Hacker News Reader

Comment by NomDePlum | Hacker News Reader

18 points·NomDePlum··6 comments

It's amazing to me that we'll take millions of dollars and untold man hours to build precision guidance systems into explosives delivery packages. We used to consider shot guns a war crime. I have no idea what we're doing anymore.

It may be a war crime, at least if who does it doesn’t belong to a narrow set of countries.

As long as it is possible to make insane profits from weapons manufacturing, we will have war. These wars are a major profit margin for someone. Our political systems need to evolve to prevent this profiteering.

Alas, the misanthropes will always find a reason to weaponize technology. So, we have to keep making new technology which makes weapons obsolete. Hopefully, among the HN crowd, there are a majority of us working on this effort, and the minority making weapons and insane profits from their sale, dwindle in size.

I regret to inform you that war can happen regardless of the profit motive.

Millions of American families are directly employed by the defense industry. Many millions more have their retirement/pension funds locked up in the equity, banking on future performance of the industry. Even if they weren't destroyed by lobbyists, politicians wouldn't be able to unravel the complex without facing push-back from ordinary citizens.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_White_Suit

Another atrocity. This needs to end. Roughly 40,000 casualties since the start, including 100 journalists.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com