Re: 'Supergerms' feared

From: Extropian Agro Forestry Ventures Inc. (megao@sk.sympatico.ca)
Date: Thu Nov 08 2001 - 07:12:18 MST


The upside of all this is that governments may instead of spending
enormous gobs of money and resources on making better weapons of mass
destruction may invest into an information counter offensive embodying
both ultra complex supercomputing , bioengineering and ethnogenetics.
By that I mean, while the enemy is decoding
for example WASP/spanish/chinese/japanese genes to target diseases
spcifically at each one of them we will be intensely studing those genes
making up our population which can best protect us from all manners of
non-human pathogens. The only real fear I have is that some really
wacky bioterrorist group hunkers down in their bunker and discovers the
way to create say a highly virulent AIDS virus with which to infect
most of the living world not living in bunkers. It would be sad if the
only remaining humans are throw backs to 15 century "Klingons". A mass
extermination of humans akin to the dinosaurs is an almost unthinkable
thought for even a terrorist group.
A concerted counter attack by the leading edge of medical technology
would have real benefits to human health, wellbeing and maybe even
longevity but like the nuclear arms race , "mutually assured
destruction" on the biological front is a form of russian roulette with
hair raising aspects. No wonder there are no "little green men" out
there, if we are an example they all self-destructed their civilizations
before they could create immortal intelligences. ???
mj

Olga Bourlin wrote:

> Genetic engineering takes another hit:
> http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/134363402_supergerms07.html Where
> have I heard the name Barry Bloom before? Olga



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