update on DARPA stance

There is clearly a vacuum that MAKE is filling via DARPA funding – our schools are crap. Military and religion have no place in education for youth outside of history classes.

I fully support people who wish to take a public (or private) stance against these associations.

My conscious, after much introspection and conversations with amazing people, dictates that I remain involved as a connector, to hopefully create an introduction to the ideals of mutual aid, transparency, adaptability, and emergence to these less-political communities. I want to increase the number of people who care about things like this, and to me that means being involved in the process.

I request that we continue this dialog until it is not necessary – I never want any morally questionable thing to go unnoticed.

6 thoughts on “update on DARPA stance

  1. I’ve been mulling this for a while and while my first reaction was “oh hell no!” I have come to very much the same place. I’ve been meaning to weigh in but it’s hard to be eloquent arguing shades of gray. Respect.

  2. @Al I’m on a panel? I didn’t sign up for one this year.. Happy to continue discussing in person or wherever. Tungle.me/willowbl00 if you want a one-on-one, or to set up a group thing.

  3. See Mitch Altman’s China trip de-briefing:
    http://blog.noisebridge.net/2012/05/04/hacker-trip-to-china-2
    “And there are 7 hackerspaces in China, with talk of lots more.” Our
    government agencies are nothing if not reactionary. DARPA/MAKE HackerSpaces in High Schools is doubtless a reaction to China’s University HackerSpace mandate.  “China has more honors students than we have students” — “The Social Network” (Paraphrased) Maybe we’ll be learning Ethical Hacking and Open-Source Hardware from China next. One can only hope.

  4. A panel at maker faire would be interesting. There is going to be a panel (i believe) at HOPE 9 in NYC. I wont be on the panel but will be in audience at both venues. I’ll be at space camp thurs before MF too.

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