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Poll: What would you do if you discovered a powerful but dangerous technology?

3 points by byoung2 ↗ HN
My wife and I were discussing this while waiting in the immigration line at CDG Paris. What would you do if you discovered an immensely powerful technology that had the potential to benefit humanity, but at the same time destroy it. I suggested, for example, an energy technology that could provide enough clean and plentiful energy to power the world forever, but could also be used as a weapon far more destructive than a million atomic bombs. What would you do if you alone discovered it?

4 comments

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drallison
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I think the spectrum of possible actions is far broader than the list you provide. Without more information about the hypothetical invention, I do not see how anyone can come to a rational conclusion about what their personal behavior might be.

byoung2
The hypothetical invention could be anything with the power to do both good and evil. You could imagine the outcomes would be similar for lots of inventions that fit this description. The one I proposed was a new energy source that could be weaponized, but it could just as easily be the discovery of a virus that eats cancer that could also be weaponized to attack healthy cells, or the invention of a chip that could be implanted in the brain to enhance intelligence but could also be used for mind control. The invention itself doesn't matter.
drallison
I think it does matter. It's all a question of balancing risk with reward. For example, a new power source which emits radiation which is deadly after 100 years exposure but otherwise reasonably harmless is very different than a similar system which kills off a small percentage of the population at random.
mooism2
Genies don't stay in bottles: if I can single-handedly invent such an important technology now, someone else will independently invent it within the next couple of decades.