@Cobalt

When I suggested not building it at all, and exposing the Feds requesting the system to the press, everybody looked at me like I had gone insane.

It didn't occur to anybody else that when you make a weapon, it will eventually be used. Somebody will find a way to justify doing so.

And none of them wanted to be told that they were being asked to build weapons as surely as if we were sitting in an Armalite factory.

@starbreaker 😱😱😱😱

SERIOUSLY

Sounds like a disguised ask for a fucking ethical fig leaf, ugh, and while I was reading this my brain was yelling, “no NONONONONO don’t do it at all! AHHHH!” Because 😱 maybe play a nice game of chess thanks

@Cobalt This was a few years back. I'd love to say that I was in on the ground floor at Palantir, realized what they were doing, and decided to get out with a semblance of a clean conscience, but the outfit I worked for wasn't nearly as famous or as successful.

@starbreaker Still. Fucking creepy, and you never know where your coworkers and boss may end up someday. Setting the precedent of thinking about this stuff and an expectation that acting on it is what normal, well-grounded people do, is still important. 👍

@starbreaker @Cobalt Nah. Judging from what I have read of Palantir’s culture of irresponsibility, I’d not wager you for a Palantir worker...

There is something sweetly menacing in how empire’s belief in its innocence neatly dovetails with the puerile Neverneverland of tech nerd culture. It’s all a jolly boyish romp to make something big, to believe that “disruption” is always good. It must be fun to have such power and so little care for where it lands.