http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Re-What-to-do-with-knowledge-tp2101042p2102479.html
Or, what if multiplying cures was the fatal disease...??? Wouldn't that be
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
[hidden email] [mailto:
[hidden email]] On
> Behalf Of James Steiner
> Sent: Friday, January 02, 2009 11:53 AM
> To:
[hidden email]; The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee
> Group
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] What to do with knowledge
>
> I recall an amusing short-short story on that theme. It goes something
> like this:
>
> A scientist or government official or something tells his wife that a
> terrible discovery that had been made--a discovery of some unique and
> unlikely combination of readily available ingredients that could be
> used to destroy the world. In response to her questions, he assures
> her that the world is safe: Only a handful of people--those he
> directly works with, his co-workers and friends at the lab, who come
> over once a week with their spouses to play cards in their
> basement--even know that such a thing is possible, never mind fully
> knowing the actual ingredients, proportions and processes. Further,
> all research records leading to the discovery have been destroyed, and
> he and his colleagues are determined that the knowledge never be
> exposed.No, he assures her, the world is safe.
>
> At the next weekly card game hosted at their house, being convinced
> that this knowledge is far too dangerous to exist, she poisons the lot
> of them, thus protecting the world from harm.
>
> ~~James
>
> On Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 1:35 AM, Russ Abbott <
[hidden email]>
> wrote:
> > The issue of what to do with knowledge is certainly not an easy one
> to
> > resolve.
> >
> > Let's assume that you discovered that human beings were built in such
> a way
> > that a certain kind of virus would wipe most of us out. Let's also
> assume
> > that you were the only one who knew that. What would you do?
> >
> > Would you attempt to destroy that knowledge knowing how potentially
> deadly
> > it is? If you did that, how would feel if a nihilistically inclined
> > sociopath discovered the same thing a year later and set off the
> deadly
> > viral chain reaction? Perhaps if you had informed someone and
> started to
> > work on a defense, we would not have been so vulnerable to what
> turned out
> > to be a surprise attack.
> >
> > On the other hand, if you had informed people, perhaps the word would
> have
> > gotten out and triggered a biological arms race.
> >
> > I'm not claiming there are easy answers to these questions. But I
> do think
> > it's important not to deny the nature of the universe. The premise
> of my
> > thought experiment was that we were built with a certain kind of
> > vulnerability. Not knowing about it is not necessarily the best way
> to
> > proceed. But knowing about it may be dangerous as well. Sometimes
> there are
> > no good options. But it is not an option simply to wish that the
> world were
> > different. (Of course it is an option, but it doesn't make the world
> > different.)
> >
> > The same probably holds for nuclear weapons. Whether or not "science"
> > discovered that matter could be converted into energy in what could
> be very
> > destructive ways, the fact is that matter can be converted into
> energy in
> > very destructive ways. It does no good to wish that this weren't the
> case
> > or that no one would every find out about it. That's an act of denial
> about
> > how the world is. And denial is not a good way to live.
> >
> > -- Russ
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Jan 1, 2009 at 6:06 PM, Ann Racuya-Robbins <
[hidden email]>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> --
> >> Ann Racuya-Robbins
> >> Founder and CEO World Knowledge Bank www.wkbank.com
> >>
> >> "The theory of general relativity is a theory about the structure of
> >> nature. It is not noble. It is not evil. It is a theory." Russ
> Abbott
> >>
> >> We cannot separate everything into clear categories and thus avoid
> the
> >> tragic consequences....Theories come about because people create
> >> them...their(people's) agency cannot be removed nor in the theories'
> >> consequnces.
>
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