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Hat tip. Good share. Serious question: Are there and well known examples of these exceptions? I cannot believe that anyone with exclusively Five Eyes citizenships would not be accepted.
I know a guy that contracts with NASA via CSIRO here in Australia. I imagine there's probably similar things going on with European research orgs
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Yeah, a refugee who is also a highly qualified rocket scientist should raise some healthy suspicion at the least.
Do you think rocket scientists are just… immune to war?
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I think that rocket scientists are usually cherished by totalitarian regimes, not persecuted.
If you are smart enough to be a rocket scientist you are more likely to be smart enough to see when your country is being ruled by thieves and going to the dogs. Either you hide it and leave ASAP, you don't hide it and try to change your country for the better (= jail, regime doesn't like people like that) or you suppress your conscience (or not have it) and enjoy a nice lifestyle. The last option is more rare becaus…
Maybe Egypt or similar would be examples?
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Von Braun was a Nazi spy
Von Braun and his team chose to surrender to the Americans because they saw America as a Christian nation where they might be forgiven and allowed to live normal lives, in contrast to the Soviet Union, where that would never be allowed. Before the end of the war von Braun was only nominally a Christian, but after coming to America he doubled down on Christianity and received the treatment he had predicted. https://en…
There's a documentary about it here: :)
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> You will inevitably break ITAR, this is why most companies under ITAR (& gov agencies like NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/careers/working-with-nasa ) does exactly what SpaceX is being prosecuted (persecuted) for. NASA employees are in civil service, not the private sector; there are different rules.
Yes, it's not like we can hold the government to the same standard that the government tries hold the private companies to. Clearly, government couldn't possibly be expected to follow the regulations it imposes on everyone else.
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> Sneaking in spies as refugees is a fairly common strategy. Is it really? Are there any examples we can point to? Refugees are often dispossessed and struggling to build a new life. I guess if you want your spies to gather intelligence on what it's like to drive a cab or bus tables in your geopolitical adversaries, then it might be a great cover identity.
I’d absolutely plant cab drivers to spy on my geopolitical adversaries. People who have a plausible explanation to be in and around hotels, airports, industrial areas, and a legitimate reason talk to lots of different people would seem like quite good candidates for spying. Maybe a bit too obvious.
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If you are smart enough to be a rocket scientist you are more likely to be smart enough to see when your country is being ruled by thieves and going to the dogs. Either you hide it and leave ASAP, you don't hide it and try to change your country for the better (= jail, regime doesn't like people like that) or you suppress your conscience (or not have it) and enjoy a nice lifestyle. The last option is more rare becaus…
>> The last option is more rare because smart people are less susceptible to propaganda This is actually bullshit, you can easily manipulate smart person, by appealing to their perceived smartness :) Anyway, just because someone is smart does not mean that they are also highly moral. It's often like: give a person opportunity for professional growth ("you'll be working on our moon landing program") and they will sell…
This is actually not because smart people are not the target group. On the other hand, I've seen smart people fall victim to the propaganda machine more than once in order to adjust and conform. They were smart, but not strong enough.
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Knowledge does not confer morality. Highly intelligent people are very good at finding reasons to believe the ends will justify any means. Von Braun was happy to use jewish slave labor to develop his rockets. He thought that humanity going to space was important enough to justify that.
Where do people keep seeing those things I didn't write? Knowledge does not magically make you moral, knowledge "just" makes it more possible to become and act moral. There may be exceptions that prove the rule.., Maybe Von Braun was a dick, I don't know that story, but some factory worker in Crapovsk with no degree who needs to make money to feed family every day can't just decide to leave the country even if he is…
I fundamentally do not agree with that. With intelligence and opportunity it may be possible for a moral person to more effectively do things which are moral, but that doesn't make that person more moral.
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Where do people keep seeing those things I didn't write? Knowledge does not magically make you moral, knowledge "just" makes it more possible to become and act moral. There may be exceptions that prove the rule.., Maybe Von Braun was a dick, I don't know that story, but some factory worker in Crapovsk with no degree who needs to make money to feed family every day can't just decide to leave the country even if he is…
> Knowledge does not magically make you moral, knowledge "just" makes it more possible to become and act moral. I fundamentally do not agree with that. With intelligence and opportunity it may be possible for a moral person to more effectively do things which are moral, but that doesn't make that person more moral.
Therefore between two equally moral people (self assessed) whoever actually acts moral is more moral (effective).
So even if we pretend that knowledge is irrelevant to morality and only assume that smarter people are generally richer and richer people can afford to act moral then the fact is richer people are more moral IRL.
And yes, this means circumstances beyond your control can make you unable to act moral even if you are moral. It's called "tragedy" and dictatorships are known for causing this