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

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

#121

Post by datsci_est_2015 »

ForHackernews wrote: post #85
datsci_est_2015 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The opposite of performative action is even worse: nihilism or even active support of atrocities. Too many nihilists in the tech industry with the attitude “if I don’t do it someone else will”, and here we are as a professional class actively making the world an objectively shittier place. The VCs can’t do it without us.

This is exactly the problem: Software developers are not a professional class, we are hired goons with no professional organization nor a code of professional ethics. This is one of my personal bugbears. I keep making this point on HN but devs want to LARP as professionals so they usually don't want to hear that they have more in common with retail workers than they do with carpenters, engineers, or accountants. Prev…

Maybe AI will provide an impetus for change. One can only hope.

I’d be willing to pay a few hundred dollars a year to be a part of a professional organization that maintains ethics requirements at this point.

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

#122

Post by trhway »

monideas wrote: post #54
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.

Well it's good you just left on your own accord, basically you fired yourself rather than wasting their time having to do it. There's an interesting dynamic with this in that the Chinese and Indian (and other foreign born/first gen immigrant) workers at big tech companies don't care about these things at all. There are some very intense ideological dynamics within big tech companies among the employee base but I alwa…

whatever the motherland's ideology/propaganda had been telling, the first gen gets to firsthand witness/experience that it were lies. After that you become were critical/unbelieving to whatever propaganda and ideology, even if it is the right ideology and propaganda this time, is being fed to you.

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

#123

Post by monideas »

antonvs wrote: post #109
monideas wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of what people call morality is just their own feelings or interest or some attempt to protect their ego, it's basically just an expression of narcissism. The cultivation of a sense of actual morality requires a lot of study and humility and quieting your own feelings and ego. This is very difficult and most people can't do it, ideally in a healthy society the elites you have are people who can and do do this. I…

> Most of what people call morality is just their own feelings or interest or some attempt to protect their ego, it's basically just an expression of narcissism. Oh good grief. Hot take of the month right there. All you're doing is demonstrating how uninformed you are on the subject. Can you name anything you've ever read about this? > [Thiel] displays a lot of humility in his speech and conduct. You can't be serious…

The reason you call Thiel immoral or psychopathic is because he's wealthy and this evokes jealousy in you, it's a threat to your ego and your own sense of self worth.

It's really that simple and this is a good illustration of what I'm talking about.

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

#124

Post by qrashg »

mentalgear wrote: post #10

also the new war-profiteers are profiting from a war a certain family member started. > NEW YORK (AP) — Among dozens of companies competing for Pentagon contracts to supply attack drones, one stands out. > Powerus is flush with cash and ballooning in size as it buys up rivals and has one other advantage: It is partly owned by President Donald Trump’s two oldest sons. > The latest Trump venture is hoping to win some o…

There are now multiple reputation laundering agencies on this site who flag wrongthink or sink submissions.

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

#125

Post by qrashg »

2847aH wrote: post #24

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-me…

There are now multiple reputation laundering agencies on this site who flag wrongthink or sink submissions.

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

#126

Post by [deleted] »

nater5000 wrote: post #69
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.

You know, if enough tech workers at Microsoft felt strongly about these ethical issues, they could influence Microsoft's decisions internally which is probably the most effective position to be in to do so. But all well, glad you can feel good about yourself by leaving so that someone with less concern about these ethical issues can fill the void and assert their own influence on the company instead.

[deleted]

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

#127

Post by bobbane »

hkchad wrote: post #27

Transforming? You guys do know where google got it's start right? SV has been DOD funded from the start.

As a person whose graduate work in GOFAI in the early 1980's was funded by DARPA, I am somewhat conflicted by choices like this.

In 2015, I told my son I would disown him if he went to work for Facebook. Several years later, he told me he was doing a contracting gig for Meta, on a project that would "definitely never see the light of day". Given the amount of engineering time that was squandered in the early 2020's, I chose to believe him.

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

#128

Post by EA-3167 »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #120
EA-3167 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not interested in shaming people or crediting them for superficial performances. The entire premise is ridiculous, as if the companies people are working for are somehow ethical. You’re making money from venture capitalists and tech firms, MS, Meta, X, Google, etc… which of them is any better than MS? They’re all awful in different ways.

You are dismissing people as superficial or performative when they are taking action according to their ethics. Have you considered the possibility that people are not, in fact, performing , and are just trying to be ethical ? I can't tell if your actual goal here is to be dismissive of the entire concept of people caring about ethics, or if you don't think that quitting is an effective means of acting in concert wit…

You don’t have to repeat yourself, I understood your point originally, I simply disagree with both your premise and conclusions. I don’t have the same respect for people who preach “anti-Zionism” at every turn online, I’m not that gullible.

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

#129

Post by alpha_squared »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #120
EA-3167 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not interested in shaming people or crediting them for superficial performances. The entire premise is ridiculous, as if the companies people are working for are somehow ethical. You’re making money from venture capitalists and tech firms, MS, Meta, X, Google, etc… which of them is any better than MS? They’re all awful in different ways.

You are dismissing people as superficial or performative when they are taking action according to their ethics. Have you considered the possibility that people are not, in fact, performing , and are just trying to be ethical ? I can't tell if your actual goal here is to be dismissive of the entire concept of people caring about ethics, or if you don't think that quitting is an effective means of acting in concert wit…

A lesson I've had to learn is that, for some people, ethics is a paycheck. It can be incomprehensible to imagine someone acting against their own paycheck as a result.
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