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Comment by ttul | Hacker News Reader

I'm not an expert at all, but I follow news about fusion energy with keen interest. Getting to conditions where fusion reactions can take place requires modeling the physics with supercomputers. I think the physicists have a handle on the software required to do that modeling; they also have access to the computers.

I think if you have a software background and want to contribute, you should consider applying for a job with one of the projects themselves. General Atomics lists 135 software jobs (https://www.ga-careers.com/search-jobs/software/499/1) for instance.

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I think it must be mentioned that in addition to fission and fusion (ITER) work, General Atomics is the creator of the MQ-9 Reaper, which is commonly used for drone strikes. A software job at this company may involve work on these aircraft.

And that's bad because drones are evil? I'm sure I don't agree with a blanket statement to that effect. They're a tool of warfare and I don't see how they're particularly worse than other ways of killing your enemies. I can think of a few ways they're better.

While you may not agree, you can surely recognise that others may appreciate the heads-up. I can easily imagine some people may be pleased to work on fusion, but not on drones.

Your parent merely notified us that more than one type of product is in development at that company and one that is not fusion is specifically designed to kill people.

another factor is clearance. people may be unwilling or unable to obtain security clearances that General Atomics requires for all their engineers, if they're a major defense contractor.

I've dreamed about getting into fusion research myself, and concluded the best pivot would be to help with the plasma simulations at a university while obtaining a PhD.

Yes, that's fair. I think the subtext of the OPs post is that drones are evil, but he didn't write that.

lovemenot is correct. I do not think drones are evil.

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