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I think this could have far greater dangers in the creation of super diseases. How long until China turns this into a weapon by creating a virus with the sprea
by mentos 8y ago
I think this could have far greater dangers in the creation of super diseases.
How long until China turns this into a weapon by creating a virus with the spread of a common cold and the devastation of Ebola?
- FakeComments 8y agoUh, what makes you think government bioweapon labs haven’t been doing that for decades, since the invention of genomics?
- stevehawk 8y agoMost major governments have already admitted to it because it's the only way to study how to counter such attacks without actually engaging in said warfare.
- ggggtez 8y agoCitation needed. Most governments that admitted to having a program, only admitted it after it had already been shut down. Very few countries if any, admit to having a bioweapon program, let alone one based on gene-edited bioweapons.
- ggggtez 8y agoBioweapons are 1) Cheaper 2) Harder to control 3) Less reliable than traditional arms. This makes them great weapons for poor countries who don't care about indiscriminate killing, but bad weapons for large countries that want precision strikes against specific enemies.
- Nasrudith 8y agoWait cheaper, how? Maybe in terms of development of say a fighter jet but it is certainly more expensive than a bunch of surplus Russian equipment. Not to mention most combatants don't do their own arms development - that only really makes sense if you are nearing state of the art or effectively lack a market (say nuclear weapons).
- jf- 8y agoSomething that would rapidly spread back into their own highly dense population centres and wipe them out? For the most part world leaders aren’t this stupid. Mostly.
- bicubic 8y agoEh. With gene drives we already have the technology to selectively target or not target particular ethnic groups. Bio weapons are amongst the top threats we pose to ourselves as a species. There’s a youtube series by a guy who made a virus to cure himself of lactose intolerance via gene therapy, that was pretty eye opening. To go from what he did to making a targeted bioweapon is not that much of a leap. https://youtube.com/watch?v=J3FcbFqSoQY https://youtube.com/watch?v=J3FcbFqSoQY
- jf- 8y agoWhen you release something it becomes subject to natural selection. It would evolve to target everyone. It’s still dumb.
- TeMPOraL 8y agoIt's also a sort of safeguard. Pathogens that are too deadly to the organisms they infect are selected out.
- abakker 8y agoNot if they are eventually deadly, like HIV. If HIV spread in a targeted way, with the level of contagion in a common cold cold it would be bad. Of course, it’s not great if you want to prevent retaliation.
- PavlovsCat 8y agoWorld leaders are getting more stupid before our eyes though, it's not like this tech is only available until Christmas or something. Couldn't targetting specific ethnicities seem feasible enough at some point that someone just might try it?
- Waterluvian 8y agoChina's better angle is to capitalize on their collectivist social attitudes, allowing them to discard as many babies as necessary to win the race to superhuman-ness.
- api 8y agoViruses aren't loyal, so nation states would not be likely to unleash such a thing. Its more likely that something like this would be created by a lone nut or a fanatical apocalyptic cult or terror group.
- dyarosla 8y agoI imagine that viruses could very much be ‘loyal’- if we’re gene editing you could not so theoretically target ethnic-specific genes to attack.
- whatshisface 8y agoIf viruses can jump between animals and humans, they can jump between ethnicities.
- dyarosla 8y agoRight but YOU’d be developing the payload...
- whatshisface 8y agoThe payload could also mutate, virus DNA isn't very stable.
- api 8y agoThe virus could very easily evolve to target a broader profile.
- dyarosla 8y agoDo viruses normally evolve their payload on their own?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- danmaz74 8y agoIs China the new empire of evil? Why would they do such a stupidly suicidal thing?
- awakeasleep 8y agoThe catch here is that pathogen has been evolving for billions of years, already. If something like that fit in the constraints of life on earth it'd most likely be here already.
- dang 8y agoTaking this thread straight into nationalistic flamewar is wildly off topic and outright vandalism on this site. I'm sure you didn't mean it intentionally but please don't do this again. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html