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In that kind of world, deep surveillance and maybe mind control seem like the only option. Or an alternative(maybe): all technologies will be inside highly reg
by petra 9y ago
In that kind of world, deep surveillance and maybe mind control seem like the only option.
Or an alternative(maybe): all technologies will be inside highly regulated environments.building a 3d printer from scratch is really hard.
- chongli 9y agobuilding a 3d printer from scratch is really hard It definitely is right now. Suppose for a moment that a 3D printer were invented that could turn raw materials into perfect copies of itself. Suppose also that the raw materials could be automatically extracted from household and electronic waste. A machine that can turn garbage into copies of itself and other objects with similar complexity to the original machine. The only remaining obstacle would be software (and data files). If we are to assume that machine learning and AI progress in parallel to the development of such a machine, it's difficult to see how we could ever prevent somebody from putting the pieces together.
- QAPereo 9y agoChange your paradigm from tech to biology, and you just described an engineered pathogen. I don't know about 3D printers, but gene sequencers and the rest of the tools needed for a garage-plague are nearly here on a global scale.
- chongli 9y agoMy original point about the 3D printer was meant to be an analogy. You are right about the approaching danger. I don't know what we'll do. We may end up in a society under permanent quarantine. An Orwellian nightmare with justification.
- howlin 9y agoThe other option is to decentralize. As long as there are no major population concentrations, there are no super desirable terror targets. That could keep the casualties small and containable. I suspect the million-plus metropolis will be going out of fashion once the threats are better understood.