Weblogsky: What's the real recipe for destruction?

What's the real recipe for destruction?

Ray Kurzweil and Bill Joy say that publishing the genome for the 1918 flu virus is a "Recipe for Destruction." Declan McCullach sent an excerpt of the article to his Politech email list, and got three interesting counter-arguments.

I would argue there are no "wrong hands" for information to get into. We are collectively responsible for situations that create the anger and misguided behavior that lead to mass destruction. My conclusion is that we (all humans) must recognize that technological instability requires us to make everyone (yes, everyone) a "right hand" for the preservation of the race. This conclusion will be forced on us whether people agree or not because of the power available through replicating destructive technologies.

Getting everyone to play together and hide information will only work when all involved agrees to hide it. One person can spill the beans. Similarly, in a world where 1 person with 80kb of data, a biochem cookbook and 3 feet of lab space can create a tool that kills tens of millions -- we should all be working toward a world where *no one* wants to do that. We won't be able to stop individuals who can. (Jonathan M. Dugan, PhD, Stanford)

jon posted this at 8:12 AM
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