Ryan's Journal

Here's an interesting question. I just interviewed at AlphaTech today. They do a good deal of Department of Defense contracting. When they first asked me to talk to them, I had an immediate reservation about working on computer systems that would potentially evolve into active military components. In other words, things that I might make might be used to kill people, or help kill people. That's not the same as murdering a man, but it's closer than I feel comfortable with.

I asked a married employee with children what he thought about doing the kind of work they do. His response was that none of their systems were in active use (which is not much of a reason), and that even if they were, they were for the express purpose of saving the military from expending human lives and from excess financial costs.

Which is fine if you want to think about the issue in a relative way. And I think we need an active military and a standing army. But it doesn't work absolutely. And it doesn't work for me. Really, that's just for me. If he can deal with it and go home and sleep each night, then he can. I don't think I can.