Radio interview today about the Ticking Time Bomb effect in real life. A common mythological trope, it was stated, it is the motivating force behind most television and movie dramas, or “page turners” to us more literary afflicted. It is also the one position that will make people support torture. “You mean, if someone is ogling to blow up the city with nanotech goo, would I kill them? I guess, in that case, I would have to!” The problem comes, it seems, in the fact that there hardly ever is a ticking time bomb, and if there is, its damage is so much more localized than the damage caused by overreacting to the time bomb: in terms of authoritative crackdowmns, smackdowns, etc etc. Unfortunately, our current administration is currently in the drivers seat of the country using this technically fictional effect. Boom.
