or life depends on it most people do the same thing.

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