good vs. potential evil
Posted on March 15, 2007 by Tito
Reading Tim O’Reilly’s response to [Lauren Weinstein's response to Google's privacy policy change], he mentions that, “balancing the good vs. potential evils is essential” (emphasis mine).
I assume by not qualifying good with potential, possible, or the like he means only demonstrable good. (which would be significantly lower than potential good) and rating that against the worst-case evil scenario. This seemed like a reasonable method for evil risk analysis (ERA?), but it struck me as a new take. Sure enough, a quick google of “good {vs.|vs|versus} potential {evil|evils}” showed O’Reilly’s post as the only hit for this particular phrase. I don’t know what, if any, thought he gave to that specific phrase, but it speaks volumes … and I’m a little disheartened that it hasn’t been used before.
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