ABSTRACT
As a practising sociologist, my greatest horror and shame is that I cannot appeal to any authority to discredit work that I know to be positively dangerous. It is ideas that people and societies really care about, are willing to defend to the death or persecute others in the name of. Compared to those who design, manufacture and sell intentionally and unintentionally harmful technology, our job is much more dangerous. People can choose to use science and technology to pollute the world, wage war, oppress or imprison. What we deal in, ideas themselves, are the bases upon which people make choices, including those of polluting the world, waging war, oppressing or imprisoning others.
