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There is a great talk on some of the dangers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKQDSgBHPfY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKQDSgBHPfY News article if you can't

by zawerf 9y ago

There is a great talk on some of the dangers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKQDSgBHPfY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKQDSgBHPfY News article if you can't watch: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jul/31/bioweapons-cancer-moonshot-gene-editing https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jul/31/bioweapons-c... tl;dr “The reason you haven’t heard much about bioweapons is that they’ve been held back by a pretty severe limitation, which is the potential for blowback." Unlocking the ability to target specific genes will overcome this since the same tech that allows targeting only cancer cell will allow targeting specific groups or individuals. > What, for example, if groups spread their agenda in a very direct way, by literally rewriting DNA to make it impossible to live a life against their credo? Suppose militant vegans wanted to end meat eating: there’s a gene for that. Or imagine if radical misogynists wanted to force the veiling of all women: there’s a gene for sunlight intolerance, and the genetic functions of gender are already well-known. > Or, he suggested, attacks could be done on an individual level: targeting public figures by stealing their genetic code, or targeting their whole family by sequencing the genes of someone who’s closely related. And the attacks could be subtler than what’s expected: Sotos cited genes for intractable diarrhea, massive weight gain, total baldness and “an intense fishy body odour”.

wbl 9y ago
How on earth will they contaminate my bodily fluids?
- andygates 9y ago
  Handwave handwave, SyFy-original movie-plot technobabble.
- ejolto 9y ago
  He talks about using the measles virus as an attack vector. Measles is an extremely contagious virus.
- SolarNet 9y ago
  Depends how resilient they can make it, and how much they need. There are plenty of espionage stories involving being stuck by needles without knowing it. Or if they can get it into your food (but they'd have to make it resistant to being digested). Or if they can aerosolize it and spray it on you. The truly scary thing is if they can make it contagious, but only effect the target. There are so many benign strains of DNA that we just live with it would be hard to detect. Then you just infect someone close to the target and wait for them to be effected (and perhaps some collateral damage from those unlucky enough to be similar enough to the target). The nightmare scenario is not when terrorists use this to target specific groups of people (e.g. all women, all people of a specific ethnicity), it's when it goes beyond our control by accident and contaminates all of our bodily fluids.
golergka 9y ago
> Unlocking the ability to target specific genes will overcome this since the same tech that allows targeting only cancer cell will allow targeting specific groups or individuals. Filtering for specific genes doesn't offer any evolutionary advantage to a theoretical pathogen, so why wouldn't it very quickly evolve our of this artificial limitation?
- badosu 9y ago
  Apart from checking the feasibility of the proposition I could imagine a few factors: - For evolution to occur in this directed way there should be some natural selection mechanism present. If the pathogen is able to reproduce and spread then it is fit, even if its genetic code is in a 'corrupt' state. - Even if there was some mechanism present, there still would be some generations apart for the fluctuation to smooth, so if the objective was a short term goal it would be successful.
- crusso 9y ago
  IANAGB (Genetic Biologist)... but pathogens rely on markers for identifying targets susceptible to their attacks and sometimes for finding their specific attack points. Additionally, some types of attacks are only viable for specific organisms (based upon their genetics).
- YouAreGreat 9y ago
  Don't filter the vector, just the payload.
  - crusso 9y ago
    That's a good point. Then there's no mutation advantage to the organism for the payload filter to attach to new binding sites. The organism will infect everyone and any increase in its virility won't make the payload any more likely to affect unintended targets.

by zawerf 9y ago

wbl 9y ago

How on earth will they contaminate my bodily fluids?

andygates 9y ago
Handwave handwave, SyFy-original movie-plot technobabble.
ejolto 9y ago
He talks about using the measles virus as an attack vector. Measles is an extremely contagious virus.
SolarNet 9y ago
Depends how resilient they can make it, and how much they need. There are plenty of espionage stories involving being stuck by needles without knowing it. Or if they can get it into your food (but they'd have to make it resistant to being digested). Or if they can aerosolize it and spray it on you. The truly scary thing is if they can make it contagious, but only effect the target. There are so many benign strains of DNA that we just live with it would be hard to detect. Then you just infect someone close to the target and wait for them to be effected (and perhaps some collateral damage from those unlucky enough to be similar enough to the target). The nightmare scenario is not when terrorists use this to target specific groups of people (e.g. all women, all people of a specific ethnicity), it's when it goes beyond our control by accident and contaminates all of our bodily fluids.

golergka 9y ago

> Unlocking the ability to target specific genes will overcome this since the same tech that allows targeting only cancer cell will allow targeting specific groups or individuals. Filtering for specific genes doesn't offer any evolutionary advantage to a theoretical pathogen, so why wouldn't it very quickly evolve our of this artificial limitation?

badosu 9y ago
Apart from checking the feasibility of the proposition I could imagine a few factors: - For evolution to occur in this directed way there should be some natural selection mechanism present. If the pathogen is able to reproduce and spread then it is fit, even if its genetic code is in a 'corrupt' state. - Even if there was some mechanism present, there still would be some generations apart for the fluctuation to smooth, so if the objective was a short term goal it would be successful.
crusso 9y ago
IANAGB (Genetic Biologist)... but pathogens rely on markers for identifying targets susceptible to their attacks and sometimes for finding their specific attack points. Additionally, some types of attacks are only viable for specific organisms (based upon their genetics).
YouAreGreat 9y ago
Don't filter the vector, just the payload.
- crusso 9y ago
  That's a good point. Then there's no mutation advantage to the organism for the payload filter to attach to new binding sites. The organism will infect everyone and any increase in its virility won't make the payload any more likely to affect unintended targets.