You didn't expect the application you developed called "Skynet" that has an eye of sauron as it's logo to be used by the military? Sorry, I don't believe you.

Yep. Early in my career I developed a simple driver for a CAN interface to be used in a medical device, which was my assigned project.

The same code was used in another project of this same company. The project was a missile. It felt weird.

There should be a distinction between helping the military and helping a police state.

Eg. Flock cameras don’t help the military but do help the police state.

I don't think the author is suggesting we shouldn't build useful things. He's saying to the people who built the military system that they shouldn't be doing that.

It's the last step that's the problem, not the people who built all the things they stand on. Otherwise we'd be suggesting that no one build a database engine or a digital camera or a computer ever again in case they're used to build evil tech.

>Harder than it looks.

But maybe easier than it sounds.

All technology can be weaponized. It can also be de-weaponized.

One of my favorite late-night thought experiments, is "what would it take to turn an AK47 or an AR15 into a water pump?" .. the possibilities are endless. "How could a tank be turned into a bicycle factory?", another great one worth the effort to think about.

The only difference between peaceful technology and a weapon is the intention of the user. The very real spiritual intention.

De-weaponization starts with the human being. Those who think weapons are necessary must always take lesser priority than those who invent technology to make the lives of their fellow human beings better. There are so many examples of the tool-makers winning harder and at greater scale than the bomb-manufacturer. We wouldn't be here now if the balance was the other way - our world is however threatened by having this scale weighed heavily, by those who think murder is the solution to anything.

It's a spirit thing. Not spiritu-al, a spirit thing. What is the spirit of the designer? If they want to help humanity, it will be difficult technology to weaponize (although not impossible). It will be easy to de-weaponize, also.

We need to focus more on the spirit of help, and less on hurt.

Imagine if those F35 mounting pylons were used to drop field-portable water-purification systems directly where they are needed most.

Imagine if they could be used to drop a copy of archive.org, anywhere in the world, in any language.

Imagine if those ships were being used to bring power to the villages that need it most. Instead of glide bombs, we have glide libraries. Instead of cluster munitions, we instead drop cluster medical kits!

Oh, the glory to be had by those who would do this - the allies in the poor and weak of the world to be found! Imagine this happening, changing the intention from hate and fear, to respect and love.

All it takes is the spirit, a bit of imagination, and any and all technology can be de-weaponized.

It is the warrior narcissist who stands in the way of this. Disarm them too - smash their mirror: Drop books, not bombs!

I think there's a distinction between creating generic info-gathering technology that helps them gather their own data from their own users, and you gathering data that the government can then ask (force) you to hand over.

I feel really bad for you.

It might actually be wise [1] to create a new, slightly less permissioned license for open source wherein the open is defined as anything that isn’t in a kill or surveillance chain or, more broadly, for military use…

[1] for the community