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Comment by 0x12 | Hacker News Reader

Where I live we simply use windows rather than radar for looking through walls.

I understand that there are law enforcement and military applications for this kind of tech, but I really wonder if we need to add the ability to see through walls to the long list of privacy invading technology that is already available.

There are very few good applications for this technology and lots of bad ones.

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Stopping scientific discovery because you (or anyone) believes the result will be abused is a bad idea IMHO. Also while you're imagining snooping police, I'm imagining rescue workers locating survivors of a building collapse.

The tech will probably have some peaceful uses, but I don't think they will outweigh the uses for military, law enforcement, espionage etc.

More generally, I think it's a mistake to believe that tech advances are always good overall. An extreme hypothetical example: advances in torture technology. A real-life example: television.

Pragmatically though, you'll never be able to stop new advancements from seeing the light of day. Blocking MIT from researching this won't stop the NSA or defense contractors, and even with a fair government, it wouldn't stop criminals. So far, the best path for dealing with potentially dangerous tech has been to keep it open and studied.

I'm skeptical. If it were very simple in terms of materials to create, say, biological weapons of mass destruction, I'd be in favor of keeping the knowledge under wraps.

Where is that friend button when you need it? ;)

You do have a good point there, but "For the most part, though, at least according to Charvat, the radar array is all about more efficient killing: “This is meant for the urban war fighter … those situations where it’s very stressful and it’d be great to know what’s behind that wall.”", direct from the horse's mouth.

Research like this has implications far beyond the primary application. There's a significant amount of knowledge and technology developed in order to implement the primary application, and most of the value is likely there, in improved processes, small bits of applied tech, and the growth of the students themselves.

These applications generate news, but they're really just the tip of the iceberg.

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