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> Tokyo University has this pledge to make sure basically no military research is done on campus, which I feel to be pretty laudable. So, you move it off-campu

by lwf 11y ago

> Tokyo University has this pledge to make sure basically no military research is done on campus, which I feel to be pretty laudable. So, you move it off-campus. See e.g. the MIT Lincoln Lab, https://www.ll.mit.edu/ https://www.ll.mit.edu/

Thriptic 11y ago
I'm at MIT proper and a good portion of our team's medical device work is DOD funded. While we are primarily designing devices to be used in civilian hospitals, our diagnostic devices could also potentially be used to optimize battlefield care for soldiers, which I personally think is great. I think a wholesale ban on military research is pretty silly; the ethical implications of projects should be considered on a case by case basis by the university.
- ethbro 11y ago
  > the ethical implications of projects should be considered on a case by case basis by the university How's that work during Vietnam when the DoD dangled bags of money in front of universities?
  - Thriptic 11y ago
    I can't speak to that as I wasn't alive then and have not researched the topic. Care to elaborate?
    - ethbro 11y ago
      As someone who wasn't alive then either, it's a rather well documented period of history, albeit mostly in dead tree form. Karnow is probably the classic (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0140265473/ http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0140265473/). To use a more modern analogy that exists on the internet, the 2010 US military research / development / testing budget looks like it was around USD$80b. Or in other terms, roughly equal to the total of all research spending by all other branches of the US government. (http://www.aaas.org/sites/default/files/RDGDP_1.jpg http://www.aaas.org/sites/default/files/RDGDP_1.jpg) Now you're a university professor / dean / president. Times are hard (they always are, you're in academia). There's a huge pie sitting right next to the one you've been fighting over, and all you have to do is work on certain technologies that may or may not have lethal consequences. I wouldn't take the bet on many people saying "No thanks, I'll be happy giving up grant money for moral reasons."
p4wnc6 11y ago
MIT Lincoln Laboratory is an FFRDC affiliated with MIT just as SEI is an FFRDC (of which CERT is a particular division) affiliated with CMU.

by lwf 11y ago

Thriptic 11y ago

I'm at MIT proper and a good portion of our team's medical device work is DOD funded. While we are primarily designing devices to be used in civilian hospitals, our diagnostic devices could also potentially be used to optimize battlefield care for soldiers, which I personally think is great. I think a wholesale ban on military research is pretty silly; the ethical implications of projects should be considered on a case by case basis by the university.

ethbro 11y ago
> the ethical implications of projects should be considered on a case by case basis by the university How's that work during Vietnam when the DoD dangled bags of money in front of universities?
- Thriptic 11y ago
  I can't speak to that as I wasn't alive then and have not researched the topic. Care to elaborate?
  - ethbro 11y ago
    As someone who wasn't alive then either, it's a rather well documented period of history, albeit mostly in dead tree form. Karnow is probably the classic (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0140265473/ http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0140265473/). To use a more modern analogy that exists on the internet, the 2010 US military research / development / testing budget looks like it was around USD$80b. Or in other terms, roughly equal to the total of all research spending by all other branches of the US government. (http://www.aaas.org/sites/default/files/RDGDP_1.jpg http://www.aaas.org/sites/default/files/RDGDP_1.jpg) Now you're a university professor / dean / president. Times are hard (they always are, you're in academia). There's a huge pie sitting right next to the one you've been fighting over, and all you have to do is work on certain technologies that may or may not have lethal consequences. I wouldn't take the bet on many people saying "No thanks, I'll be happy giving up grant money for moral reasons."

p4wnc6 11y ago

MIT Lincoln Laboratory is an FFRDC affiliated with MIT just as SEI is an FFRDC (of which CERT is a particular division) affiliated with CMU.