Slashdot Mirror
The True Story of Website Results
Henry V .009 writes: "Salon is running a story on a dot.com called Website Results. Maybe you've heard of them. Viral Spyware makers. My God, these people are sick. Interview question: 'Imagine there's a peasant somewhere halfway across the world. If you could push a button and kill the person without getting caught, would you do it for a million dollars?' 'For them, it was yes, in a heartbeat.'"
You mean like this button???
And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour Isaiah 3:5
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
The statement doesn't make the assumption of you getting found out. It's supposed to be a test of personal morals. If the only thing keeping you from murder is the fear of being chastised by others then you would fall to the yes side of this test.
Similar but not entirely related was the Milgram Expriment. A volunteer was told to give increasing electric shocks to a "subject" in the next room when the subject in the next room answered a question incorrectly. Now the guy in the next room wasn't really getting shocked but he was yelling like he was. The researcher was collecting results on how these volunteers ability to morally detach themselves from the act by saying he was told to do it.
Hmmm... Been a while.... The story is called "Button. Button", by Alfred Bester. I don't remember which anthology it was in, probably one of the 100's of 1960's paperbacks in my basement.
-- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
Wow, that's weird. I have a sixteen hour working day (including travel, to be fair, but as I've been refused a laptop so I can work on the train I have to work over the weekend and most evenings at home). I have to mail my manager when I arrive and leave each day. (We have web access to mail, but none of us believe management won't doublecheck with reception or door swipe records.)
In theory we have a bonus system, but quarterly objectives are routinely sabotaged to ensure that it's impossible to meet them (and the 'bonuses' are so small as to be laughable anyway.) Overtime? In IT?? Are you kidding?? I'm a programmer, system and network admin; we don't get overtime! (anyone out there *ever* got overtime for programming?) In theory we can question management at regular "all hands" meetings: in practice, asking an awkward question would be an instant CLM (if not marking you to be first in line come the next round of downsizing.) Oh, and whistleblowing? My employer (before my time) blatently stole GPL'd code which is still plainly visible when the product starts up. It's been made very clear to me that if this info leaks, my feet won't touch the floor. Which is why I can't even name the corporation. Let's just say they're a well-known, significant, global, software/hardware/services corp., and most Slashdotters would have heard of them.
I haven't been physically intimidated, but with the economy in this state, who needs it?
BTW if anyone from the FSF or EFF is reading this and would like to get in touch, please reply to this post.
Isn't there an alternate version of this story by Richard Mattheson* (sp?) where the woman is home alone when the macguffin carrier comes to her door saying by pressing the button someone she doesn't know will die and she would get $50,000. Knowing they are strapped for money she presses it. The doorbell rings. A policeman informs her that her husband died in a car accident today. Her insurance agent calls and says that because it was an accident the double indemnity clause of his $25,000 life insurrance policy is invoked.
She grabs the box, breaks it open and finds that it is empty inside. Finally the guy shows up and she screams "you said it would someone I didn't know." He replies, "Mrs. x, how well did you really know your husband? How well do any of us know anybody else, really?"
*Mattheson wrote quite a view of TV's Twilight Zone episodes, IIRC.
Psychology 101 -- in the early 60's, Stanley Milgram wrote the book on how depraved people can be.
http://www.new-life.net/milgram.htm
What he was really studying was the varying levels of conformity (or conformability) in various cultures, and how willing people are to follow orders, even when those orders are morally wrong.
One simple rule for its versus it's
The company is still issuing happy talk press releases, but most of the press releases that mention them mention lawsuits. "... Files Suit Against Merrill Lynch and Henry Blodget on Behalf of Investors of 24/7 Real Media, Inc."
what that study proved was the way most people will subjugate themselves to authority - the head of the experiment continually told Subject A to increase the shocks and that the person would really be ok. The original dilemma posted has nothing to do with authority figures but is all about personal morals.
I think the whole thing is a case of odd behavior caused by steroid use. The Schwarzenegger film, the workout equipment, the obsessive workout schedule, angry physical outbursts. I would love to see before and after pictures of those guys. I bet they were using steriods.
The next time someone says "... on steroids", this is what they're talking about!
jeff
So, because your opinion, which is based on limited experience, is true for you, it is true in all cases.
There are circles of financial and political power on this planet who care about nothing but their own hegemony.
Their are "up and coming" aspirants to those circles of power and influence.
It should be clear to most people, at this point, that money defines the rules in our society. And the ones with the money are making the rules.
Furthermore, since that is the unspoken, yet completely accepted and recognized overlying paradigm of societal operation, many people who aspire merely to survive would sell their morals and principles at the drop of a dime.
This can be proven by the fact that in business people routinely choose money over principle.
Principled people are admired from afar. Unprincipled people take their principles to the bank...at your expense.
These guys were definitely sampling the elephant hormones. This is typical of a type-a on Steroids...
I had a friend who would get like this. Feel the need to punch holes in walls, faces...etc. When he cut off the 'roids, he wasn't nearly as a sadistic.
-Malakai
A Dragon Lives in my Garage