[echelon]

Nothing is stopping us.

One life to experience the universe. Save up for a sabbatical. Find new engineering pastures.

It's always rose colored looking back. Not everybody got to work on this. Some people were storming the beaches...

[therobots927]

And some people, specifically Vietnamese and Cambodian civilians, were on the receiving end of your fun little brain teaser.

And other people, like Henry Kissinger, drew random dots on a map to tell it where to drop the bombs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Menu

[echelon]

> And some people, specifically Vietnamese and Cambodian civilians, were on the receiving end of your fun little brain teaser.

To make it ABUNDANTLY CLEAR, I was referring to celestial navigation.

I guess we have to blame people who weren't alive at the time for wars we didn't participate in?

My wife is Vietnamese, btw.

[therobots927]

I’m sorry. I’m in a bad mood and that was unecessary. That being said, given the current hyper militarized climate in Silicon Valley, I find this detachment of the science / engineering from its use cases to be more than a little distasteful.

[bloomingeek]

You are to be commended for an apology, it shows class and decency.

As for the militarization of Silicon Valley, it's been said we have god-like tech, but not the emotional discipline for such responsibilities. Aside from the fact that we humans suck, we repeat our worst mistakes without, it seems, a second thought. Then, when we're called out, we let our ego warp to any excuse that will suffice. The Kissinger example mentioned above almost made me ill.

[Hikikomori]

Fun fact, that's how it started, WW2 and the need for electronic warfare and countermeasures created/set the stage for silicon valley.

https://youtu.be/ZTC_RxWN_xo?si=fKlacQAM8krrW17B

[kingleopold]

another real fact: "Between 1964 and 1973, the United States conducted a covert "Secret War" in Laos, dropping over two million tons of ordnance during 580,000+ bombing missions, "

[therobots927]

I’m about to read King Leopold’s Ghost. Great choice in username.

I must say it’s a little disappointing that things like “secret bombing campaigns” getting declassified don’t lead to much public response.

[stevenwoo]

The revelation of secret bombing campaigns was one of the main reveals of The Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg. This arguably turned American public opinion against the war decisively as it revealed the USA had no cohesive strategy for winning and was repeatedly lying to the American public about the multiple fronts of the war in Southeast Asia for more than twenty years.