Brent A. Yorgey, a computer science professor at Hendrix College, shares a deeply personal reflection with his students about the current state of technology. In his letter, he critiques the software industry's shift toward prioritizing profit over ethics, highlighting concerns about exploitative practices, environmental costs of computing, and the moral decay of treating code as disposable. Yorgey refuses to use large language models (LLMs) in his teaching or research, calling them 'built on massive exploitation of human labor' and 'profligate use of scarce resources.' He frames this stance as part of being a 'generative AI vegetarian,' aligning with ethical tech movements that reject harmful innovations.

Yorgey urges students to reject societal lies about technological 'inevitability,' emphasizing that they can make deliberate ethical choices. He advises cultivating distraction-free focus, writing elegant code with proper documentation, and prioritizing human relationships over productivity metrics. His message centers on maintaining integrity in a field where 'code quantity is valued over quality' and systems perpetuate historical biases through biased data.

The professor's teaching philosophy remains rooted in foundational computer science principles. This spring, he teaches MATH 240, CSCI 365, and CSCI 150 lab sections, courses emphasizing discrete mathematics, functional programming, and systems organization. With over two decades of teaching experience across Hendrix, Williams College, and the University of Pennsylvania, Yorgey's curriculum spans programming languages, algorithms, and software foundations. His refusal to engage with LLMs extends to his professional work, where he maintains that technical capability doesn't justify negative societal impacts.

Yorgey closes with a call to action: 'Be motivated by love instead of fear.' He challenges students to question prevailing narratives about technology's role in society while developing deep technical skills. His letter serves as both a warning about industry trends and an affirmation of computing's original purpose—to create tools that foster human connection rather than exploitation.