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Silicon Valley is transforming the military-industrial complex? (2024)

costsofwar.watson.brown.edu

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Re: Silicon Valley is transforming the military-industrial complex? (2024)

#21

Post by slowin »

FLeXMurphy wrote: post #12
slowin wrote: post #8

It's up to us, as tech workers to push back against this. I quit my job at Microsoft due to their complicity with Israeli war crimes and oppression (and certainly the US government was involved too). It's tough to leave a high paying job, but I feel good about it every single day. We don't have to be cogs in the MIC machine and we don't have to build systems that terrorize people.

What was your job at Microsoft?

I was a 68 working on consumer products, but it was still too much for me. Especially the revelation that Satya worked with the IDF to capture all Palestinian phone conversations and host them on Azure. Every day I woke up to go to work after I found that out, I was sick to my stomach. I eventually couldn't take it any more. I took a pay cut and I'm still in the tech industry working for a startup, and still facing ethical dilemmas (with our investors) but at least I'm not on the front-lines of human rights abuse.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/06/microsoft-isra...

Re: Silicon Valley is transforming the military-industrial complex? (2024)

#24

Post by 2847aH »

The game is always the same. Josh Kushner leads a funding round, then someone in the Trump environment boosts the company:

It happened with Cursor, where Musk completely overpaid (what will he get in return? a new kind of circular deal?)

It happened with Anduril (topic of this submission). Kushner led a round and days after Anduril got a huge Pentagon contract:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-admin-hands-mega-d...

Re: Silicon Valley is transforming the military-industrial complex? (2024)

#25

Post by FLeXMurphy »

slowin wrote: post #21
FLeXMurphy wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was your job at Microsoft?

I was a 68 working on consumer products, but it was still too much for me. Especially the revelation that Satya worked with the IDF to capture all Palestinian phone conversations and host them on Azure. Every day I woke up to go to work after I found that out, I was sick to my stomach. I eventually couldn't take it any more. I took a pay cut and I'm still in the tech industry working for a startup, and still facing e…

War is a massive racket.

Re: Silicon Valley is transforming the military-industrial complex? (2024)

#26

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e »

chanakya wrote: post #22

Serious question: should companies not participate in contracts from their country's defense department? Or is the argument that it's only US companies which shouldn't, because the US is uniquely evil?

Other countries probably focus quite a bit more on the defense aspect. How many times has the US military countered a hostile attacking force? Instead, I can think of significantly more instances where the US was instigating the situation.

Re: Silicon Valley is transforming the military-industrial complex? (2024)

#28

Post by lbrito »

davidw wrote: post #17
slowin wrote: post #8

It's up to us, as tech workers to push back against this. I quit my job at Microsoft due to their complicity with Israeli war crimes and oppression (and certainly the US government was involved too). It's tough to leave a high paying job, but I feel good about it every single day. We don't have to be cogs in the MIC machine and we don't have to build systems that terrorize people.

I feel like tech has lost its way recently. It's a huge, huge field, so there have always been people working on 'bad' things, but IDK, I just don't have the same feeling of optimism about things that I used to and I wish there was some kind of movement bringing that back.

I think many people share this feeling. I sure do.

I don't see how it could have gone any other way. The internet became too pervasive, too embedded into too many people's lives, for it to not be weaponized by governments and large companies.

Re: Silicon Valley is transforming the military-industrial complex? (2024)

#29

Post by Benjammer »

davidw wrote: post #17
slowin wrote: post #8

It's up to us, as tech workers to push back against this. I quit my job at Microsoft due to their complicity with Israeli war crimes and oppression (and certainly the US government was involved too). It's tough to leave a high paying job, but I feel good about it every single day. We don't have to be cogs in the MIC machine and we don't have to build systems that terrorize people.

I feel like tech has lost its way recently. It's a huge, huge field, so there have always been people working on 'bad' things, but IDK, I just don't have the same feeling of optimism about things that I used to and I wish there was some kind of movement bringing that back.

Recently? Blind (teamblind.com) culture has been taking over tech for like a decade at this point.

Re: Silicon Valley is transforming the military-industrial complex? (2024)

#30

Post by chanakya »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #26
chanakya wrote: post #22

Serious question: should companies not participate in contracts from their country's defense department? Or is the argument that it's only US companies which shouldn't, because the US is uniquely evil?

Other countries probably focus quite a bit more on the defense aspect. How many times has the US military countered a hostile attacking force? Instead, I can think of significantly more instances where the US was instigating the situation.

That may be partly true, but in recent times, most western countries participated in wars like Afganistan and Iraq, and provided logistical or other support during the current Iran war.
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