# Has Every Invention Been Used For Evil? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 21, 2019, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-every-invention-been-used-for-evil/843767 "2019-11-21T12:18:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-every-invention-been-used-for-evil/843767/21 "2019-11-21T16:24:44Z")
Accordions don’t play LADY OF SPAIN; people do. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-every-invention-been-used-for-evil/843767/22 "2019-11-21T16:25:45Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > Well, in theory, you could do harm to a diabetic with it. > > You could certainly tempt someone into the sin of Gluttony with it. Good catch. Maybe its true that…IN THEORY…anything can be used for evil. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-every-invention-been-used-for-evil/843767/23 "2019-11-21T16:26:19Z")
Hah! The folding TV table with molded cup holders my wife bought at the thrift store is innocent, cute and handy. Dennis ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-every-invention-been-used-for-evil/843767/24 "2019-11-21T16:26:58Z")
> [@Wrenching\_Spanners](#): > > Interstellar probes? Or maybe that should be exo-solar-system probes. Interstellar probes could theoretically and unintentionally be used to spread disease throughout the universe. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-every-invention-been-used-for-evil/843767/25 "2019-11-21T16:36:27Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > The spork. It’s so cheap and crappy and useless that evil doers have given up in frustration. It’s too soft and breakable to even make a shank out of it in prison. Now that I think of it, in fact, it’s pretty useless for good as well as for evil. I give you the tactical spork. It practically oozes evil. [https://www.kabar.com/products/product.jsp?item=9909](https://www.kabar.com/products/product.jsp?item=9909) > [@mixdenny](#): > > Hah! The folding TV table with molded cup holders my wife bought at the thrift store is innocent, cute and handy. > > Dennis I take it you have never met any Buffalo Bills fans. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-every-invention-been-used-for-evil/843767/26 "2019-11-21T17:05:07Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > The spork. “[You’re toying with powerful forces here.](https://xkcd.com/419/)” ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-every-invention-been-used-for-evil/843767/27 "2019-11-21T17:07:50Z")
You remember those little sticky plastic octopuses that you would throw against a wall and they would slowly crawl down? I doubt that those have ever been used for evil. ---
**Author:** ![Wrenching\_Spanners](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecb155/32.png) [@Wrenching\_Spanners](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wrenching_Spanners)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-every-invention-been-used-for-evil/843767/28 "2019-11-21T18:03:59Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > You remember those little sticky plastic octopuses that you would throw against a wall and they would slowly crawl down? I doubt that those have ever been used for evil. Is it just me, or does anyone else get the impression that every innocent device proposed is going to be perverted towards an evil outcome? By the way, those plastic octopi. Don’t cover them with bacon grease and feed them to the neighbour’s dog. That would not be a nice thing to do. Also, don’t use them as the source for a heated argument on the plural for octopus. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-every-invention-been-used-for-evil/843767/29 "2019-11-21T18:50:12Z")
I have written quite a few research papers. One has been cited a _really_ large number of times. Several had gotten hundreds of cites the last time I checked 20+ years ago. And some are not all noteworthy. (This is Computer Science, btw.) So, some of my work is well known. People may have applied it to various uses, not all benign. But if we’re talking about no being used for evil, I’m sure some of my results haven’t. In fact, my first paper is on such an obscure and limited topic I cannot see how anybody could do anything “practical” with it, let alone evil. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-every-invention-been-used-for-evil/843767/30 "2019-11-21T19:01:08Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Id like to see somebody do something evil with a banana cream pie. :dubious: [here.](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0416.html) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-every-invention-been-used-for-evil/843767/31 "2019-11-21T19:18:18Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > Hah! The folding TV table with molded cup holders my wife bought at the thrift store is innocent, cute and handy. Somewhere, there’s an Evil Overlord who has one of these in his Underground Lair, and he’s using it to stack his Plans For World Domination on. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-every-invention-been-used-for-evil/843767/32 "2019-11-21T21:30:03Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > You remember those little sticky plastic octopuses that you would throw against a wall and they would slowly crawl down? I doubt that those have ever been used for evil. I’m sure someone, somewhere has used it’s gripping power for ummm…pleasure. Ewww…now THAT’s evil! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-every-invention-been-used-for-evil/843767/33 "2019-11-21T21:32:58Z")
I’m sure that economic aid to struggling countries has never been used for evil…wait! Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-every-invention-been-used-for-evil/843767/34 "2019-11-21T23:03:17Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > You remember those little sticky plastic octopuses that you would throw against a wall and they would slowly crawl down? I doubt that those have ever been used for evil. Little bits of plastic are choking creatures of assorted sizes to death all over the world, even as we type. So arguably all plastic is evil, she says, typing guiltily on a partially plastic keyboard. – I think you’d have to start by defining exactly what “used for evil” means. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-every-invention-been-used-for-evil/843767/35 "2019-11-21T23:26:14Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > You remember those little sticky plastic octopuses that you would throw against a wall and they would slowly crawl down? I doubt that those have ever been used for evil. Googling, I see that they resulted in [this Christmas Special](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrpxNcu3mes), so there goes your evil. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2019, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-every-invention-been-used-for-evil/843767/36 "2019-11-22T00:00:44Z")
_Makes cross with fingers_ Begone Wacky evil! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2019, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-every-invention-been-used-for-evil/843767/37 "2019-11-22T02:02:57Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > The spork. It’s so cheap and crappy and useless that evil doers have given up in frustration. It’s too soft and breakable to even make a shank out of it in prison. Now that I think of it, in fact, it’s pretty useless for good as well as for evil. Forcing it upon millions of school children as their primary utensil is inherently evil. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2019, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-every-invention-been-used-for-evil/843767/38 "2019-11-22T03:12:44Z")
> [@2Bits](#): > > Anything made of plastic is “Evil!” Ah, yes, the evil dildo. . ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2019, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-every-invention-been-used-for-evil/843767/39 "2019-11-22T03:24:56Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I give you the tactical spork. It practically oozes evil. Heh. Hey, I’m sure you could scoop someone’s eye out with a spork…which brings to mind “the predator”, amusingly presented in [this scene](https://youtu.be/Sz8QC2Ng3Vs) from _The Men Who Stare At Goats_. Has a hula hoop ever been used for evil? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2019, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-every-invention-been-used-for-evil/843767/40 "2019-11-22T03:33:16Z")
Mousetrap? (PETA would perhaps disagree.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-every-invention-been-used-for-evil/843767.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-every-invention-been-used-for-evil/843767.md?page=3)