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Science vs. National Security

Posted by michael on from the town-ain't-big-enough-for-the-both-of-ya dept.

capt.Hij writes "The NY Times has an article about how scientific journals are struggling with how to avoid publishing information that might help bio-terrorists. Once people start deciding that knowledge should be held by only a few then we are sanctioning ignorance. This is scary when it comes to democracy and decision making."

3 of 67 comments (clear)

  1. as I've said on this site before by drDugan · · Score: 5, Funny

    as I've said before:

    you can't stop information.

    Maybe we should try to build a world
    where people aren't trying to kill us.

  2. Isn't that a little shrill? by tm2b · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of the principle of academic freedom and the free exchange of information. But.

    The fact is that some information, maybe not now but in the forseeable future, will be dangerous enough for one fanatic or lunatic to kill a very large number of people.

    We're going to have to have a long, reasoned conversation about how to deal with this fact, and cries of "we're sanctioning ignorance" are just as unhelpful as cries of "think of the children!"

    This doesn't mean that I'm happy with the way this administration is likely to approach this issue - I think it would be very good for the academic community to come up with a unified approach on this topic before a purely political solution is imposed.

    Bottom line: yes, I'd like people to be ignorant of how to (for instance) engineer aerosol Ebola in their basements.

    --
    "It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
  3. Open Source by TamMan2000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is exactly like the open source software!

    If the information is free and available, then anyone can read it and think about it and make a contribution. If it is not, the weekneses are known to a small subset of society who has less motivation to do something to solve the problem (think about treatments and cures), they also become more valueble to those who would do wrong, and could be kidnapped or bribed.

    So what is safer, Windows, or *nix?

    I think the answer is that we NEED to have this informaition published. Anything else endangers us, and inhibits the progress of knowledge.

    --
    "I'll have a Guinness, no wait, make that a Coors Light" -Grad student I work with, who shall remain anonymous...