[giraffe_lady]

I've had this exact conversation on HN before and I expect several people to come in saying that the only moral choice is to publish research without consideration of its effects or uses.

This is part of a particular strain of scientism that holds that "science" is or can be apolitical, so finds acknowledgments of the actual social-political world that it inhabits as heretical.

[ryandrake]

It’s infuriating to hear a developer say “hey, I’m fine with building the Torment Nexus because it’s an interesting technical problem and that’s all that matters!” Ethics should be a required undergrad course for software engineers.

[jlawson]

It's infuriating to hear a scientist say, "Science should be shaped to match our politics, not the other way around."

Once we give up on finding the actual truth then we're on the road to hell, as demonstrated so many times by past societies that put ideology ahead of truth.

And if you think the truth leads to you committing genocide, I think you have some of your own moral development to do. If your belief in human dignity is conditional on people being the all the same, your belief in human dignity is very weak.