Dangerous Knowledge

In my dealings with people, with administrations, and with professionals, I have come to realize a striking dichotomy that exist within today's society, and especially among today's young people. Information and knowledge are, as I have stated repeatedly in earlier writings, to be vital to our growing individual development, and our development as a whole. However, one issue I have not explored is the idea of 'dangerous knowledge,' proprietary information that has potential to detriment others if used incorrectly. In the past, I have made one crucial, although unsaid assumption; that people are capable of handling the information they are given. In many ways, this is a fallacy.

People are not perfect rational agents. Feed a computer with information and a program, and the computer will generally give you the same result each time; however, people are far more complex (or perhaps, more random) and will generally not react in the same way. I have always assumed that with more knowledge, the average 'level' of performance among the populace at large will increase. I still do not disagree, but unfortunately, I recognize that the magnitude I attribute to lack of information is perhaps smaller than it should be.

Information and knowledge are dangerous objects to those who are unable to understand, process, or utilize them. For example, the knowledge that one can kill someone else is a danger to those who cannot responsibly use the information. This extends far beyond such an extreme case into such mundane things as personal secrets; how many lives have been ruined because such information was used without respect toward whoever it affected? To those who would wish for more information- in fact, for all information to be released and made public, I would ask you all to reconsider. As much as I am a proponent of information freedom, I cannot condone a course of action if people simply are not ready for it, and if the ultimate end is not the hoped-for mass enlightenment, but mass chaos.

Information is dangerous, and those of us who are educated can handle such things moreso on general, though only to a degree. Instead of arguing for the removal of information asymmetry, I would state that the most noble goal in this sense is to increase the level of learning and mental acuity among people. If we can demonstrate that we can utilize such information to ours and others benefit, and that we won't fall into mass chaos, descend into a mob, and will instead transcend to become more 'rational' decision makers, such a thing is more likely to remove information asymmetry than lobbying, speaking, or becoming condemnatory.

Today, I'm in class, and I'm still disquieted about my school. Hence, I am lazy.

Cheers.