Here’s an example of the sort you asked for. We’ll go with Von Neumann himself, who famously advocated for nuking the USSR before they had a chance to develop nukes. From his 1956 obituary in LIFE:
After the Axis had been destroyed, Von Neumann urged that the U.S. immediately build even more powerful atomic weapons and use them before the Soviets could develop nuclear weapons of their own. It was not an emotional crusade, Von Neumann, like others, had coldly reasoned that the world had grown too small to permit nations to conduct their affairs independently of one another. He held that world government was inevitable – and the sooner the better. But he also believed it could never be established while Soviet Communism dominated half of the globe. A famous Von Neumann observation at the time: “With the Russians it is not a question of whether but when.” A hard-boiled strategist, he was one of the few scientists to advocate preventive war, and in 1950 he was remarking, “If you say why not bomb them tomorrow, I say why not today? If you say today at 5 o’clock, I say why not 1 o’clock?”
Sure, it’s not literally billions, and sure, there’s an ultimate pro-human aim, but this is distinctly of the flavor “I am a genius and have reasoned my way to seeing that for my goals to be achieved, millions must die, nothing personal.”
(I don’t think this should really be a crux, though.)
Here’s an example of the sort you asked for. We’ll go with Von Neumann himself, who famously advocated for nuking the USSR before they had a chance to develop nukes. From his 1956 obituary in LIFE:
Sure, it’s not literally billions, and sure, there’s an ultimate pro-human aim, but this is distinctly of the flavor “I am a genius and have reasoned my way to seeing that for my goals to be achieved, millions must die, nothing personal.”
(I don’t think this should really be a crux, though.)