You wouldn’t let stockbrokers, just because they knew more about stocks than you: decide what level of risk you should take – especially if their gain played a major role in the decision. So why do we let scientists and politicians who have everything to gain from the risk; gamble with our lives – and all life on earth?
What sort of guarantees do they provide? That if we become extinct – we’ll get our money back?
One 50’s science fiction movie offered $50,000 to the first person who could prove that the monster “IT” was not on Mars – that’s the sort of bet that corporations and technologists like to rely on: For many decades; the difficulties in proving that profitable new scientific developments and applications were actually harmful to people and the environment has taken a mountain of facts – and years of fighting regulatory backpedaling.
The biggest contributor to the Chernobyl disaster was not human error – it was human nature.
[Here’s a sure bet] If emerging technologies create an earth-threatening event; what is the first thing scientists will do? Try to cover it up.
Isn’t it time to demand that the burden of proof be reversed — before Science makes their final mistake – our final mistake?