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Comment by adityab | Hacker News Reader

True, but none of those fields have the same kind of "end of humanity" connotations attached, in the general psyche.

Clarifications by well-known researchers don't travel as far and wide as urgency-signaling clickbait...

Nuclear power generation and agricultural GMOs definitely do have their opponents that use end-of-the-world kinds of arguments, and the uninformed that accept those.

Nuclear especially would be my go-to pristine example of this effect.

The nuclear has been demonized (in popular culture) due to the psyops of the Cold War. A backslash against nuclear power generation has always been expected.

The use of GMOs has been demonized since corporations decided to patent them and sue farmers that owns naturally hybridized plantations. (see agricultural patent trolls)

Abuse is what generates criticism and resistance to the use of new technology. Yes, the reasons you hear may not be wholly technically correct.

Again, if the trust of internet users is abused, and those who browse are tracked and profiled and spyed on; then should we be surprised that there are publications like this?

That's how you get stories about creepy AIs. And a "technically wrong" label doesn't help, preventing abuse is much more effective.

Nuclear has the disadvantage that high-profile accidents actually happened, and the period where everyone in western Europe had to watch their food chain for bioaccumulative radionucletides tends to stick in the memory.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-17472698

Part of the problem was dealt with by export: https://www.wiseinternational.org/nuclear-monitor/349-350/co...

>True, but none of those fields have the same kind of "end of humanity" connotations attached, in the general psyche.

Well, nuclear bombs have been associated with "Doomsday" / end of civilization ("Doomsday device") etc.

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