From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Wed Jul 01 1998 - 09:58:25 MDT
mark@unicorn.com writes:
> Anders Sandberg [asa@nada.kth.se] wrote:
> >True. But today a moderately educated crazie can buy enough ammonium
> >nitrate to blow up a block or two.
>
> And the fact that few do is strong evidence that the crazy threat is
> vastly overstated.
Sigh. You still miss my point: even very rare crazies with
sufficiently powerful weapons are a problem. It is a simple product:
population * proportion of crazies using big weapons * tech level =
amount of damage done. I don't think crazies are a major problem
today, but they might very well be in the future if the conditions are
right.
> >Tomorrow he might buy an assembler
> >kit and release industrial strength disassemblers in the watru
> >supply.
>
> And if you're relying on keeping assemblers out of their hands as a
> 'defence' you will die when they get one. If, like me, you're building
> real effective defences you'll live.
Did you read my analysis in my first post in this thread at all? I did
point out that limiting access to many such technologies is hard or
impossible. I also pointed out that it isn't given that a defense
exists against all technologies, although this is still unsettled.
> >I think you miss my point in this thread: there is a real problem is
> >certain technologies of mass destruction become too available and
> >there are no good ways of protecting from them or avoiding them.
>
> But there are; I've given you the most effective defence against every
> single one of them: don't be there when it happens. I'm talking about
> living in reality, Brin and others are playing S&M fantasy games.
In order to convince me that you are really realistic, you better
convince me that you can get personal off-world capability before the
risk posed by crazies with big guns becomes severe.
I'm really trying to clarify the issue, rather than propagate any
favorite political memes. Let's try to do some risk assessments based
on facts and reasonable extrapolations.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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