What happens when people take advantage of constructs that were placed on socety? Things that did not even seem relevant enought to be taken advantaged of in the first place? ReservationHop, created by Mayer, is an example of such a startup that takes advantage of the idea of restaurant reservations. It works by making reservations to restaurants in advance under a fake name and selling these reservations to customers who are willing to pay for them. But is making this software ethical? I would argue that according to Aristotle's virtue based ethical theory that it is not ethical because it goes against moral agents' virtues and it creates policy vacuums that allows it to do so.
First, creating ReservationHop is unethical because it …show more content…
Before ReservationHop, there weren't any problems or questions when it comes to getting reservations. This conceptual muddle brings about questions to other things. An example being a tweet from Selena Larson referenced in a TechCrunch article, "I wonder if startups will eventually start squatting in emergency rooms and let people pay to get to the front of the line." While this is indeed a logical fallacy known as a slippery slope, it still gives a good point that this startup could lead to other startups that could lead to other people's virtues being ignored. Speaking of which, there are some apps that do the same things except it pertains to parking spaces and according to TechCrunch, ReservationHop won't run into the same legal problems as those parking apps. This is where the policy vacuum is and from CNN's article Bryan Mayer makes a danger misconception when he says that he didn't spend a lot of time thinking about whether or not ReservationHop is even legal or ethical.
Overall, ReservationHop is an unethical startup that hurts restauranteurs, customers, and society. It goes against virtues of honesty and fairness. As computer professionals, we should take this as a counter example to the things that we will create. Because not only is ReservationHop unethical it also hurts the whole industry by giving an image of computer scientists exploiting the system for personal gain. As Josh Constine so tersely says, "Stop The
First, creating ReservationHop is unethical because it …show more content…
Before ReservationHop, there weren't any problems or questions when it comes to getting reservations. This conceptual muddle brings about questions to other things. An example being a tweet from Selena Larson referenced in a TechCrunch article, "I wonder if startups will eventually start squatting in emergency rooms and let people pay to get to the front of the line." While this is indeed a logical fallacy known as a slippery slope, it still gives a good point that this startup could lead to other startups that could lead to other people's virtues being ignored. Speaking of which, there are some apps that do the same things except it pertains to parking spaces and according to TechCrunch, ReservationHop won't run into the same legal problems as those parking apps. This is where the policy vacuum is and from CNN's article Bryan Mayer makes a danger misconception when he says that he didn't spend a lot of time thinking about whether or not ReservationHop is even legal or ethical.
Overall, ReservationHop is an unethical startup that hurts restauranteurs, customers, and society. It goes against virtues of honesty and fairness. As computer professionals, we should take this as a counter example to the things that we will create. Because not only is ReservationHop unethical it also hurts the whole industry by giving an image of computer scientists exploiting the system for personal gain. As Josh Constine so tersely says, "Stop The