
Google Walks Away from America's Security - petethomas
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-06-06/google-s-decision-to-ditch-project-maven-is-a-grave-error
======
brylie
Divesting from the military industrial complex is patriotic. Waging peace is
patriotic. Not pursuing militaristic and inhumane technology development is
patriotic.

It is a confused idea for patriotism to be conflated with militarism,
isolationism, nationalism, and racism.

~~~
grillvogel
is tracking and selling user data patriotic?

~~~
brylie
I would argue that it is unethical and becoming illegal to a certain extent in
various jurisdictions (such as EU). It is taking a similar process to the use
of unsolicited email mass-marketing we now consider SPAM. In the early days,
it wasn't obvious how invasive SPAM would be, but in hindsight it is very
clear and now there are laws to discourage the practice.

------
middleca
This feels like a very bizarre propaganda / pro-military opinion piece. Google
isn't a defense contractor, its employees aren't any more or less patriotic if
they don't want to build software that goes in killbots.

~~~
mankash666
But Google _wants_ to be a defense contractor and the employees are
emotionally blackmailing it from not being one.

If those employees had a fucking conscience, they wouldn't slice and dice
every online interaction of a user and serve ads. Stop pretending to be on a
moral high-ground by refusing to serve the very entity tasked with securing
YOU and the nation

~~~
murjinsee
You think it's irreconcilable for an individual to be okay with farming data,
but not with indirectly killing people?

Everybody has a slightly different moral compass. Every "good" person does
"bad" things.

I highly doubt, for instance, that everyone who commits check fraud would be
okay with murder; I also doubt every murderer would be okay with committing
check fraud.

~~~
mankash666
>>> "but not with indirectly killing people?"

I'm absolutely not OK killing (innocent) people, and clearly, the pentagon
isn't too. The aim of the program is to increase accuracy to prevent and
minimize collateral damage.

If you truly cared about protecting the lives of innocent, you'd support this
program.

------
HillaryBriss
Bloomberg calls Google's decision _a defeat for U.S. national security,
patriotism ..._

This raises a couple of questions:

What does it even _mean_ for a US company to be "patriotic"?

In today's globalized economy, how "patriotic" does an "American" company have
to be?

~~~
mankash666
That's a hypocritical question. Google and co. go running to big daddy if
hostile foreign adversaries cause it business or IP problems. Case in point,
Google sought the support of the Obama administration when China attempted to
steal it's source code from within Google-China offices.

Just as recent as a month ago Tesla Inc. was a big beneficiary of the current
administration's attempt to level the tariffs placed on automakers. Company
CEOs routinely accompany senators and diplomats on foreign trips to woo
foreign governments into favorable business climates for said companies.

And, here's a non-exhaustive list of benefits that America has bestowed on
Google -

1\. Stanford univ (and other world class univs), along with the economic
ecosystem around them enabled 2 grad students to even think of forming a
company.

2 . The VC ecosystem at that point was the most mature in America/Silicon
Valley - they took a risk on two pimpled faced fucks, albeit smart.

3\. America provided an economically just, politically stable and equitable
environment for a fledgling company to take on established industry giants. In
Russia or China, you can be coerced by violence to hand over your work, just
ask the founder of Telegram/VKontakt about it.

4\. The Islamic world is opposed to VC funding, interest-based banking, women
employment, ... due to religious reasons. Google could not have been born
there

....

After all the ways Google has benefited, to chicken out of a fair deal the
gives back to the country it leeched on is stupid. Further - being allowed the
freedom to walk away from a government deal without consequence is another
luxury Google would not have enjoyed in MOST other countries.

Wake up!

~~~
riku_iki
> fair deal the gives back to the country

do they already give back by paying taxes? I guess the dispute is that some
people don't trust government enough to give them even more advanced killbots,
and goverment is not necessary the same thing as country.

~~~
mankash666
I'd argue non-elected entities such as the Pentagon are driven by national
security and patriotism. If you suggested not pandering to any elected
administration, I'd agree, as politicians are driven by the singular need to
get re-elected. But the other parts of government mostly serve the country for
pride and security.

------
Jyaif
Google is arguably one of the company that treats their employees the best,
and yet those employees seems to constantly be sabotaging their company.

"Give them an inch and they'll take a mile" I guess.

