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Ethics: Are we misusing the terms "master-slave". Do we even have a community / forum in which we can discuss this?

The recent world wide considerations of the diversity challenges in our society has highlighted that we in Engineering can be perpetuating some of the derogatory terms implicit within our use of "Master-Slave" for purely inanimate technical control scenarios. [1 - N]


We have policies on slavery that every volunteer, staff member and Trustee must read and abide to, but it appears we haven't noticed, to any significant extent, our own continued use of "slave" in our writings.


Do we even have a community or forum in which we can discuss this ethical, and publishing issue?


Philip Oakley

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53273923

[2] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3243656.stm

[3] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53050955

[4 ] http://www.jstor.com/stable/40061475   "Broken Metaphor: The Master-Slave Analogy in Technical Literature"

[5] https://www.theiet.org/involved/volunteering-for-the-iet/volunteer-hub/our-policies/anti-slavery-policy/


Aside: Is there some tick box to get notifications of replies sent?
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  • Hi all! While this topic certainly seems to have raised some strength of feeling please remember to keep the discussion professional and respect other people's opinions, even (especially!) if they are different to your own. 


    The IET community is here for friendly debate and discussion. If you can't keep it clean and inclusive please just move along to another, less inflammatory topic.
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  • Hi all! While this topic certainly seems to have raised some strength of feeling please remember to keep the discussion professional and respect other people's opinions, even (especially!) if they are different to your own. 


    The IET community is here for friendly debate and discussion. If you can't keep it clean and inclusive please just move along to another, less inflammatory topic.
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