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I can never understand the urge to ban books, ideas, political ideologies, and similar. It strikes me as beyond bizarre. Even if you trust your government to be

I can never understand the urge to ban books, ideas, political ideologies, and similar. It strikes me as beyond bizarre. Even if you trust your government to be good and efficient as possible, how could you possibly feel that it's ok for someone else to decide what you can read, what you can say, what you can believe, and what you can espouse? I think the people who argue for that are either in power, believe that their ideology is beyond reproach, or have not thought through the implications of it.

frozenport 11y ago
Is it okay to ban a book which contains the written and complete text to assemble an atomic bomb?
- paulddraper 11y ago
  Okay? I'm not sure. Effective? Definitely not. If someone wants to share information they have, they will find a way to share it.
- GunboatDiplomat 11y ago
  No, it is not ok to ban that.
- elorant 11y ago
  Why? I can’t build an atomic bomb since I don’t have the resources and the guy who has the resources probably doesn’t need a manual in the first place.
  - frozenport 11y ago
    Actually building a functional nuclear weapon is hard and such a manual has been offered for sale for millions of dollars to various despotic regimes. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Qadeer_Khan https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Qadeer_Khan Oddly this reminds me of all the people that think making an SO clone is easy, when the css alone would take days to type out.
  - detaro 11y ago
    While it is possible to design a bomb without access to knowledge the atomic powers keep secret[1], if you get it wrong it's a really costly mistake to make, both in materials and time. Documentation for a tested design seems very valuable. [1] the US military had a pair of physics PhDs try to design a bomb sometime in the 60s, and apparently they succeeded, but that is only one data point. Not sure if there is any public knowledge about other states' nuke programs.
1stop 11y ago
But that's your ideology. Isn't it? I tend to agree with you, but I understand there are places in the world they do not like this. Freedom of expression is not a universal value it's just an "I'm American, or an American puppet state" value.
- GunboatDiplomat 11y ago
  You don't think people in China or India might not want to be able to access the full breadth of human knowledge? Also, rather condescending to call Europe, Australia, etc., American puppet states.
  - 1stop 11y ago
    Australia is an American puppet state. Most of Europe is as well. Recall what happened to European airspace when they thought snowden was in the air? I think people in China hold very different values to Americans and for the most part they don't mind their government, as shown by its continued existence. India holds different values again... I'm not particularly familiar with so I won't comment.

frozenport 11y ago

Is it okay to ban a book which contains the written and complete text to assemble an atomic bomb?

paulddraper 11y ago
Okay? I'm not sure. Effective? Definitely not. If someone wants to share information they have, they will find a way to share it.
GunboatDiplomat 11y ago
No, it is not ok to ban that.
elorant 11y ago
Why? I can’t build an atomic bomb since I don’t have the resources and the guy who has the resources probably doesn’t need a manual in the first place.
- frozenport 11y ago
  Actually building a functional nuclear weapon is hard and such a manual has been offered for sale for millions of dollars to various despotic regimes. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Qadeer_Khan https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Qadeer_Khan Oddly this reminds me of all the people that think making an SO clone is easy, when the css alone would take days to type out.
- detaro 11y ago
  While it is possible to design a bomb without access to knowledge the atomic powers keep secret[1], if you get it wrong it's a really costly mistake to make, both in materials and time. Documentation for a tested design seems very valuable. [1] the US military had a pair of physics PhDs try to design a bomb sometime in the 60s, and apparently they succeeded, but that is only one data point. Not sure if there is any public knowledge about other states' nuke programs.

1stop 11y ago

But that's your ideology. Isn't it? I tend to agree with you, but I understand there are places in the world they do not like this. Freedom of expression is not a universal value it's just an "I'm American, or an American puppet state" value.

GunboatDiplomat 11y ago
You don't think people in China or India might not want to be able to access the full breadth of human knowledge? Also, rather condescending to call Europe, Australia, etc., American puppet states.
- 1stop 11y ago
  Australia is an American puppet state. Most of Europe is as well. Recall what happened to European airspace when they thought snowden was in the air? I think people in China hold very different values to Americans and for the most part they don't mind their government, as shown by its continued existence. India holds different values again... I'm not particularly familiar with so I won't comment.