The majority of carbon offsetting efforts are called non-additional assets. A forest that was never going to be cut down or an unusable field in the middle of some rural area sells credits to companies to "offset" their carbon emissions. This doesn't actually create any net benefit to the environment. The industry also experiences fraud with double counting the same assets as some vendors will sell the same offset credits to multiple corporations.
Why I'm Forced to Say Farewell: Google Management Has Lost Its Moral Compass
171–180 of 292 posts
Re: Why I'm Forced to Say Farewell: Google Management Has Lost Its Moral Compass
#172Not that I care in particular But claiming that google lost it's "moral compass" just now is a claim only rich people can make because they retire, not quit. Google is literally the largest, most organized, tracking and profiling company in the world. Which they tend to grow even larger with the rise of LLMs. Turning a blind eye of that for the opportunity or whatever, and than claim that _just now_ they lost their m…
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Re: Why I'm Forced to Say Farewell: Google Management Has Lost Its Moral Compass
#173Personally, I don't get why people blindly reject any collaboration with the military. I understand that they are pacifists, but I still don't get it. When I look at history, I see so many tragedies caused by being weak. Both Germany and the Soviet Union were able to invade Poland, for instance, and the Katyn massacre is a national scar. And who wouldn't want to defeat invaders like Genghis Khan? Have you ever heard…
I can't speak for anyone else, but as a Christian, it's really quite simple: any death that you help cause is a black mark on your soul. Maybe you can repent for it, someday. But it's not something that will just be let go when the day of reckoning comes. Incidentally, I'd feel the same way about killing someone in self-defense.
What if avoiding causing a death instead results in thousands of deaths? Do you give yourself a moral high five and stick your head in the sand?
Re: Why I'm Forced to Say Farewell: Google Management Has Lost Its Moral Compass
#174Personally, I don't get why people blindly reject any collaboration with the military. I understand that they are pacifists, but I still don't get it. When I look at history, I see so many tragedies caused by being weak. Both Germany and the Soviet Union were able to invade Poland, for instance, and the Katyn massacre is a national scar. And who wouldn't want to defeat invaders like Genghis Khan? Have you ever heard…
I have thought about this a lot, and concluded that the peace we have today largely stems from all major powers having nuclear weapons, and leadership in each understanding that avoiding nuclear war is the utmost priority. All foreign policy choices are aligned to prevent military confrontation and avoid nuclear war. Thus there is an overemphasis to resolve disputes through diplomacy. But the plebeians do not underst…
Shocking how a quote from some 2016 novel now rolls around the Internet like it's fucking Aristotle
Re: Why I'm Forced to Say Farewell: Google Management Has Lost Its Moral Compass
#175>“Don’t Be Evil” wasn’t just a slogan (...) —it was a north star for teams making hard calls I've developed an involuntary, muscle-level reflex that forces me to close the tab immediately when I read these "not just X -- it was Y" LLMisms. I realize the author might be human and am sorry if that's the case, but I can't help it.
Google removed "Don't be evil" from its Code of Conduct in May 2018. Shocking that it took 8 years for the author to make their ethical stand -- during which time Google stock went up 600%...
No it didn't, it's still in the employee handbook. As the saying goes, a lie will go around the world before the truth can put its pants on.
What changed was Google's motto, and it changed from "don't be evil" to "do the right thing". The given reason is that the prior motto also included inaction.
Re: Why I'm Forced to Say Farewell: Google Management Has Lost Its Moral Compass
#176I don't understand the negativity here. He is a top expert on a security topic. Running Android platform security gives him an opportunity to have incredible positive impact for many people---which he did for a decade. People weigh trade-offs. At the beginning, he may have had high ambitions to deploy interesting, research-forward ideas to Android; at this point, he has accomplished a lot of that. Maybe now, he is co…
The conclusion is what people are having issue with.
If the guy made some money for his work, good on him.
Re: Why I'm Forced to Say Farewell: Google Management Has Lost Its Moral Compass
#177. Weapons or other technologies whose principal purpose or implementation is to cause or directly facilitate injury to people. So if our enemies had no qualms at all about doing this, wouldn't it make sense that we have weapons that can at least counter, and potentially fight back? Would it be facilitating injury if the AI is used to stop an ISIS linked attack in our homeland? > "Don't be evil" Can evil also be inter…
You seem to be unfamiliar with the concept of https://enwp.org/Pacifism
Or, you don't understand the main criticism of it:
Re: Why I'm Forced to Say Farewell: Google Management Has Lost Its Moral Compass
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not at all. A good faith discussion in the right forum is fine. That's not what the memo was. It ignored the evidence we have that there is systemic bias, it relied on tired and debunked tropes, and has explicit goals about preserving and elevating the privilege that perpetuates that systemic bias. That done in front of a large company filled with people personally affected by it is just a terrible idea. I'm open to…
And what evidence of systemic bias would that be? The experiment I linked above sent monitored the callback rates of applicants sent out to Bay Area tech companies for technical roles, and saw higher callback rates for women. This is the sort of prototypical evidence we use as an example of systemic anti-Black bias where Black applicants are called back less frequently than white applicants. Is Google, specifically,…
And this is why I said that I'm not going to change your mind.
The gender bias is clear in individual experience and data, all it takes is talking to women (or people of colour, or whatever under represented group you want) to see it.
I think Google does pretty well on this, largely due to the diversity programs that Damore was calling to have abolished.
Re: Why I'm Forced to Say Farewell: Google Management Has Lost Its Moral Compass
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
And what evidence of systemic bias would that be? The experiment I linked above sent monitored the callback rates of applicants sent out to Bay Area tech companies for technical roles, and saw higher callback rates for women. This is the sort of prototypical evidence we use as an example of systemic anti-Black bias where Black applicants are called back less frequently than white applicants. Is Google, specifically,…
And this is why I said that I'm not going to change your mind. The gender bias is clear in individual experience and data, all it takes is talking to women (or people of colour, or whatever under represented group you want) to see it. I think Google does pretty well on this, largely due to the diversity programs that Damore was calling to have abolished.
And what is that data? Again you've referenced data or evidence for anti-female bias, and yet again you neglect to share it.
Data could definitely change my mind: what percentage of applicants to software developer roles at Google are women, and what percentage of offers extended for those roles go to women? If the former is substantially smaller than the latter, that would definitely sway me.
Re: Why I'm Forced to Say Farewell: Google Management Has Lost Its Moral Compass
#180>“Don’t Be Evil” wasn’t just a slogan (...) —it was a north star for teams making hard calls I've developed an involuntary, muscle-level reflex that forces me to close the tab immediately when I read these "not just X -- it was Y" LLMisms. I realize the author might be human and am sorry if that's the case, but I can't help it.
Also comparing something to northstar is also the tell tell sign