From: Brian Atkins (brian@posthuman.com)
Date: Tue Sep 16 1997 - 13:14:25 MDT
Pat Fallon wrote:
>
> >I think it was Eliezer S. Yudkowsky who wrote
>
> >To solve the crack ghettos I need to ... use force-evolved viruses to
> >target cocaine supplies.
>
> And I suppose you would have been in favor of engineering a blight during
> alcohol prohibition in order to "solve" the problems caused by bathtub gin,
> had it been technologically feasible?
>
> I don't want you, or the nanny state, "protecting" me from "evil" drugs.
>
> It is frightening to think of the power of a nanny state using biotechnology
> or nanotechnology to implement the latest item in the public health agenda.
> Want to stop people from smoking?...just unleash the newest super strain of
> tobacco mosaic virus and let'em go to work.
>
> I have always thought that it would be a more tolerant society if everyone
> had to pay for the laws/programs they wanted enforced. I might choose to
> hire a private eye to recover stolen merchandise, but I wouldn't pay to send
> troops to Bolivia to burn the cocoa fields, nor engineer viruses that target
> the current illicit drug. Too bad our political system empowers
> 'do-gooders', like the Clintons, who have big ideas about how we should all
> be living our lives, and little regard for my individual choices.
>
> I don't see how Elizer can "target" cocaine supplies with his new virus,
> without violating individual/property rights, even if he develops it in his
> basement with his own funds. Unless he intends to unleash it only in his own
> house.
>
> Pat Fallon
> pfallon@bigfoot.com
> http://www.mmsweb.com/eykiw
Just a PS on this note: this type of conflict (state-enforced
biomedical rules) is discussed in Bruce Sterling's book "Holy
Fire". Interesting book- can anyone recommend to me some similiar
stuff (non-Gibson/non-Sterling/non-Stephenson please)? Any kind
of sci-fi regarding the social implications of the period leading
up to a singularity?
Thanks
--
The future has arrived; it's just not evenly distributed.
-William Gibson
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