And I have yet to see a single paper like this where a researcher bails out and publicly says they refuse to work on such projects. Not one.
The most benign interpretation of this observation is that science is filled with spineless opportunists who don’t care who they hurt with what they create. A slightly less benign interpretation might be that many of these people are doing this deliberately, and getting off on the sense of power it gives them.
When it is pushed from the top it is hard to stop at ground level.
That’s irrelevant for the moral evaluation. Everyone is responsible for their own actions. If you choose not to kill anyone it won’t stop others from killing. But the fact that this is so doesn’t give you a license to kill.
I’m sure there was an early hominid version of this discourse. “Maybe bad to make sharp rock and sharp stick if this what we do with it…” “Mmm yes someday we make sharp rock big enough smash world.”
Realistically, probably ads, but maybe not only that?
(AI start-up idea: one of our ads a day keeps dementia away! /s)
Without ads and exploitation of the masses, none of these would not be possible.
Slavery (or getting poorer people to do the work for you) is the central concept of civilization. It cannot be done without it. It's not capital or advertising that makes all this work, it's forcing the poor to work and pay tax that makes the world go round d
The pyramids were not built by slaves, and while we can waffle around about "all labor is exploitative to some extent", it doesn't take exploitation-maxxing to drive great achievements. Most great modern achievements are driven by a desire for self-actualization or recognition, not survival.
https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/were-the-egyptian-pyram...
You might as well have said that without advertising, we wouldn't have charities, freedom of thought, and literature: the argument is as strong and might make you feel even better about yourself.
Oh, turns out that you did say that advertising solved slavery in another comment. Carry on, mate.
But that does not stop me from recognizing the part it plays in the world. That shouldn't stop you either.
> we wouldn't have charities, freedom of thought, and literature:
Does great literature require huge capital?
It is then useful to ask: if innovation is what we want, do there exist engines that aren't quite as expensive?
If the market economy has more of a human face than outright slavery, there's no reason to believe that it's impossible to do better: a Copernican position would say that we'd be no more likely to be correct than an ancient Egyptian who claims it's impossible to do better than state slavery.
The point is the exploitation of the masses and the ensuing concentration of wealth is the enabler. Sure we might find a way to do that without Ads...
This is not true of the Pyramids
https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/were-the-egyptian-pyram...
>Those ancient wonders were enabled by slave labor
That is exactly the point.