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I recently read Jaron Lenier's "You are Not a Gadget." There several points where I strongly agree with him and many points where I vehemently disagree (Songles? Sheesh...). One of the points of agreement is that there are some avenues of research that ought not to be pursued for ethical reasons. The example he gives is of a recent resource intensive two year project to discover how to use a cell phone to hack a pacemaker and kill someone by remote. This project did highlight some glaring vulnerability: it created vulnerability by signalling that such a goal was obtainable. He points out that, in fact, obscurity can be good security, using the human immune system as an example. I think some of the security of Linux comes from the obscurity of any given distribution (who's gonna make a virus for Puppy Linux?). At any rate, there are so many problems that need solving and questions that need to be addressed that I think the problem of, for example, creating a form of napalm that is an even more efficient killer/disfigurer can safely be left unaddressed without worrying about stifling human creativity or curiosity.
Luqman
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