Re: What to do with knowledge

Posted by Russ Abbott on Jan 02, 2009; 6:23pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Re-What-to-do-with-knowledge-tp2101042p2102638.html

It seems to me that the real problem is with nature.

The argument seems to go that knowledge about (dangerous possibility) phenomenon X might be put to bad use. Therefore we should destroy or at least control that knowledge.

I don't think that's completely off the mark. To the extent that we can control knowledge we may be able to develop a bit of a safety buffer for ourselves. I have no problem with a policy that attempts to minimize the spread of information about building nuclear weapons.

But the real problem isn't with knowledge about dangerous phenomenon X, it's with X itself.

Presumably there is nothing we can do so that X is not part of the world. We can't change nature so that E ≠ MC².  

In other words, don't blame the messenger (science) for the message (the world is dangerous) and its corollary (someone who may misuse knowledge about that danger may find out).

-- Russ

On Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 10:08 AM, Marcus G. Daniels <[hidden email]> wrote:

Owen Densmore wrote:

Bill Joy was ripped for his observation that new technologies are almost certain to be misused, and suggested the knowledge be guarded ..

For all of his reservations about the fragility of technology and the limitations of human design, the Internet did happen.   That came from the heroic efforts of a relatively small cadre of engineers, who could see so plainly what was needed.   The implications over the last twenty years for human communication have been profound and by in large good.   For example, the cognitive surplus in the post-television world and the  enormous economic and intangible benefits of that.    Certainly by the time there were viruses on the internet there were also people that could disassemble and disable them.  
I think the same will be true for robotics and genetic engineering.   The malevolent users of the technology will be relatively ignorant and inexperienced compared to the creators of it.   The creators will have already witnessed and contemplated the many ways in which things can go wrong.

Marcus

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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org