SETH LLOYD is a quantum computer scientist at MIT. He is the author of Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos.
The most dangerous idea is the genetic breakthrough that made people capable of ideas in the first place. The idea of ideas is nice enough in principle, and ideas certainly have had their impact for good. But one of these days, one of those nice ideas is likely to have the unintended consequence of destroying everything we know.
Meanwhile we cannot stop creating and exploring new ideas: The genie of ingenuity is out of the bottle. To suppress the power of ideas will hasten catastrophe, not avert it. Rather, we must wield that power with the respect it deserves.
Who risks no danger reaps no reward.