In my previous post, I wrote some of my thoughts about why I think this industry is currently a net-negative for the earth and is on path to help destroy the world. I of course do still stand by that, and still believe that the only realistic ethical course of action for workers in this industry that have realized that they’re aiding in the end of the world is to stop working in it, given that their negotiating power to protest working in some of society’s most evil technologies is non-existant due to no unions and the fact that we have told so many people to “learn computers, they’re the future” that there are many workers lined up behind you that also, like you once upon a time, are willing to suppress their concerns with what they’re working on for money.

However, there’s a problem with all of us leaving our IT jobs, specially right now. There are simply no jobs that pay well, broadly speaking, specially entry level jobs. While this is a crisis of our making because we helped so much to enable global capitalism, specially with our communications networks and our work in automating jobs that I hope by now you realize helped noone but the richest get more money at the expense of workers who don’t even have those jobs anymore, and find it kind of ironic (and fair) that we may find ourselves working for less than minimum wage in gig jobs after we helped create the conditions for them, I do realize it is not realistic for all of us to start over in our working life in a new field (although if you can, you should).

Now, once the world recognizes that this industry is ending the world, and after the chaos that will ensure from that, I believe the conditions will emerge where we will be able to rein in the evil in this industry and make it finally work for the working class rather than evil. There is good in IT, even if it is currently overshadowed by evil.

Personally, I think it will take the form of our own versions of the Hippocratic Oath and certification boards (think like the ones medical and legal professionals have). We should be required to swear an oath where we swear not to work or aid in technologies that harm the working class broadly, and breaking it has to come with real consequences for both the worker and company: for the worker this would be via certification boards stripping them of their license to work in IT professionaly, and for companies this has to come in the form of personal, unavoidable jail time for the leadership. We know that if we use monetary fines for companies, it just becomes the price tag for ignoring regulations once they get big enough.

Following that, changes have to be made to how schools teach IT to future potential workers in IT. Ethics has to take center stage, even over actually teaching programming/systems admin/whatever. They should be required to know that as workers in this field, they wield tremendous power and to not let themselves be used as tools for the rich to get richer while they beat the working class into submission.