8. Dangerous research tends to be
self-preserving
Every institution aspires to its own
self-preservation, and talk of dangers can lead to the end of funding for new
projects. Accordingly, scientists involved in these projects have every
personal incentive to defend them and downplay the dangers. No funding, no paycheck.
Unfortunately, in cases where the area of research in question threatens to
annihilate mankind for eternity, this can be rather dangerous to the rest of
us. For instance, one wonders why Google bought and is now pumping money into
Boston Dynamics, who are primarily known for manufacturing military robotics.
We thought their motto was, ÒDo no evil..?Ó It is
unfortunate that the most powerful and exciting technologies tend to be the
most dangerous, and have the most qualified and charismatic scientists and
spokespersons to defend their continued funding. This is why every project must
be subject to some degree of objective outside scrutiny. People close to
potentially dangerous corporate projects—like the robotics projects at
Google—have an ethical obligation to monitor what is going on and notify
groups concerned with global catastrophic risk in case anything thing is amiss.
The safety of the planet is more important than Google's stock price.