--- On Thu, 11/26/09, Gadi Evron <[email protected]> wrote:
> I agree, which is why we don't debate climate change, but
> the hacker's actions.
My take:
The hacker is wrong - ethically, morally and legally.
The exposure of the information can be either good or bad, separately and
distinctly from the ethics of the hacker. Which one it is is more complicated
than I can determine at the moment - looking back a decade or two would give
the vantage to determine. It will remain unclear whether the release of
information contributes to the public good or has a sum negative impact until
it can be determined whether the public discourse is improved or not, and
whether the aggregate public "decision" on the topic is empirically proven to
be wise or not.
--------------------
An example of my thinking:
There is an extremist who has knowledge of a ticking bomb. I (with my Jack
Bower glasses on) choose to torture the information out of him, succeed, and
the bomb is defused.
The ethics?
o I am ethically, morally and legally in the wrong. I expect to go to jail.
o The disclosure of the information that I unethically gained? That is an
ethical act, saving human lives.
----------------------
Since we cannot extricate this conversation from global warming, I'll add my
two cents for better or worse (probably worse) on that, too.
o All would be better served to start the conversation with the question: "Do
you believe it is *possible* for mankind to have any impact of any kind on the
global climate under any conditions?" Anyone answering "no, God (Gaea, Kermit
the Frog,...) won't let us" doesn't need to be involved in the conversation
further.
o Increasing ratios of components known to retain heat in atmospheric systems
in a single-change scenario would have seemingly obvious results.
o The global climate is anything but a single-change scenario: it is actually
a "constant multiple-factor change scenario", in which it is conceivable that
we are currently otherwise in a cooling phase and we have just happened - by
sheer dumb luck - to find ourselves pumping warming agents out at the right
time.
o Counting on dumb luck to work in our favor over the long term is a Bad Idea.
-chris
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