Let’s suppose that your friend, Alice, tells you that she’s just invented a machine: a cold fusion generator that can produce several gigawatts of power. The generator is perfectly safe, produces no dangerous waste, and uses just plain water for fuel. It costs only $5,000 plus five tons of copper to build. Sounds like this is a boon to humanity, right?
Now, let’s say that with the right instructions (they take a person with a top 0.01% IQ to figure out) and a little more money in parts, the generator can be modified to become a hydrogen bomb.
Now, let’s say that you are President of the United States. How do you handle the situation?
- Assume the best about people; Do nothing and wait for the technology to improve everyone’s life
- Try to convince Alice not to release the instructions (Sorry, Alice thinks her invention is too wonderful not to release)
- Kidnap Alice and keep her isolated until she dies of old age
- Kill Alice immediately
- Try to confiscate all the copper in the world (likely destroying trillions of dollars in infrastructure) and establish a surveillance program for copper mines
- Do nothing and wait for humanity’s extinction
Please comment below on how you would respond and why. I’ve surveyed a number of people on this and I’ll release the results if I get just one comment.
802701 A.D. 