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> Anyone remember the "Don't be evil" thing? Are they evil? Or just amoral?
by Ygg2 6y ago
> Anyone remember the "Don't be evil" thing?
Are they evil? Or just amoral?
- jqpabc123 6y agoWhat prevents an amoral entity from being evil? Lack of motivation perhaps?
- squiggleblaz 6y agoI think amoral entities cannot be evil by definition. Rocks and volcanoes kill people, but they're not amoral. In any case, humans are intrinsically moral — we're either moral or immoral or some mixture. A group of humans working together do not suddenly become amoral. Claims that the law obliges a group of people to act in an evil way if they wish to do this that and the other are false, but even if they were true, it does not absolve the people who choose to act in an evil way; you can obey the law and therefore act in an evil way. Google is a moral company, which does evil.
- jqpabc123 6y agoGoogle is a moral company, which does evil. I guess I'm just a little simplistic and old fashioned. Where I come from, doing evil makes you evil.
- krapp 6y agoRisk analysis. An amoral entity will do evil if and when the benefit of evil outweighs the consequences, or the benefit of doing good. In terms of moral alignment, corporations as entities often behave like sociopaths. One infamous example is Ford deciding not to fix the exploding gas tanks in Pintos because they estimated the cost of paying out lawsuits and settlements would be less than the cost of recalling and repairing their automobiles. Choosing when to do evil and how much evil to do is SOP for any corporation big enough to afford the risk.
- jqpabc123 6y agoRisk analysis. In other words, lack of motivation.