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A comment on NYU professors who defended vaping didn't disclose ties to Juul. Parent comment

Re:NYU professors who defended vaping didn't disclose ties t... by ryandrake on Monday May 06, 2024 @05:22PM (#40279656)
Yes, I deliberately used the word amoral. We need to stop anthropomorphizing companies (not just true for Oracle[1]). They aren't moral or immoral. They are simply unfeeling lawnmowers that chew up anything in their way and produce money. They neither like nor dislike you--they don't even think about you. They just robotically do whatever they can do to make money.

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15886728

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Re:NYU professors who defended vaping didn't disclose ties t... by dwaltrip on Monday May 06, 2024 @05:42PM (#40279828)
> They aren't moral or immoral. They are simply unfeeling lawnmowers that chew up anything in their way and produce money. They neither like nor dislike you--they don't even think about you. They just robotically do whatever they can do to make money.

That's a useful model, but it isn't the whole story. It certainly often feels like that. However, the 10% of the time where the model doesn't hold really matters. Companies are made up of humans, and humans aren't just money-robots. Groups of humans don't automatically turn into unfeeling profit-maximizers either.

The moments when humans at companies make decisions that aren't purely motivated by short-term profit are significant and can have a large positive impact. It would definitely be nice to see it happen more often and more effectively.

(To anyone who caught me in the act, sorry for all of the edits :)

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Re:NYU professors who defended vaping didn't disclose ties t... by holonsphere on Tuesday May 07, 2024 @08:09AM (#40284540)
I sometimes like to imagine a derelect business ai from the 50s running the whole show. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_cybernetics
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