> were created by well-intentioned researchers who were subsequently shocked to find their work applied to military

oh please.

Most scientific development especially root-node stuff has been funded and kick-started by the military for centuries. You can't take funds from DARPA and then be shocked to see the air force using it. You can't work at ecole polytechnique and be shocked to see your work being used in libya.

Humans would have never gone to space [as quick and as at much scale as they did] if they didn't want spy satellites and ICBMs.

Shannon invented a whole new field while working with money earmarked for cryptography work in WW2.

Machine translation was first posed and funded by anyone for russian-english translation - 1949 Warren Weaver memo at the Rockefeller Foundation.

Do see my other comment for more examples.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45364917

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45365211 [Context: the creator of waymo was the winner of that challenge]

And need I mention the internet itself...

As the first comment I linked mentions, even many medicines were developed only cos soldiers were dying in theater, not because normal people were dying at home. So it's not just limited to tech.

> the ruling class

No, we don't get to deflect blame like that. If we take money from DARPA/similar to invent something, we are part of the system and are responsible. Everyone involved in the space race in the 50s, Transit (sat nav) in the 60s knew it was to make ICBMs. The creator of waymo surely read that DARPA document I linked in my second comment. And need I mention that oppenheimer knew why nuclear energy was being harnessed :) You can't "oh the evil few tricking the innocent majority, what ever will they do" it away.

A logically defensible position might be that you agree that war is a timeless motivation and that you are fine with stuff being used for military purposes and continue to develop the technology with government money, OR not taking any money from the government. There are not that many others that aren't hypocritical.