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Comment by jart | Hacker News Reader

And what are our intentions?

If we go by the choices we've made as an industry our intentions are how can we make a ton of money and effectively kill more people. (The first large scale software project and literally the reason our industry was so well funded to start was how can we better guide these missiles to their targets)

Also, anecdote incoming, the largest budget I've ever had on a software project was for a "Defense" project. I'm aware that I'm a hippocrit btw and have made a ton of money from our industry and have now got to a point I am lucky enough to pick my projects to avoid questionable ones.

My point was, tech isn't trying to make the world better, we're trying to make a buck and solve interesting problems (some of which objectively make the world worse). Let's be honest with ourselves more.

If we go by the choices we've made as an industry our intentions are how can we make a ton of money and effectively get more people to stay indoors. Our nation hasn't been at war since we invented computers and television because our natural desire for conflict is pacified by video games, Netflix, and YouTube.

Also, anecdote incoming, the largest budget I've ever had on a software project was for a "FAANG" project. I'm aware that I'm a hypocrite btw and have made a ton of money from our industry and have now got to a point I am lucky enough to pick my projects to avoid questionable ones.

My point is, tech isn't trying to advance the nasty, brutish, and short struggle of human evolution, we're trying to make a buck and solve interesting problems (some of which objectively make the world worse). Let's be honest with ourselves more.

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