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Subject:Re: Ethics and Job-Hunting From:"Sella Rush" <rushsm -at- home -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 28 Nov 2001 15:03:43 -0800
What a great question! Although I'm recently unemployed, I don't think it's
due to a shortage of ethics when I say there are very few legal industries
I'd turn down. But I'd have to look at specifics.
For example: Re guns--they're doing some fascinating hi-tech stuff these
days in gun control--such as guns that only fire if a certain person is
holding them, guns that must be held with a specific grip, etc. You would
probably not find me writing procedures on how to disable safety devices or
how to alter guns for certain purposes (such as to make rifles automatic).
Re privacy. I'm a privacy nut. I use special software to make sure the
DoubleClick cookies get removed from my system every day. That said, my
most recent job was for a company making data and text analysis software.
Many of our clients were analysts monitoring communications and other data.
When I heard about Echelon I almost had a stroke until I was assured (!) we
were not involved. On the other hand....the software I was working on does
a terrific job at analyzing the conceptual content of text--not just key
words. This means it understands the difference between "the play really
bombed" and "plant the bomb in the airplane", and requires much less human
intervention to make a decision. As a result, we were actually making
surveillance actually *less* intrusive while at the same time *more*
effective. This is certainly a desirable thing.
Re cloning: although I am, I guess, ethically opposed to it, a job in that
field would be so fascinating, I'm not sure I'd turn it down!
_______________________
Sella Rush
Seattle, WA
rushsm -at- home -dot- com
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