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People need to live - not many are in a position to leave their job if they don’t like what they’re doing. Whether they morally agree with it is irrelevant - th

People need to live - not many are in a position to leave their job if they don’t like what they’re doing. Whether they morally agree with it is irrelevant - they have debts, a lifestyle, a family, and so on and so forth. This goes from the programmer up to the CEO level, and the shareholders (largely regular people through an index fund) aren’t close enough to the company/don’t feel enough ownership over it to demand it does something else. The other actors are those playing on the financial markets more directly, and again, they have a job of making as much money as possible, consequences be damned, or they lose their job/home/ability to support themselves and their family/etc. This is capitalism at its finest - putting people into positions where they’re unable to express their moral preferences. And you can’t change this as an individual or minority group, as everybody grows up in a system that heavily encourages (and in many cases forces) that people put themselves into that position - as a minority actor, you can’t prevent the system from working. Nobody would build these systems for free.

SiempreViernes 9y ago
> People need to live - not many are in a position to leave their job if they don’t like what they’re doing. It seems quite likely most of the developers at FB that work with these kind of features are in a position to leave. I mean, a face recognition expert at Facebook isn't really something that just falls out of your pocket. They would however likely change to something similar though.
h0p3 9y ago
Living like a FB Dev is not the same as merely living (well or otherwise). You sound like you are trying to rationalize (not just explaining, but justifying) their behavior. I would agree those in poverty are not in a position to leave their job (and even then, I'm willing to consider options). Devs in Silicon Valley do have a choice though. You are correct to identify capitalism as a fundamental problem, but you've conveniently minimized their privilege too far in this case. They don't get to say "capitalism made me do it." They really did and still do have an opportunity to be moral, costly as it may be to their standard of living. They are part of the problem because this just is their expression of their moral preferences. They might not be able to prevent evil, but that doesn't mean they should actively participate in it. Just because you can't stop the Nazis doesn't give you license to be one. I hold programmers responsible for what they program, especially anyone living above the poverty line. There is no justification for their behavior. It's plain evil. ------------------------------ https://philosopher.life/ https://philosopher.life/

SiempreViernes 9y ago

> People need to live - not many are in a position to leave their job if they don’t like what they’re doing. It seems quite likely most of the developers at FB that work with these kind of features are in a position to leave. I mean, a face recognition expert at Facebook isn't really something that just falls out of your pocket. They would however likely change to something similar though.

h0p3 9y ago

Living like a FB Dev is not the same as merely living (well or otherwise). You sound like you are trying to rationalize (not just explaining, but justifying) their behavior. I would agree those in poverty are not in a position to leave their job (and even then, I'm willing to consider options). Devs in Silicon Valley do have a choice though. You are correct to identify capitalism as a fundamental problem, but you've conveniently minimized their privilege too far in this case. They don't get to say "capitalism made me do it." They really did and still do have an opportunity to be moral, costly as it may be to their standard of living. They are part of the problem because this just is their expression of their moral preferences. They might not be able to prevent evil, but that doesn't mean they should actively participate in it. Just because you can't stop the Nazis doesn't give you license to be one. I hold programmers responsible for what they program, especially anyone living above the poverty line. There is no justification for their behavior. It's plain evil. ------------------------------ https://philosopher.life/ https://philosopher.life/