Posted by
Owen Densmore on
Jan 02, 2009; 4:58pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Re-What-to-do-with-knowledge-tp2101042p2102324.html
Bill Joy was ripped for his observation that new technologies are
almost certain to be misused, and suggested the knowledge be
guarded .. i.e. censored in some sense.
Why the future doesn't need us
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy_pr.htmlHis later talk was better received:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/bill_joy_muses_on_what_s_next.htmlMost of the scientists who ripped him in his Stanford Talk that
resulted in the Wired article have moved much closer to his position.
-- Owen
On Jan 2, 2009, at 9:31 AM, Marcus G. Daniels wrote:
> Russ Abbott wrote:
>> Let's assume that you discovered that human beings were built in
>> such a way that a certain kind of virus would wipe most of us out.
> The killer 1918 Flu virus has been pieced together [1] and a
> synthetic polio virus has been made too [2]. This will only get
> easier and I'm sure the know-how will incrementally find its way
> into commercial hardware/software systems. In the not so far off
> future I expect that instantiating certain classes of synthetic
> proteins and assembling them will involve not so much more as
> loading up a genome into a sequence/protein editor, doing some
> simulations, and then doing a build/run cycle. There are good
> reasons and strong market pressures to have this technology be fast
> and reliable in order to develop therapies for naturally-occurring
> bugs. Meanwhile, understanding what these synthetic proteins
> actually could do will be difficult and expensive. Unfortunately,
> sooner or later, this is a scenario that will tend to invite
> organizations to the game that have `issues', but no issues at all
> with the risk.
>> On the other hand, if you had informed people, perhaps the word
>> would have gotten out and triggered a biological arms race.
> Yes.
>
> [1]
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8103> [2]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2122619.stm>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at
http://www.friam.org============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at
http://www.friam.org