I would be interested to see an 80K Hours profile on this field (among many others) if there isn’t one already, but regarding the points you mentioned:
“this engineering sector (and even the military itself) seem to have great impact. Hence, it should be a good candidate to somehow be an “effective” sector to work in.”
On some level, I agree that defense engineering and the broader defense industry can be impactful, but even if something is impactful overall it may not be a good candidate for cause prioritization. For example, it may not be neglected in the important areas (e.g., many thoughtful and/or skilled people are already working in the field), so having an extra person (or a more ethical and/or skilled person than whoever they are replacing) may not be as valuable as one might expect. Additionally, it may not be a very tractable field for someone who wants to have an impact by being more ethical, since institutional momentum/precedent and corporate incentive may be very strong, and such individuals will often just be a small part in a large bureaucracy/organization. This latter point is especially significant given that improvements in the industry are not so unambiguously good—in fact, in some instances they might be bad if, for example, a new technology leads to destabilizing dynamics. (80K actually does briefly touch on this idea in point 6 of this article) Additionally, my understanding is that there are already some non-EA efforts to promote better norms regarding weapons research (such as the anti-nuke campaigns like ICAN and the anti lethal autonomous weapons (LAWs) campaign, although I know both groups/movements have met with mixed reactions from EAs)
Ultimately, I would still like to hear others’ opinions or see any research people may have found, but on the surface I don’t see it as clearly neglected by the EA community relative to its potential value. Furthermore, I feel that even if someone does see this field as very valuable, they should probably see defense/security policy (e.g., in executive branches of government, as policy researchers in think tanks) as even more promising, since that work seems less saturated and less constrained.
I would be interested to see an 80K Hours profile on this field (among many others) if there isn’t one already, but regarding the points you mentioned:
On some level, I agree that defense engineering and the broader defense industry can be impactful, but even if something is impactful overall it may not be a good candidate for cause prioritization. For example, it may not be neglected in the important areas (e.g., many thoughtful and/or skilled people are already working in the field), so having an extra person (or a more ethical and/or skilled person than whoever they are replacing) may not be as valuable as one might expect. Additionally, it may not be a very tractable field for someone who wants to have an impact by being more ethical, since institutional momentum/precedent and corporate incentive may be very strong, and such individuals will often just be a small part in a large bureaucracy/organization. This latter point is especially significant given that improvements in the industry are not so unambiguously good—in fact, in some instances they might be bad if, for example, a new technology leads to destabilizing dynamics. (80K actually does briefly touch on this idea in point 6 of this article) Additionally, my understanding is that there are already some non-EA efforts to promote better norms regarding weapons research (such as the anti-nuke campaigns like ICAN and the anti lethal autonomous weapons (LAWs) campaign, although I know both groups/movements have met with mixed reactions from EAs)
Ultimately, I would still like to hear others’ opinions or see any research people may have found, but on the surface I don’t see it as clearly neglected by the EA community relative to its potential value. Furthermore, I feel that even if someone does see this field as very valuable, they should probably see defense/security policy (e.g., in executive branches of government, as policy researchers in think tanks) as even more promising, since that work seems less saturated and less constrained.