From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Sun Aug 18 2002 - 08:36:51 MDT
Robert J. Bradbury wrote:
>
> You then dedicate everyone in the country who understands molecular modeling
> to devising an antitoxin. One could even design a system to utilize
> a huge amount of computational capacity, e.g. AntiToxinDesign@Home, similar
> to my Nano@Home proposal. It would help to have antibody libraries,
> phage display libraries and chemical libraries predesigned and
> stockpiled for testing for efficacy against the toxin. Protein
> based libraries would be particularly useful because one can
> have predesigned bacteria that can manufacture the protein in
> large quantities. You then dedicate all the fermentation capacity
> in the country (even beer and wine producers) to cranking out
> the anti-toxin. You make it available as necessary until vaccines
> become available to provide everyone with immunity.
>
> If we were prepared with something like the above, I think you could
> start treatments within a week of discovery and prevent "vast amounts"
> of people from dying. If you prepublish the plans for this capability
> it would make bioterrorism a much less likely weapon for terrorists
> to choose. It requires a public & private sector cooperation plan
> be in place and people be trained so they know what their job is
> to facilitate the response.
I'd like to see this system successfully tested against anthrax, smallpox,
or AIDS before I relied on it as a defense against future existential risks.
-- Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/ Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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