From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Thu Aug 22 2002 - 00:51:32 MDT
On Thu, Aug 22, 2002 at 10:08:57AM +0930, Emlyn O'regan wrote:
>
> Am I wrong in imagining that you should really keep such a beastie under
> some kind of quarantine conditions?
Yes, but not to protect the world, but to protect good science.
If nanobes really exist, then they are all around us. A lot of rocks
from the deep have been dug up and shipped around between university
geology departments over the years. So if there really were some nasties
down there, they would likely have shown up a long time ago.
But when you are trying to prove the existence of a weird microbe, you
better be very careful about avoiding contamination. They claim they have
found a new kind of life; many thinks that they are just seeing nonbiotic
processes or contamination. So they have to be extremely careful with
culturing conditions.
> In the same show, they interviewed a
> finish doctor who thinks that some kind of nanobes cause all kinds of
> illnesses in humans, characterised by a very slow onset (because initially
> they grow very slowly).
I have read some papers from people suggesting that they are even
responsible for ageing to some extent. Which would mean that a nanobe
antibiotic would be a very nice life extension trick. But I'm sceptical;
it is a neat idea, but seems a bit too simple. Similarly for kidney
stones: nanonbes could be one cause, but they are likely multifactorial.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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