7 ms·

Hey man i just produce the poison gas, what those dudes in the uniforms do with it has absolutely nothing to do with me.

by throwaway2048 9y ago

rhcom2 9y ago
"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department," says Wernher von Braun.
- 0xdeadbeefbabe 9y ago
  This isn't like rockets or poison gas. Poison gas is probably the most insulted. Edit: And since you love hyperbole so much: Good engineers will want to work on this problem (both sides technically), just as Feynman worked on the atom bomb.
  - monocasa 9y ago
    I mean, it's a US company helping dictatorships block access to stuff like The Human Rights Campaign. Pretty close in my mind.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - cgh 9y ago
      Netsweeper is not a US company.
      - monocasa 9y ago
        Whatever, Canadian. My point still stands.
        StudentStuff 9y ago
        Its likely Canadian, the gov't up there offers massive tax and investment incentives if your small, and for slightly larger companies they still have a great tax situation compared to the US. Plus your products avoid US export controls and appeal to countries that would otherwise be off limits. An interesting article on what Canada offers tech companies: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/business-technology/shredding-some-myths-about-canadas-tech-startup-subsidies/article18921138/ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/business-technolo...
        monocasa 9y ago
        Yeah, they're from Ontario.
  - torpfactory 9y ago
    Tell that to a homosexual in Saudi who gets sent to prison.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
  - __jal 9y ago
    Sure. Because mass censorship tools designed to identify categories of undesirables has to many positive applications. > Good engineers will want to work on this problem So? A lot of "good engineers" are horrible people from an ethical perspective. Just like any other category of humanity.
  - xevb3k 9y ago
    I’d argue that if totally effective limiting discourse, and limiting what it is acceptable to believe/think can be worse. I don’t see that in the extreme case, denying a person of any human interaction for their lifetime is any better than killing them for example.
- skookumchuck 9y ago
  The V2 rocket program consumed a vast amount of Germany's resources, to pretty much zero military effect. If they'd expended those resources on things like jet aircraft, it might have made a difference. The V2 program helped lose the war for the Germans.
  - rhcom2 9y ago
    It isn't about the effect. It's about being responsible for the things you help build.
    - skookumchuck 9y ago
      The effect was von Braun diverted a vast amount of Germany's military-industrial resources into a useless weapons program, thus shortening the war. The things that make rockets effective, a nuclear warhead, and later precision guidance systems, he did not attempt to develop. Those were developed by the US and the Soviets. In the meantime, von Braun's technology got us to the moon, communications satellites, the space station, SpaceX, etc. There are many ways to look at von Braun's work. I suppose it hinges on what his intentions were - but we don't have any way to find that out. I don't think we know if he knew he was developing an ineffective weapon or not, though it seems obvious in hindsight.
      - DoctorOetker 9y ago
        When Tsarist big Russia lost the war against the small Japan, the losses of the war were very demoralizing, and the seeds for the Soviet revolution were planted. Afraid of revolution the Tsarist secret police concocted the false flag plot "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" to use the relatively affluent minority of jews as a scapegoat of all problems of the Tsarist regime. The fake news was not effective in convincing the local russian populace (who was best poised to understand the real source of their troubles) and the Soviets overthrew the Tsarists regime. However the fake news spread all over the world, and people started fearing jews, and their jewish plot. To the outside world, the fact that the Tsarist regime was overthrown may have seemed to confirm the plot... Perhaps Hitler too, was against Nazism (after all he was no blonde). Perhaps as a geopolitical visionary he foresaw the future rise of China and allied with Japan to slow their future rise, perhaps he foresaw a twenty-year war, if he did not first slowly chase away jews like Einstein during the interbellum such that the latter would eventually be able to write an important letter to president Roosevelt. Perhaps he fully understood the "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" to be a fabrication, and intended for the jews to have their own state, which would only happen if they were internationally regarded as some predominant victim of huge proportions. Perhaps he evaluated all paths to defuse the clusterfuck, but decided that a shorter premature 5-year war, and the irreversible tarnishing of his name and image was the smallest cost to pay. Perhaps he was so selfless. Except I dont buy any of this crap. Did Von Braun really intend to shorten the war with his rocket programme? If my aunt had balls, she would have been my uncle.

Hey man i just produce the poison gas, what those dudes in the uniforms do with it has absolutely nothing to do with me.

rhcom2 9y ago

"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department," says Wernher von Braun.

0xdeadbeefbabe 9y ago
This isn't like rockets or poison gas. Poison gas is probably the most insulted. Edit: And since you love hyperbole so much: Good engineers will want to work on this problem (both sides technically), just as Feynman worked on the atom bomb.
- monocasa 9y ago
  I mean, it's a US company helping dictatorships block access to stuff like The Human Rights Campaign. Pretty close in my mind.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - cgh 9y ago
    Netsweeper is not a US company.
    - monocasa 9y ago
      Whatever, Canadian. My point still stands.
      - StudentStuff 9y ago
        Its likely Canadian, the gov't up there offers massive tax and investment incentives if your small, and for slightly larger companies they still have a great tax situation compared to the US. Plus your products avoid US export controls and appeal to countries that would otherwise be off limits. An interesting article on what Canada offers tech companies: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/business-technology/shredding-some-myths-about-canadas-tech-startup-subsidies/article18921138/ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/business-technolo...
        monocasa 9y ago
        Yeah, they're from Ontario.
- torpfactory 9y ago
  Tell that to a homosexual in Saudi who gets sent to prison.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- __jal 9y ago
  Sure. Because mass censorship tools designed to identify categories of undesirables has to many positive applications. > Good engineers will want to work on this problem So? A lot of "good engineers" are horrible people from an ethical perspective. Just like any other category of humanity.
- xevb3k 9y ago
  I’d argue that if totally effective limiting discourse, and limiting what it is acceptable to believe/think can be worse. I don’t see that in the extreme case, denying a person of any human interaction for their lifetime is any better than killing them for example.
skookumchuck 9y ago
The V2 rocket program consumed a vast amount of Germany's resources, to pretty much zero military effect. If they'd expended those resources on things like jet aircraft, it might have made a difference. The V2 program helped lose the war for the Germans.
- rhcom2 9y ago
  It isn't about the effect. It's about being responsible for the things you help build.
  - skookumchuck 9y ago
    The effect was von Braun diverted a vast amount of Germany's military-industrial resources into a useless weapons program, thus shortening the war. The things that make rockets effective, a nuclear warhead, and later precision guidance systems, he did not attempt to develop. Those were developed by the US and the Soviets. In the meantime, von Braun's technology got us to the moon, communications satellites, the space station, SpaceX, etc. There are many ways to look at von Braun's work. I suppose it hinges on what his intentions were - but we don't have any way to find that out. I don't think we know if he knew he was developing an ineffective weapon or not, though it seems obvious in hindsight.
    - DoctorOetker 9y ago
      When Tsarist big Russia lost the war against the small Japan, the losses of the war were very demoralizing, and the seeds for the Soviet revolution were planted. Afraid of revolution the Tsarist secret police concocted the false flag plot "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" to use the relatively affluent minority of jews as a scapegoat of all problems of the Tsarist regime. The fake news was not effective in convincing the local russian populace (who was best poised to understand the real source of their troubles) and the Soviets overthrew the Tsarists regime. However the fake news spread all over the world, and people started fearing jews, and their jewish plot. To the outside world, the fact that the Tsarist regime was overthrown may have seemed to confirm the plot... Perhaps Hitler too, was against Nazism (after all he was no blonde). Perhaps as a geopolitical visionary he foresaw the future rise of China and allied with Japan to slow their future rise, perhaps he foresaw a twenty-year war, if he did not first slowly chase away jews like Einstein during the interbellum such that the latter would eventually be able to write an important letter to president Roosevelt. Perhaps he fully understood the "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" to be a fabrication, and intended for the jews to have their own state, which would only happen if they were internationally regarded as some predominant victim of huge proportions. Perhaps he evaluated all paths to defuse the clusterfuck, but decided that a shorter premature 5-year war, and the irreversible tarnishing of his name and image was the smallest cost to pay. Perhaps he was so selfless. Except I dont buy any of this crap. Did Von Braun really intend to shorten the war with his rocket programme? If my aunt had balls, she would have been my uncle.