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paper-machine comments on A brief history of ethically concerned scientists - Less Wrong
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A good article, but one thing that sticks out of me is the overall ineffectiveness of these scientists at preventing the actual use of their technology. Only the recombinant DNA experiment was stopped before actually being carried out.
This may be partly because technologies that were used are more conspicuous. We would know if Napier designed a better cannon, but we don't know how much he delayed the development of artillery by concealing his results.
Right, there's a survivorship bias. You're not going to hear about scientists who successfully prevented anyone from learning about their terrible discoveries (because to be really successful they'd also need to prevent anyone from learning that they'd prevented anyone from learning about their terrible discoveries).
Once they let the cat out of the bag this is true. Da Vinci understood how to keep a secret.