[tolstoywasright]

Not surprised seeing Pinker is a fan. These are the same type of people that parrot the "technology is neutral, it's how you use it" line.

"Only by looking back at fears of old things when they were new, can we have rational constructive debates about emerging technologies today that avoids the pitfalls of moral panic and incumbent protectionism."

Sure ok, start with this: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/228250.Four_Arguments_fo...

[kspacewalk2]

> "technology is neutral, it's how you use it" line.

Seems like such an obviously true statement to me, that the only thing to add is that you cannot un-invent, abolish or wish it away. Folks who believe in the "complete nuclear disarmament" fairy tale have a hard time with this.

[dane-pgp]

You might not be able to wish away nuclear weapons, but if all countries in the world wanted there to be no nuclear weapons, they could (after solving climate change) introduce a global ban on nuclear energy and the possession of fissionable elements.

This would have to be accompanied by a powerful inspections regime, with big rewards for whistleblowers. Also, if a country did announce it had secretly produced nuclear weapons, or was discovered to have them, that would probably have to be treated as a casus belli, and all other countries would have a legal duty to launch a massive (conventional) bombardment of that country.

[Apocryphon]

The entire world was able to come together to ban CFCs, so there’s at least one precedence of a harmful substance getting universal prohibition. And there are all sorts of human rights conventions on what may or may not be used in war.

[janto]

Is Twitter neutral?