Information hazards

The overwhelming majority of people believe that the truth is always the right answer, no matter what. Even young earth creationists believe so, although their flavor of "truth" obstructs actual information. This is not always the case, because some information can be damaging or potentially harmful if exposed.

An information hazard is: A risk that arises from the dissemination or the potential
dissemination of (true) information that may cause harm or enable some agent to cause
harm

Classic examples include the process to refine and enrich uranium, copyrighted data for private enterprise, or personal secrets of someone powerful.

Just how dangerous can an idea actually be?

Suppose that there is someone who believes in a particular scripture or ascribes exclusively to a particular philosophy. That scripture or philosophy may have unforeseen secondary conclusions that the originator overlooked.

For example, the bible was used to justify racial slavery by implying that being black was the curse set on Ham for what he did to Noah, making all Canaanites his servants.

Even these however, fall short of the maximum amount of damaging weight an idea can contain.

In the short story BLIT by David Langford, a series of computer generated images are accidentally discovered, which if viewed will kill the person looking at it, causing the human mind to crash the way computers will if they try to process certain images. While something this drastic lies firmly in the realm of science fiction, it is possible for flashing lights and or certain images to trigger epileptic seizures in certain people.

The most damaging would perhaps be an idea that is a danger in and of itself, such that even mentioning the name of the idea or concept could potentially put people at risk. I will discuss these no further, nor tolerate any discussion about these ideas, which as of yesterday I have discovered do in fact exist.

[nickbostrom.com]