4 ms·

Mildy bad things are less common, but very bad things are possible now that were not 50 years ago. One individual can have a much worse impact.

by sama 13y ago

mindcrime 13y ago
Regarding your concern about biological weapons... I'm not convinced all this State surveillance could plausibly have any impact on an individual actor, developing and using a sophisticated biological weapon. I think we're at (or near) the point where individuals can engineer / grow their own viruses in home laboratories. The risk is that one whacko grows SARS v456 and unleashes it, resulting in a The Stand scenario. But if he/she is truly working alone, monitoring their communication probably won't help. Now thermonuclear is different, because - AFAIK - it would take a massive engineering effort involving lots of people and sophisticated equipment to build a nuke. But that's the same reason that it strikes me that it's less likely that terrorists will ever get one. Even nation-states like N. Korea struggle to develop nukes, and do so undetected. A terrorist group building a nuke seems like a plot from a Mack Bolan novel, not a real-world possibility. Now, buying a nuke on the black-market, from a former Soviet state, might be doable... so I'm not saying there's zero chance of this happening. But weighed against the clearly non-zero chance of our government decaying into a totalitarian / fascist regime like something out of Orwell; I'd err on the side of restraining the government.
- jack-r-abbit 13y ago
  Counter point: They catch moonshiners by staking out the places you can buy large volumes of corn and sugar. They catch meth cooks by monitoring large quantity purchases of those ingredients (whatever they are...). They bust up grow houses by finding higher than average power bills due to all the climate control equipment used. It is not beyond reason that they could catch (or at least become aware of) individuals with home labs by flagging purchases of those supplies and/or equipment.
  - mindcrime 13y ago
    It is not beyond reason that they could catch (or at least become aware of) individuals with home labs by flagging purchases of those supplies and/or equipment. Fair enough. I don't actually know enough about the details of doing home virus experimentation and engineering to know for sure. I just have a vague recollection of having heard some stuff about how those abilities are filtering down to DIY land.

Mildy bad things are less common, but very bad things are possible now that were not 50 years ago. One individual can have a much worse impact.

by sama 13y ago

Mildy bad things are less common, but very bad things are possible now that were not 50 years ago. One individual can have a much worse impact.

mindcrime 13y ago

Regarding your concern about biological weapons... I'm not convinced all this State surveillance could plausibly have any impact on an individual actor, developing and using a sophisticated biological weapon. I think we're at (or near) the point where individuals can engineer / grow their own viruses in home laboratories. The risk is that one whacko grows SARS v456 and unleashes it, resulting in a The Stand scenario. But if he/she is truly working alone, monitoring their communication probably won't help. Now thermonuclear is different, because - AFAIK - it would take a massive engineering effort involving lots of people and sophisticated equipment to build a nuke. But that's the same reason that it strikes me that it's less likely that terrorists will ever get one. Even nation-states like N. Korea struggle to develop nukes, and do so undetected. A terrorist group building a nuke seems like a plot from a Mack Bolan novel, not a real-world possibility. Now, buying a nuke on the black-market, from a former Soviet state, might be doable... so I'm not saying there's zero chance of this happening. But weighed against the clearly non-zero chance of our government decaying into a totalitarian / fascist regime like something out of Orwell; I'd err on the side of restraining the government.

jack-r-abbit 13y ago
Counter point: They catch moonshiners by staking out the places you can buy large volumes of corn and sugar. They catch meth cooks by monitoring large quantity purchases of those ingredients (whatever they are...). They bust up grow houses by finding higher than average power bills due to all the climate control equipment used. It is not beyond reason that they could catch (or at least become aware of) individuals with home labs by flagging purchases of those supplies and/or equipment.
- mindcrime 13y ago
  It is not beyond reason that they could catch (or at least become aware of) individuals with home labs by flagging purchases of those supplies and/or equipment. Fair enough. I don't actually know enough about the details of doing home virus experimentation and engineering to know for sure. I just have a vague recollection of having heard some stuff about how those abilities are filtering down to DIY land.