evil is in the eye of the beholder

i watched real genius with val kilmer this morning, and i love that movie. it reminds me of mit, and that bowl of popcorn in the house? a totally awesome hack (except for the fact that they destroyed the house, which i guess disqualifies it).

anyways, it got me thinking. the evil professor is creating a laser that can kill people from space. it's got amazing range, amazing precision, but it can only be turned on for 15 seconds at a time. in effect, it's a sharpshooter laser for the government. is that really so bad? if we had a laser like that, wouldn't the need for a lot of wars become obsolete? we don't need to drop bombs on whole countries if we could just zap their leaders.

or would it make the US too powerful? would we start acting like the mafia? yo, you give me the trade conditions i want or else i'm gonna zap your baby and your little dog too. or is a congressional veto enough of a safeguard? maybe if the laser's startup procedure is really complex, then stupid presidents couldn't use it as their personal toy. better yet, if the laser left a really obvious calling card whenever it was used (like a big hole in the ceiling and a dude fried to a crisp)...would accountability ensure responsibility? is it a sad sign of the times that i'm siding with the bad guy? mwahahaha...