Even if keeping research secret in our modern world was feasible, I don’t believe it would be desirable. I would argue that humanity has benefited tremendously from chemistry, modern physics, genetics, and informatics. The problem is that knowledge is amoral. The same knowledge that allows you to build a bomb also allows you to build a nuclear reactor. The same compiler that you use to create the latest communication protocols also allows you to create destructive computer viruses. There’s no way of keeping one and discarding the other; and, on the whole, we are IMO better off with computers and other such things than we are without them.
Even if keeping research secret in our modern world was feasible, I don’t believe it would be desirable. I would argue that humanity has benefited tremendously from chemistry, modern physics, genetics, and informatics. The problem is that knowledge is amoral. The same knowledge that allows you to build a bomb also allows you to build a nuclear reactor. The same compiler that you use to create the latest communication protocols also allows you to create destructive computer viruses. There’s no way of keeping one and discarding the other; and, on the whole, we are IMO better off with computers and other such things than we are without them.