Hacker News Reader

Comment by rohan_ | Hacker News Reader

Defense engineers have more fun!

I don't know, I was offered to design and implement military cockpits UI and tracking systems for the biggest weapon exporter in Italy for a very good salary, a 60% raise of what I earned at the time and I was like "no thanks, I want to go sleep without thinking I'm helping writing software to kill people".

Since then I have a very clear clause in my contracts that I don't work in projects involving law enforcement, military and some other business.

Sometimes it maybe better to bring the change from inside...

Like... if someone wants to build a kamikazi drone interceptor:

You convincing them to build a drone to just shoot a net to stop them vs. Other people trying to build systems that explode automatically...

You convincing them the decision to blow something up must be made by a human vs. Other people building systems that use computer vision to automatically "eliminate threats"...

Not to mention law enforcement, military etc.. are still humans risking their lives for their jobs... But yeah these things can be an minefield to think about... and is easier to find fulfilling work elsewhere...

Interesting point, I too have a similar moral, but I don’t mind to do something for defense, no?

It seems hard to guess based on the technology if something will be defensive or aggressive. I mean, silly example, but if you invent a suit of armor somebody will say “nice, now I can use my sword two handed, no need for a shield!”

Maybe nukes.

Exactly, I mean, if something is clearly will be used to kill or that’s the intention for, I can see the point, but what if it isn’t clear, what if your tool is used indirectly, say React framework which you are a big contributor to, is used to build a UI for X that you don’t agree with morally.. what’s the line here I’m curious?

Much like how one mans terrorist is another's freedom fighter.

One mans defense is another mans offense.

Surely this microwave can be moved to the frontlines and as the frontline moves forward.

You got a point, but going by that logic, as bladesmith, I should never make any knife because there’s always the possibility to be used the wrong way?

Knife have dual purposes, military weapons have only one.

Neither Italy nor any of it's allies has fought a defensive war in the last 80 years.

It's about weapon exports first and interfering around the globe.

I have a huge moral problem with it, calling it "defense" is hiding it's a business to kill people.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com