Not sure I agree. One of the founding fathers of computer science ( von Neumann ) calculated the most optimal detonation point for hiroshima to generate the gre

Not sure I agree. One of the founding fathers of computer science ( von Neumann ) calculated the most optimal detonation point for hiroshima to generate the greatest destruction and the widest spread of radiation. Computer science was involved in calculating nuclear ICBM trajectory. Computer science created ARPANET which was a network designed to be as resilient to nuclear attacks. > In physics, I can tell you that everyone, from their first days as an undergrad (or often before), encounters this and wrestles with it. Simply a lie. Was initially a physics major before settling on CS/etc. Nobody thought about or cared about the nukes. Actually, the nukes were more or a draw rather than a deterrent. In my university, we had to take a philosophy of ethics ( one of my favorite classes ) and we discussed everything there, but no physics major I knew lost sleep over hiroshima. Also, despite the revisionist history about scientists being appalled by hiroshima, the truth is everyone celebrated and partied after hiroshima. > For a long time, it frightened me that biology hadn't yet had this moment of reckoning What? I guess he never heard of darwin? Social darwinism was quite a big deal and the scientific foundation of white supremacy for nearly 100 years. It's something that justified the continued extermination of the natives in the US, aborigines in australia and eventually the "untermensch" in nazi germany. That legacy is what biologists like stephen gould worked to undo for decades. Study of ethics should be encouraged as it is an interesting topic, but it's not a panacea. Studying it won't necessarily make you ethical.