In this paper, we provide an overview of how Safe-by-Design is conceived and applied in practice in a large number of engineering disciplines. We discuss the differences, commonalities, and possibilities for mutual learning found in those practices and identify several ways of putting those disciplinary outlooks in perspective. The considered engineering disciplines in the order of historically grown technologies are construction engineering, chemical engineering, aerospace engineering, urban engineering, software engineering, bio-engineering, nano-engineering, and finally cyber space engineering. Each discipline is briefly introduced, the technology at issue is described, the relevant or dominant hazards are examined, the social challenge(s) are observed, and the relevant developments in the field are described. Within each discipline the risk management strategies, the design principles promoting safety or safety awareness, and associated methods or tools are discussed. Possible dilemmas that the designers in the discipline face are highlighted. Each discipline is concluded by discussing the opportunities and bottlenecks in addressing safety. Commonalities and differences between the engineering disciplines are investigated, specifically on the design strategies for which empirical data have been collected. We argue that Safe-by-Design is best considered as a specific elaboration of Responsible Research and Innovation, with an explicit focus on safety in relation to other important values in engineering such as well-being, sustainability, equity, and affordability. Safe-by-Design provides for an intellectual venue where social science and the humanities (SSH) collaborate on technological developments and innovation by helping to proactively incorporate safety considerations into engineering practices, while navigating between the extremes of technological optimism and disproportionate precaution. As such, Safe-by-Design is also a practical tool for policymakers and risk assessors that helps shape governance arrangements for accommodating and incentivizing safety, while fully acknowledging uncertainty.

Cyberattacks against healthcare institutions threaten patient care. The risk of being targeted by a damaging attack is increased when medical devices are used which rely on unmaintained legacy software that cannot be replaced and may have publicly known vulnerabilities. This review aims to provide insight into solutions presented in the literature that mitigate risks caused by legacy software on medical devices. We performed a scoping review by categorising and analysing the contributions of a selection of articles, taken from a literature set discovered through bidirectional citation searching. We found 18 solutions, each fitting at least one of the categories of intrusion detection and prevention, communication tunnelling or hardware protections. Approaches taken include proxying Bluetooth communication through smartphones, behaviour-specification based anomaly detection and authenticating signals based on physical characteristics. These solutions are applicable to various use-cases, ranging from securing pacemakers to medical sensor networks. Most of the solutions are based on intrusion detection and on tunnelling insecure wireless communications. These technologies have distinct application areas, and the decision which one is most appropriate will depend on the type of medical device.

In the past decades, video games have grown from a niche market to one of the major entertainment media, enticing millions of players worldwide. When ethical aspects of video games are being debated, the discussion oftentimes revolves around effects of their content, such as violence. This paper argues that effects of game mechanics, such as reward mechanisms, should be considered as well, as these are at the core of the appeal of games. We analyze the ethical dimension of behavioral game design present in Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG’s). Using the framework of technological mediation, we show how opaque and seductive game mechanics can invite problematic usage patterns, such as excessive use with negative effects on well-being, and how designers can take responsibility for morally acceptable impact of their games. Having a practical focus, the paper concludes with several proposals for better design.

In the past decades, computers have become more and more involved in society by the rise of ubiquitous systems, increasing the number of interactions between humans and IT systems. At the same time, the technology itself is getting more complex, enabling devices to act in a way that previously only humans could, based on developments in the fields of both robotics and artificial intelligence. This results in a situation in which many autonomous, intelligent and context-aware systems are involved in decisions that affect their environment. These relations between people, machines, and decisions can take many different forms, but thus far, a systematic account of machine-assisted moral decisions is lacking. This paper investigates the concept of machine-assisted moral decisions from the perspective of technological mediation. It is argued that modern machines do not only have morality in the sense of mediating the actions of humans, but that, by making their own decisions within their relations with humans, mediate morality itself. A classification is proposed to differentiate between four different types of moral relations. The moral aspects within the decisions these systems make are combined into three dimensions that describe the distinct characteristics of different types of moral mediation by machines. Based on this classification, specific guidelines for moral behavior can be provided for these systems.

Conceiving new technologies as social experiments is a means to discuss responsible deployment of technologies that may have unknown and potentially harmful side-effects. Thus far, the uncertain outcomes addressed in the paradigm of new technologies as social experiments have been mostly safety-related, meaning that potential harm is caused by the design plus accidental events in the environment. In some domains, such as cyberspace, adversarial agents (attackers) may be at least as important when it comes to undesirable effects of deployed technologies. In such cases, conditions for responsible experimentation may need to be implemented differently, as attackers behave strategically rather than probabilistically. In this contribution, we outline how adversarial aspects are already taken into account in technology deployment in the field of cyber security, and what the paradigm of new technologies as social experiments can learn from this. In particular, we show the importance of adversarial roles in social experiments with new technologies.