5 ms·

Many things can be unethical/immoral without being illegal, and of course there are some technologies that are fundamentally bad.

jolmg 4y ago
Tech is such a malleable thing. Let's say that this repo doesn't exist, but repos exist for doing facial tracking on webcam feeds and pictures (for facial recognition), and others for modifying a 3d model according to a facial model output by facial trackers (for 3d avatars). Let's say that the tech around this DeepFaceLive repo develops to the point that the repo can become just a 10-line file of glue that makes a 3d model that's just a grid plane with a picture on it that moves according to a webcam feed. Such a repo is redundant and anyone that wants this tech can just apply the repos mentioned in the previous paragraph to do the equivalent. Are those repos now bad? If not, it seems the ethical question can be resolved by some restructuring of code so bad uses are not made so obvious, while being almost as easy.
sneak 4y ago
What technologies are fundamentally bad? I don't know of any outside of perhaps torture devices.
- lovemenot 4y ago
  There's surely at least some that you don't know of because their developer made the decision to not release.
- blooalien 4y ago
  Every single "weapon of mass destruction" is fundamentally bad technology, just for one ultra-easy answer…
  - jolmg 4y ago
    The possibility that nuclear deterrence has helped the world to be more peaceful in comparison to the past means that it's not such an easy answer. Hasn't even been a century since nuclear weapons were invented though, so no clear statistics.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - sneak 4y ago
    That's simply not accurate? Nuclear weapons and the advent of mutually assured destruction has ushered in a world where many, many, many fewer people die of violent conflict. Technologies that cause destruction are not congruent with destruction. They change the game such that destruction may actually be prevented by their existence. They are tools, nothing more. It's possible they have permanently eradicated world war. If that's true, they are not fundamentally bad but in fact really quite great. Only time will tell.

jolmg 4y ago

Tech is such a malleable thing. Let's say that this repo doesn't exist, but repos exist for doing facial tracking on webcam feeds and pictures (for facial recognition), and others for modifying a 3d model according to a facial model output by facial trackers (for 3d avatars). Let's say that the tech around this DeepFaceLive repo develops to the point that the repo can become just a 10-line file of glue that makes a 3d model that's just a grid plane with a picture on it that moves according to a webcam feed. Such a repo is redundant and anyone that wants this tech can just apply the repos mentioned in the previous paragraph to do the equivalent. Are those repos now bad? If not, it seems the ethical question can be resolved by some restructuring of code so bad uses are not made so obvious, while being almost as easy.

sneak 4y ago

What technologies are fundamentally bad? I don't know of any outside of perhaps torture devices.

lovemenot 4y ago
There's surely at least some that you don't know of because their developer made the decision to not release.
blooalien 4y ago
Every single "weapon of mass destruction" is fundamentally bad technology, just for one ultra-easy answer…
- jolmg 4y ago
  The possibility that nuclear deterrence has helped the world to be more peaceful in comparison to the past means that it's not such an easy answer. Hasn't even been a century since nuclear weapons were invented though, so no clear statistics.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- sneak 4y ago
  That's simply not accurate? Nuclear weapons and the advent of mutually assured destruction has ushered in a world where many, many, many fewer people die of violent conflict. Technologies that cause destruction are not congruent with destruction. They change the game such that destruction may actually be prevented by their existence. They are tools, nothing more. It's possible they have permanently eradicated world war. If that's true, they are not fundamentally bad but in fact really quite great. Only time will tell.