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This is where we get issues where software engineers are expected to do things that are difficult to impossible (DRM, safe crypto backdoors, accurate copyright infringement detection, accurate censorship) and are told to just "do their magic" and make it work perfectly.

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Even harder to debate about when it's something on the verge of stupid, but has been decided otherwise by the top brass.

This video seems relevant here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

Hey, if someone wants to waste their money who am I to disagree if it lands in my pockets? :)

Your professional ethics should be guiding you to manage expectations.

"I'm happy to try this, but here are the limitations I'm aware of and some of these are unavoidable."

> Your professional ethics should be guiding you to manage expectations.

Of course. But if someone hires me and then they decide that we need to transfer information faster than at the speed of light there's only so much my professional ethics can do.

If someone asked me to do that, my first response would be to ask for a huge lab and a lot of PhDs for several decades.

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