3 ms·

This will really take homebrew beer to the next level. I can't imagine these kits allow modification of anything more than a bacteria,virus, or fungus. I'm no

This will really take homebrew beer to the next level. I can't imagine these kits allow modification of anything more than a bacteria,virus, or fungus. I'm no biologist though. Is someone making a black death 2.0 in their garage even possible ?

bayesian_horse 9y ago
There's a reason bioterrorism isn't a thing, even though terrorism-minded people could get access to dangerous pathogens like Y. pestis or EBV if they wanted to. At least in my opinion, it's just too damn hard for them to merit the effort, even compared to a sophisticated bomb. Trying to engineer (and test) a strain, "weaponize" it, takes a lot of space, time and resources. And then the delivery is also very difficult.. So hard, that even militaries haven't totally figured it out.
- TheOtherHobbes 9y ago
  The hard part is protecting your side against the effects. If you're not worried about protecting a population, pathogen production and delivery becomes rather simpler.
  - bayesian_horse 9y ago
    Protecting anyone hasn't historically been a concern for terrorists at all. Islamic terrorists, in particular, hit entirely Muslim targets all the time. And no, even then, production and delivery isn't easy. There are no pathogens which are both highly infectious and highly pathogenic, both because those traits are mutually inhibiting, and such a pathogen would already have run its course in the world. Any attempt to increase infectiousness and pathogenic potential, however, would require a very large foot print, virtually guaranteeing discovery by law enforcement.
    - ben_w 9y ago
      “Islamic” is probably the wrong level to group them. I would be surprised if many people in Daesh are cool with their own terrorists killing lots of Daesh supporters no matter how many Shia Muslims they kill without losing sleep.
      - bayesian_horse 9y ago
        I did mean the group of terrorists who refer to some version of Islam (as by their interpretation), and regardless which subtype in this group, they all seem to be killing a lot of muslims, again without particular regard of which kind of muslim. I admit this is an overgeneralisation, and there is a lot of subtle details with significance, but my point was simply that terrorists often don't care about their "partisan" civilians.

bayesian_horse 9y ago

There's a reason bioterrorism isn't a thing, even though terrorism-minded people could get access to dangerous pathogens like Y. pestis or EBV if they wanted to. At least in my opinion, it's just too damn hard for them to merit the effort, even compared to a sophisticated bomb. Trying to engineer (and test) a strain, "weaponize" it, takes a lot of space, time and resources. And then the delivery is also very difficult.. So hard, that even militaries haven't totally figured it out.

TheOtherHobbes 9y ago
The hard part is protecting your side against the effects. If you're not worried about protecting a population, pathogen production and delivery becomes rather simpler.
- bayesian_horse 9y ago
  Protecting anyone hasn't historically been a concern for terrorists at all. Islamic terrorists, in particular, hit entirely Muslim targets all the time. And no, even then, production and delivery isn't easy. There are no pathogens which are both highly infectious and highly pathogenic, both because those traits are mutually inhibiting, and such a pathogen would already have run its course in the world. Any attempt to increase infectiousness and pathogenic potential, however, would require a very large foot print, virtually guaranteeing discovery by law enforcement.
  - ben_w 9y ago
    “Islamic” is probably the wrong level to group them. I would be surprised if many people in Daesh are cool with their own terrorists killing lots of Daesh supporters no matter how many Shia Muslims they kill without losing sleep.
    - bayesian_horse 9y ago
      I did mean the group of terrorists who refer to some version of Islam (as by their interpretation), and regardless which subtype in this group, they all seem to be killing a lot of muslims, again without particular regard of which kind of muslim. I admit this is an overgeneralisation, and there is a lot of subtle details with significance, but my point was simply that terrorists often don't care about their "partisan" civilians.