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Very smart people have built nuclear bombs, nerve gas bombs, and weapons of plague.

People with the same ethics will be hired to build censorship and be happy to take home the paycheck.

I would definitely have participated in the Manhattan Project if asked - it was necessary to stop the Nazis. On the other hand, I would definitely not work on SOPA.

Don't confuse what is necessary with what is merely expedient.

People have different ideas about what is necessary. Calling the Manhattan Project "necessary" without thinking much about it is reckless. I've heard accounts from many of the scientists and workers, and many were quite horrified about the results (incidentally, against the Japanese, not Nazis). Presumably many do conclude that developing a nuclear weapon was "necessary," but not without considerably ethical debate.

It would be again much different if the Manhattan Project was something to be used against your fellow countrymen.

A number of other weapons of great destruction have been created outside of the Manhattan Project.

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