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Comment by jamesrcole | Hacker News Reader

> Nuclear weapons simulations, drone AI, smart bombs - all good.

Why are you assuming people's positions on those topics? I've seen people bring them up.

Mostly because there are way more programmers working on weaponry of every possible kind than oppressing minorities, and you could say it causes way more harm and suffering.

Also, unlike doctors, who are explicitly trusted with human health, programmers are not in any way different from anybody else and it's silly to try to impose a special moral code on them.

Fewer people die in wars today than at any point in the 20th century. As a trend, people dying from war related causes has been on a seriously downward trend.

There's an argument to be made that modern weapons help keep the peace, exactly like MAD did between the USSR and USA.

None of that has to do with your original comment ("Nuclear weapons simulations, drone AI, smart bombs - all good. But don't you dare abuse a marginalized group!") and what I objected to in it.

He's saying there are more important things in the world to worry about. In what way did you read it?

They said "Nuclear weapons simulations, drone AI, smart bombs - all good. But don't you dare abuse a marginalized group!" which is specially saying that people don't care about these matters for the first set of issues (which is an assumption about the person they were replying to, and an incorrect blanket statement about people in general) and also specifically implying that the only reason people cared in this case was because it involves a marginalised group (which is also an assumption that they didn't attempt to back up with evidence).

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