but once we’ve conditioned on a particular thing (“what’s the optimal level of chemical Q?”) it seems to me that we should have symmetric levels of knowledge about moving the level of that thing up and down when it’s possible to move both directions.
Moving the level of that thing down is limited at 0, and thus the effect of bias and abuse is also limited. Moving the level up is not so limited.
Deciding that you’ll condition on a particular thing is itself subject to the same bias and abuse that deciding to add something is. Imagine regulators saying “we’ve already decided that we’re going add sterility drugs to the water, we just need to decide how much”. It’s also solved the same way; just like you say “without satisfying very high standards, you may only filter stuff out and not add stuff”, you say “without satisfying very high standards, you may only condition on things that are already present in significant amounts”.
I think that’s a fully general argument against any infrastructure development, and should be responded to by investing in security (and secure design) rather than not investing in infrastructure.
It is possible to have a multi-peaked preference where directly saying “we’ll create infrastructure, and then we’ll use it in X way” is opposed by a majority, while doing it in two steps as “we’ll create infrastructure which cannot be used in X way” and “now that we have infrastructure, we should remove the security and use it in X way” has each step supported by a majority.
To oppose such things, you have to oppose the first step. (And of course, not everything has multi-peaked preferences, so this is not a fully general argument.)
(That link also describes other slippery slope mechanisms which may apply.)
Moving the level of that thing down is limited at 0, and thus the effect of bias and abuse is also limited. Moving the level up is not so limited.
Deciding that you’ll condition on a particular thing is itself subject to the same bias and abuse that deciding to add something is. Imagine regulators saying “we’ve already decided that we’re going add sterility drugs to the water, we just need to decide how much”. It’s also solved the same way; just like you say “without satisfying very high standards, you may only filter stuff out and not add stuff”, you say “without satisfying very high standards, you may only condition on things that are already present in significant amounts”.
It is possible to have a multi-peaked preference where directly saying “we’ll create infrastructure, and then we’ll use it in X way” is opposed by a majority, while doing it in two steps as “we’ll create infrastructure which cannot be used in X way” and “now that we have infrastructure, we should remove the security and use it in X way” has each step supported by a majority.
To oppose such things, you have to oppose the first step. (And of course, not everything has multi-peaked preferences, so this is not a fully general argument.)
(That link also describes other slippery slope mechanisms which may apply.)