
Who are we kidding? Silicon Valley was built on the business of war - Blognoggle
https://diginomica.com/2018/10/31/who-are-we-kidding-silicon-valley-was-built-on-the-business-of-war/
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ebcode
> What is missing in much of the recent discussion about engaging with the
> Pentagon is the simple fact that there probably wouldn’t be a Silicon Valley
> as we know it without government defense contracts.

Times change. The DoD is not what it used to be, and neither is the technology
being developed. When the DoD was funding SRI and Douglas Engelbart, as I
understand it, that money was going to "basic research". So the money was
flowing, and the researchers could go in whatever direction seemed the most
promising.

Now, the contracts are more specific, and what the DoD wants has transformed
from something like "do what thou wilt" into "do what we say."

The government nowadays is always trying to do "another manhattan project",
but the trouble with that is that during the original manhattan project, our
country had the moral high-ground -- because we were fighting actual nazis --
and that was the entire reason that the best and brightest minds of that
generation were able to come together to work on the bomb.

But anyone who, today, thinks that our country has the moral high-ground is
either 1) closer in their thinking -- ideologically -- to the original nazis,
or 2) they just stepped out of a time machine from the 1940s.

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crunchyfrog
This article seems like a giant non-sequitur. Just because Silicon Valley was
founded with investment from the military doesn't require they continue to
take this investment. Georgetown University was saved financially by selling
slaves, I hardly think anyone would argue that this fact means they should
continue to deal with slave traders.

You can certainly argue these companies/employees are being naive or
unpatriotic or whatever but Silicon Valley's original source of funding is
irrelevant to this discussion.

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blacksmith_tb
A theme developed at much greater depth in Yasha Levine's recent book[1].

1: [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34220713-surveillance-
va...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34220713-surveillance-valley)

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gnode
> The naysayers appear to sincerely believe that AI is different from previous
> dual-use technology and that the many things that could go wrong create a
> true existential crisis.

Arguably this has already happened. Since the development of nuclear weapons
there has been a human-built existential threat.

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pmdulaney
How long before the growing anti-DoD mentality of Silicon Valley turns into
disdain and disrespect for the men and women who defend our country? American
Giant, you'd better stop giving deals to vets if you want to avoid the wrath
of the Silicon Valley Left!

~~~
coldtea
> _turns into disdain and disrespect for the men and women who defend our
> country?_

Defend? Or usually offend other countries?

Aside from Mexico (which was probably itself into defensive mode and had land
taken from it) and Japan (re: Pearl Harbor), what credible enemies did the
country had that needed defending from in the common sense of the term?

(Armies declaring war and attacking it on its soil/borders).

~~~
Blognoggle
Well, there was the Soviet expansion into Eastern Europe and its annexation of
Poland, Hungary, the eastern half of Germany, the dozens of proxy wars that
were fought between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, the space race, and a
thousand other Cold War battles that were waged but never declared. Despite
what you may have heard, it is not better to be red than dead.

~~~
gowld
Which of those things were worse than being dead?

