On May 6, 8:31*am, Chris L Peterson wrote:

Well, it isn't clear if the world is or is not better off for Stalin
having the bomb. We can't do an experiment and see. The question is
inherently non-scientific, so there is no reason to think that
scientists should make a better (or worse) decision when a question like
it arises.

One would have to have a rather severe lack of common sense not to
think that keeping atomic bombs out of the hands of people like
Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Kim Jong-Il, Idi Amin, and so on, would not
be the most reasonable course.

And, statistically, scientists do actually seem less likely than most
people to, say, get drunk enough to think that climbing into the
gorilla cage at the local zoo would be a fine lark. Thus, one would
have entertained hopes that they would have done better at this Stalin
thing too.

John Savard