It's so weird. I do cryptography (only have been paid by the NSF, no shady funders yet as far as I know and all my work is public) but I constantly saw DoD and other military/military adjacent projects floated funding around my undergrad. Like most cryptographers won't want to go work for the NSA for ethical reasons, but can still get caught up in these public funded projects as it doesn't seem as bad. For this though, I mean did this person think at all for a second. Like I considered doing a project on a drone personal assistant which would follow you because it's cool as fuck, but like consider why the DoD is funding you for this research! what on earth did they think they wanted with it!
Right? And the sheer volume of obviously disastrous projects this person work on... I would assume they were going out of their way to do 'killing people' work; especially as they framed the list as "I, a trans person, have done more for the defense of America than removed ever will" like... you knew exactly what you were doing, don't back-pedal now because you didn't realize a consequence would be extreme unpopularity. They bought imperialist narratives hook, line, and sinker, or they just never thought through what giving the military better guns really means which... after years of very specific, high-tech research work... Really? Like... really?? Haha
Yeah it's ridiculous. Like her work indirectly kept troops alive and planes in the sky to do what we know they do. She's technically right that she wasn't employed by the DoD or employed to build munitions, but come on, you served the war machine.
Even if it was just the healing tech, maaaybe she has a point. But you bragged about developing tech that helps drones track people who are running away? Ie. not a threat? Come on, You served the war machine.
It's so weird. I do cryptography (only have been paid by the NSF, no shady funders yet as far as I know and all my work is public) but I constantly saw DoD and other military/military adjacent projects floated funding around my undergrad. Like most cryptographers won't want to go work for the NSA for ethical reasons, but can still get caught up in these public funded projects as it doesn't seem as bad. For this though, I mean did this person think at all for a second. Like I considered doing a project on a drone personal assistant which would follow you because it's cool as fuck, but like consider why the DoD is funding you for this research! what on earth did they think they wanted with it!
Right? And the sheer volume of obviously disastrous projects this person work on... I would assume they were going out of their way to do 'killing people' work; especially as they framed the list as "I, a trans person, have done more for the defense of America than removed ever will" like... you knew exactly what you were doing, don't back-pedal now because you didn't realize a consequence would be extreme unpopularity. They bought imperialist narratives hook, line, and sinker, or they just never thought through what giving the military better guns really means which... after years of very specific, high-tech research work... Really? Like... really?? Haha
Yeah it's ridiculous. Like her work indirectly kept troops alive and planes in the sky to do what we know they do. She's technically right that she wasn't employed by the DoD or employed to build munitions, but come on, you served the war machine.
Even if it was just the healing tech, maaaybe she has a point. But you bragged about developing tech that helps drones track people who are running away? Ie. not a threat? Come on, You served the war machine.