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Let's accept for the moment that tools are morally neutral. Notwithstanding that, when you're thinking in a consequentialist fashion, you don't just ignore the

Let's accept for the moment that tools are morally neutral. Notwithstanding that, when you're thinking in a consequentialist fashion, you don't just ignore the knowledge you have of how the tools you build are going to be used. You can say "well it's not up to me, it's not my responsibility to think about how they'll be used", but you have to be upfront with yourself about the fact that you're not taking moral responsibility for your actions.

CamperBob2 8y ago
but you have to be upfront with yourself about the fact that you're not taking moral responsibility for your actions. My concern isn't so much the nature or purpose of the tool I'm building, as it is with whose hands the tool will ultimately end up in. I'd be OK working on military drones, for instance, if I knew they wouldn't end up in the hands of avaricious neoconservatives, LBJ-school paleoliberals, religious nuts, or basically anyone who isn't someone whose judgment I personally trust. So in practice I wouldn't want to work on a military weapons project with no valid civilian uses. But it's not because I believe drones or land mines or atomic bombs are inherently evil. It's because I have no idea who will eventually end up in control of those products, and because history suggests that they will be used in ways I don't approve of. I have the same attitude towards patents, basically, but that's a different debate.