"Star Wars" revisited-a continuing case study in ethics and safety-critical software

1 Department of Computer Science and Engineering, 382 Fitzpatrick Hall, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, [email protected] Abstract  Safety-critical software is a core topic in courses on “ethics and computing” or “computers and society,” as well as in software engineering courses. The Reagan-era Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was the focus of a great deal of technical argument relating to design and testing of safety-critical software. Most of today’s students have no familiarity with the substance of the SDI arguments. However, with presidents Clinton and Bush considering various versions of a national missile defense system, the topic has again become quite current. This paper describes a curriculum module developed around a Reagan-era SDI debate sponsored by the Computing Professionals for Social Responsibility.