I know someone is gonna be like: You can’t build a nuke with only the information, the hard part is getting the [uranium/plutonium (or whatever its calledl]!
Thought Experiment:
Suppose in the future, humans all have an innate ability to summon nuclear bombs by doing a ritual, should instructions on how to do this ritual be legal to disseminate?
Or would you censor it for the safety of everyone? I mean, imagine everyone having a nuke that they can just summon… 👀
So… what say you, fellow fediverse user?
Should this hypothetical “summon-a-nuke” ritual be legal to teach people?
You need to teach people to the point that they understand what it is enough to avoid it. Otherwise they can be tricked into doing it or helping someone else do it. Knowledge is a barrier. Depending on your other options, you may or may not need it.
Exactly this.
I know how to make all kinds of bombs and illegal weapons and chemical combinations that can harm dozens or hundreds of people.
I also have credit cards. I could go to a gun show in an unregulated state and buy all manner of firearms and just walk around shooting people until the cops take me out.
I don’t do that because I don’t want to do that.
If I wanted to do that, then I would do it regardless of what knowledge I had.
You can kill people with a knife. You can poison their food. You can run them over with your car. There’s all manner of ways if you wanted to go and hurt people, you could hurt them.
Having the knowledge does not incentivize or disincentivize the actor, but making it forbidden knowledge causes it to become tantalizing.