Can idea A be harmful to those that don’t carry it? Can two ideas x and y exist such that both are true, but holders of one idea may be dangerous to holders of the other?
Definitely.
Examples for the first question are easy—info on how to build nukes, make bioweapons, create a misaligned AGI, are all/would all be harmful to many people who don’t carry them. That’s the type of information hazards I’m most interested in, and the type that makes the concept highly relevant to (most technology-related) global catastrophic and existential risks.
Examples for the second question are a bit harder, if you mean dangerous specifically to holders of idea y, and not to the more general public. But one quick and somewhat uninteresting example would be the information of how to do a terrorist attack on one rich and productive city, and the information that that city is rich and productive. Both info could be true. The latter info would draw people to the city, to some extent, increasing the chances that they’re harmed by holders of the former info.
(I see this example as “uninteresting” in the sense that the interaction effects of the two pieces of information don’t seem especially worth noting or highlighting. But it still seems to fit, and this sort of thing is probably common, I’d guess.)
Often harmful to people who don’t have the info
Definitely.
Examples for the first question are easy—info on how to build nukes, make bioweapons, create a misaligned AGI, are all/would all be harmful to many people who don’t carry them. That’s the type of information hazards I’m most interested in, and the type that makes the concept highly relevant to (most technology-related) global catastrophic and existential risks.
Examples for the second question are a bit harder, if you mean dangerous specifically to holders of idea y, and not to the more general public. But one quick and somewhat uninteresting example would be the information of how to do a terrorist attack on one rich and productive city, and the information that that city is rich and productive. Both info could be true. The latter info would draw people to the city, to some extent, increasing the chances that they’re harmed by holders of the former info.
(I see this example as “uninteresting” in the sense that the interaction effects of the two pieces of information don’t seem especially worth noting or highlighting. But it still seems to fit, and this sort of thing is probably common, I’d guess.)