Excessive militarism in MIT

Excessive militarism in MIT

Our Systems Engineering course has a final project. There are two alternatives to choose from. The first one is to do some design with jet engines. The second one is to do something with military command systems. I am not really thrilled about these alternatives. The first one has too much mechanical engineering involved for my taste and experience. The second one is again one more example how the excessive militarism rampant in USA is wasting our time and efforts. It is as if there would not be enough significant, and really important problems to ponder in the world. Investing a single second for making killing innocents easier is life time wasted. Why do not we do something with energy systems, health care systems, urban transport systems, water management? All of these would be both more important and harder than making killing more efficient? Or, what about doing some systems engineering related to preventing terrorism? I think the amount of effort devoted in this country on military and killing is a crime against humanity.

Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs from July to September 2005".