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Should all information be freely available to everyone?
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Dan123456:
I was just watching YouTube and was recommended an instructional video on how to make P2NP (a drug precursor).

While this isn’t completely out of the norm as I watch a lot of chemistry related content and do get recommended stuff like that from time to time, it did get me to thinking, do you guys think that all information should be freely available to everyone?

I personally think yes, with the exception being if it puts people’s lives in immediate danger (I.e. national security matters, under cover police cases or military information etc. that could easily result in people instantly loosing their lives - although I do think even that should be released the second it the information can no longer be used to cause immediate harm).

I figure some of the professional EE guys might have some experience working on things that maybe they think the general public shouldn’t have full schematics for etc. (say a nuclear reactor or critical infrastructure or what not) or that you all might just have some interesting points of view  :)

Please play nice with each other on this one though guys :) I feel like this could devolve rapidly if people start attacking each others views but like to think that won’t happen and am genuinely super curious to get a feel on what the community thinks about this and why :)
mendip_discovery:
In a near-perfect world, it would be great. Just think of the amount of time saved as we don't have to reinvent the wheel every time we go to do a task. If someone works out a better way to do something, that way gets adopted.

This is kinda the way I view Open Source stuff. It's why when I have stuff I try to share it with others.

The problem is that all information to be freely available isn't good for business. Governments dislike working together as a rule, so it will not happen on that front either. Then you have those who will take that information and do bad things with it because they enjoy the chaos it can cause.
DimitriP:

--- Quote from: Dan123456 on November 26, 2023, 02:46:06 pm ---I was just watching YouTube and was recommended an instructional video on how to make P2NP (a drug precursor).

While this isn’t completely out of the norm as I watch a lot of chemistry related content and do get recommended stuff like that from time to time, it did get me to thinking, do you guys think that all information should be freely available to everyone?

I personally think yes, with the exception being if it puts people’s lives in immediate danger (I.e. national security matters, under cover police cases or military information etc. that could easily result in people instantly loosing their lives - although I do think even that should be released the second it the information can no longer be used to cause immediate harm).

I figure some of the professional EE guys might have some experience working on things that maybe they think the general public shouldn’t have full schematics for etc. (say a nuclear reactor or critical infrastructure or what not) or that you all might just have some interesting points of view  :)

Please play nice with each other on this one though guys :) I feel like this could devolve rapidly if people start attacking each others views but like to think that won’t happen and am genuinely super curious to get a feel on what the community thinks about this and why :)

--- End quote ---

That's a "No" wrapped in too many words.

Your question and issues it raises are similar to Mirosoft's mission statement:   ( https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/about )

--- Quote ---Empowering others
Our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
--- End quote ---

The short answer is No.
(Unless you are involved in international weapons smuggling - I'll spell it out: You sell weapons to all the "sides" - paid in advance )



Bud:
Just start with publishing your credit cards numbers and PINs and see how that goes.
Buriedcode:
Long answer:

a) Personal info - and how do you determine what is personal info and what isn't. Why should I have the right to know your passwords?

b) Trade secrets, patents were meant to allow people of "reasonable education" to recreate stuff but in reality are designed to prevent that. But providing access to all trade secrets will destabilise many economies.

c) We all ready have access to more "information" than any generation, but people still need protecting form themselves.  Whilst libertarians want complete freedom, they conveniently forget that regulations and restrictions (including on certain information) exists on a pile of bodies.  The balance between people claiming they have a "right to know" and the dangers of bad actors using sensitive information - or people doing stupid stuff and putting themsleves and others in danger should be struck, and, at least here in the UK seems about right. For now. But like all regulations they should evolve and adapt.

One could argue that, "where there's a will, there's a way" and that if someone really wanted to find something out, they could eventually, and so trying to restrict access to information on say, certain chemical reactions could be seen as fruitless.  But it will had another hurdle and raise the bar a bit.

Short answer: no.
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