SC member @tomberek works for Anduril

Silicon Valley was built first and foremost by and on the MIC. The reason we have integrated circuits–integral to the computer you used to type your screed–is because we needed packages that would survive the environments found in ICBMs. Those systems’ sole real use was deterrence by holding civilian population centers hostage. Similarly, the networking tech we’re all using is from the MIC.

Plenty of ethical engineers work on weapon systems (here’s a simple thought exercise: is a munition that is poorly designed and which blows up instead of disarming on time more or less ethical?). There are more views of ethics than you (and others) are evidently aware or tolerant of, and saying “but but but this person works for a company that is unapologetically pro-American interests and therefore is unethical because of their company” is just incredibly lazy. Being a pacifist is not inherently ethical, and neither is working on systems to secure a given population or state.

(And sure, it can be argued one way or the other about if the politics and policy of some country is ethical–or more usefully, perhaps, agreeable–but those conversations are incredibly off-topic and divisive and better served elsewhere. Reinventing geopolitics naively from first principles is a tedious, arduous, and antagonistic exercise.)

Also, if you fully quote that value, it doesn’t look like Tom’s done anything wrong–and it actually makes a lot of posters here look like they haven’t exactly done anything right:

We are here, first and foremost, as individuals working together. Our priority here is to work on Nix projects for the benefit of all their contributors and users. We value building excellent software with a vibrant and diverse community. Individuals gain trust and status by doing the work. Organisations gain prestige by funding the work of individuals and providing resources to support the project.

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