mxs@hal.UUCP (Marcos Salganicoff) (12/09/84)
[munch me tender, munch me sweet...] As a soon to be graduating engineer (E.E. in my case) I have begun to interview with various companies, some doing more defense oriented than others. I have a hard time tangling with some of the ethics involved in the design of weapons of any kind and what my social responsibility is as an engineer. Except for various conversations with miscellaneous fellow students, I have never heard of any formal conference or course at any university dedicated to this issue. Several people have mentioned it in passing, but I doesn't seem to be as important as the money to many people. Could anyone recommend any good starting points for me? thanks in advance, -Marcos (decvax!cwruecmp!hal!mxs)
norm@ariel.UUCP (N.ANDREWS) (12/10/84)
> Military policy depends on foreign policies which depend on political policies which depend on political theories which depend on ethical policies and theories which depend on epistemological policies which depend on epistemological theories which depend on metaphysical theories. > A lot of learning and thinking has to be done before anyone can rationally conclude that there is something unethical about the United States' defense industry. > If you think there is something unethical about the defense industry, then you have to decide on many, many issues... You may find that it isn't unethical to be employed by an unethical employer. > Kant created the death-camps. Kant is alive and well. If you want to have an impact that's significant, get Kant. > (A good starting point would be Leonard Peikoff's book, The Ominous Parallels). >
riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (12/11/84)
One place to start would be by writing to the following organizations:
High Technology Professionals for Peace
639 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 316
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 497-0605
HTPfP has both a political branch and an education branch, which runs, among
other things, an employment agency for people seeking high-tech work in
non-defense companies. They put out a newsletter called "Technology and
Responsibility" -- articles in the current issue include titles like
"Electronics and Computer Development: A Military History" and "Mideast Oil: A
Question of National Security". Dues are $25/year.
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
437 Mundel Way
Los Altos, CA 94022
(This is the address of the Palo Alto chapter, which is all I have at hand at
the moment.) CPSR does primarily educational work on connections between new
computer technology and war, although there is growing interest in the group
in other issues like computers in the workplace, solidarity work with
Nicaragua, etc. Their quarterly newsletter usually contains rather personal
articles on the ethical conflicts of working in computer R&D, as well. One
CPSR member has compiled a bibliography on Computer Reliability and Nuclear
War (available for $1 from Alan Borning at the U. of Washington, Seattle, WA
98195 (CS Dept. FR-35)).
--- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle