My opinion might not be popular here, but when I studied computer science, there was a big discussion about the ethical aspects of our job. Especially, I had the opportunity to speak with Prof. Joseph Weizenbaum [1] a couple of times, who always remembered me that users don't know what we as programmers, technicians and scientists know about the limitations of a solution. So we have the duty to ensure that our solutions don't harm and don't fuel unreasonable expectations.

From the Wikipedia article [1] about Joseph Weizenbaum: "His influential 1976 book Computer Power and Human Reason displays his ambivalence towards computer technology and lays out his case: while Artificial Intelligence may be possible, we should never allow computers to make important decisions because computers will always lack human qualities such as compassion and wisdom."

So, asking "but what if ..." in a responsible way should always be a big part of any innovation. Just shouting "hey, we are hackers, lets innovate and be open" isn't always responsible.

As a bonus, there's a great archive [2] about Joseph Weizenbaum with audio and film clips for anyone interested. Most of the site and the documents are in german unfortunately, but some transcripts are available in english as well.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Weizenbaum [2] http://www.ilmarefilm.org/archive/weizenbaum_archiv.html