You have to admit these guys are working on some cool problems. If you don't have a problem with the legality of it or potential for misuse it looks like a really interesting place to work.
That's exactly how they get people to work on it in the first place. If you have no conscience there are lots of places where you can work on 'cool problems'.
I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're not condoning their actions, but in case you need a more clear example of where this paradigm breaks down:
IBM & Nazi Germany, Nazi Germany in general, etc. Ironically, sillicon valley came into existence building military SIGINT/ELINT systems for the cold war.[0]
I think there is a developing consensus that the emerging US police state (and that of its allies) aren't appropriate for constitutional democracies. Comparing them to Nazi experiments or nuclear weapons is still a bit premature. The potential is there for it to turn really ugly which is why the time for political action is now. But national security is important and worthwhile within constitutional limits and under democratic oversight and I suspect a scaled back NSA would be no more evil or less interesting than Bletchley Park or the development of Radar.
Totally agree with everything you've said. I wasn't trying to equate helping the NSA build spy tools with building equipment for the Nazis -- just how doing so can be a slippery slope because it scales to such awful things as well.
I guess I felt the need to comment because it sounded like you were saying, "Hey, I get why they're doing it. Sounds like it'd be fun!", and I feel like having that attitude (even if I trust someone like you to know to stop before things get truly out of control) is dangerous.
