So, let's have a mini ethics case study, ok muffins? Our inspiration shall some from a recent tragedy in the cancer research mecca of Oklahoma.
"Last Sunday, Sook Shin was carrying a possible cure for cancer on a small Apple computer with years worth of data....I like having open ended ethics discussions, so I'm not going to hijack all the tasty talking points. But let's start with the softball question to get people to open up: how many stupid as fuck things can you count in this story?
Shin and her husband are leading cancer researchers at an OU research lab. The two have committed their lives, working long hours often seven days a week to find a cure for prostate cancer....
Unfortunately, most of the data was never backed up, a mistake Shin said could be a major setback in the fight against cancer....
Some of that data can never be replicated. Other parts of that research could take up to two years to do over. "
Ok, ok I will drop a short moral: While laptops are awesome multifunctional tools, useful for many things, a NAS is not one of them
Figure 1: like lol, my laptop's a mac so it's totes immortal
5 comments:
WOW.
It's hard to have too much sympathy, eh? When I was writing my thesis, I had multiple back-ups of every single version... on disk, in my email, on 2 different hard drives. Paranoia is your friend.
Thinking that adequate data back-up procedures should be a condition of funding...
What a waste. I was very careful to back up my PhD research and had copies everywhere, to the point of it getting a bit silly. I do feel sorry for those researchers but it could so easily have been avoided. I wonder if the research was as good as they claim though. Perhaps it all came to nothing and they were too mortified to admit it. Sounds a bit like a technological version of the plot in that film 'Medicine Man' with Sean Connery.
I was gonna say what Sleepwalker said. If you're smart enough to cure cancer, how are you too stupid to back your shit up???
Dudes... more common sense function, less St. K3rn. Just my suggestion...
@VWXYNot?: I don't even want to envision the death and destruction that would rain down upon me if I told my adviser that all my data was ONLY on my PERSONAL laptop.
I'm gonna have nightmares, omfg.
@Sleepwalker: I have no pity for people so fucktarded. I just can't.
@JLK: Exactly. I was like 'cure for cancer my ass'. They probably couldn't even get their data published in Encyclopedia Shittania.
@Pharm Sci Grad: Startin' the New Year in style I say.
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