2013/9/10 David D <[email protected]> > Quote, " You've got to think (NSA claims to be the biggest employer of > mathematicians) that seeing the illegal activities the US has been getting > up to with the fruits of their labour that they may have a mathematician > retention or motivation problem on their hands." > > You mean like the principled mathematicians working on cluster bombs, > drones, and other "cool shit"? > > Everyone at the NSA knows exactly what they are doing. > > I suspect, like most that suck off the military-industrial complex tit, > there is surprising low turnover. > > Paychecks only go so far with the principled, but spineless will collect a > check forever and do whatever it takes to keep it coming. >
It's just a cool way to work with smart people on difficult problems while helping the nation. I think you underestimate how much these Americans think they're genuinely helping the nation. Their point isn't violating human rights, it's protecting human beings. It's a bit like the three laws system in Asimo's books, the only logical way to protect the civilians against themselves is to prevent them from thinking and communicating freely. It's only logical to take their freedoms to make them safe. I suspect the 'idealistic madmen' actually is a minority. The rest is simply indifferent to what happens as long as they can do groundbreaking research. Analysts are actually "on the job" and the job itself has its ethical considerations, so that's a different story. Like police really.
_______________________________________________ cryptography mailing list [email protected] http://lists.randombit.net/mailman/listinfo/cryptography
