Logic, methodology and philosophy of science VIII proceedings of the eighth international congress of logic, methodology and philosophy of science, and philosophy of science proceedings) ( PDFDrive ) 84

IS THERE ANYTHING WE SHOULD NOT WANT TO KNOW? 65 Is any knowledge dangerous for technological reasons? Fundamental research in various disciplines open up for new and unforeseen technological applications To take the most dramatic example, fundamental physical research by Einstein and others in the first four decades of this century provided the knowledge necessary for the technological development of nuclear weapons Some people wish that this knowledge had never been obtained Shifting to our present situation we may ask whether there are any areas of the frontiers of science that are likely to produce knowledge which leads to undesirable technological consequences; and if so, whether such research should be constrained or prohibited I want to present a couple of examples of research that has been claimed to be undesirable in order to determine whether it is the knowledge in itself that is dangerous SINSHEIMER (1979: p 29) cites current research upon improved means for isotope fractionation using sophisticated lasers as an investigation of dubious merit The reason is that “ the most immediate application of isotope fractionation techniques would be the separation of uranium isotopes” and so “ if we devise quick and ingenious means for isotope separation then one of the last defenses against nuclear terror will be breached Is the advantage worth the price?” This is a rather typical example of the kind of knowledge that is of “dubious merit” because it leads to undesirable technologies My main problem with examples of this kind is that it is not obvious that it is the knowledge itself that is undesirable It is clear that if we knew how to separate isotopes efficiently, we could easily find a number of very useful applications Sinsheimer himself acknowledges this: “To be sure, there are benign experiments that would be facilitated by the availability of less expensive, pure isotopes For some years I wanted to an experiment with oxygen-18 but was always deterred by the cost” Rather it is the technology associated with the use of the knowledge for the separation of uranium-235 that frightens Sinsheimer Thus, in this example, as in so many others, it is not the knowledge per se that is dangerous, since it may be used for beneficial purposes as well, but the use of the technologies it makes possible (1979: pp My second example is also borrowed from SINSHEIMER 30-31) and concerns research on the aging process The objective of this type of research is to understand and ultimately control the processes at play in aging and death Successful research would lead to a substantial