Peter Wayner

While reading 12 Ethical Dilemmas Gnawing at Developers Today by Peter Wayner I felt a sense of inclusion and familiarity. The article’s premise is that programmers should consider ethics while choosing what techniques to use when writing and developing software and coding systems. In this paper I will break apart this article by analyzing its rhetoric using the grounds of ethos, logos, and pathos. The issue the author has wrote about is worth discussing largely because ethics in technology is not discussed in everyday programmer’s language. Software is used in pretty much every aspect of life; code is everywhere and in everything that is technology based, from your cellphone, to your thermostat, and your toothbrush. Therefore, developers
must be conscious as to whether or not their programming decisions are harmful to the consumer. The writer has chosen to write about ethical dilemmas because he wants to inform and educate people about a topic that may not be otherwise thought about. The title itself explains who the audience for this article is- developers, computer engineers, and coding programmers. The language used in this article is difficult for someone who is less than computer literate can understand. 12 Ethical Dilemmas Gnawing at Developers Today’s was written by Peter Wayner, who is well known for his books on technology. Wayner has written almost two dozen books on technology (wayner.org), writes for The New York Times and Wired magazine, and is a programmer and developer who graduated from Princeton University for
mathematics(linkedin.com).
Given his outstanding programming and writing credentials I would say that the author is a credible source for the topic discussed. The type of media that published this article is a website, InfoWorld, that is renowned for its business and technology media. InfoWorld’s about section reads “InfoWorld is the destination of choice for technology decision makers and business leaders who seek in-depth analysis of enterprise technology (infoworld.com).” This particular media platform is made almost exclusively for information technology (IT) specialists and businessmen, which the readership largely consists of. Because IT specialists and businessmen are likely highly educated, I think Peter Wayner has taken the right approach in his article when he uses phrases and words that are meant for only the educated to
understand. While this article raises important points about the ethics of developers and programmers, using easy-to-read writing techniques, the author does not draw in the average reader with the hard to understand rhetoric he uses throughout. For example, when the author uses this example “Isaac Asimov confronted this issue long ago when he wrote his laws of robotics and inserted one that forbid a robot from doing nothing if a human would be harmed through the robot's inaction” to understand the point the author is attempting the make the reader would have to first know who Isaaz Asimov is and what he did to contribute to technology. This could be problematic for the reader as they would have to look up who Isaac is in order to understand the author’s point. Peter Wayner succeeds in this article with his writing style, in that he uses a numerical list to draw out his points on the ethics of developers and programmers.
For each point he introduces, he labels the point with bold face letters and numerals. For example, his first point is labeled: “Ethical dilemma No. 1: Log files -- what to save and how to handle them(infoworld.com)” which clearly and obviously states exactly the point you will find in the following paragraph. Another way he uses an excellent writing technique is when he first explains the issue in detail, then uses pop-culture examples to further develop the issue,
and wraps up the issue by asking the reader a hypothetical question that draws out their critical thinking on the issue. Peter Wayner makes the reader feel like he can be trusted because he uses extensive vocabulary and is noticeably highly knowledgeable about programming and developing. The publisher can be trusted because it is a renowned publication for the type of audience that is most likely reading its’ content.