[extropy-chat] Recipe for Destruction - Joy/Kurzweil NYTimes Op-Ed

[Samantha Atkins]

On Oct 18, 2005, at 11:26 AM, Brian Atkins wrote:

> Russell Wallace wrote:
>
>> I'm not proposing that it be buried in a secret government  
>> warehouse and never see the light of day, just that some sort of  
>> control be exercised over who gets hold of it. Look, biochemistry  
>> isn't software, we're not going to see a cure for influenza  
>> created by a 15 year old in his bedroom.
>>
>
> And yet, in the 1960s computers were expensive enough and limited  
> to organizations so that a 15 year old couldn't do anything with them.
>
> Recall that Kurzweil is coming from an expected milieu where he  
> assumes biotech gear will continue to drop in price and increase in  
> performance.
>
> Think not of 15 year olds today, but in 2015. 2020.
> -- 

I doubt very seriously that we are worried about a mere flu in  
2015.   Making laws limiting freedom today based on hypothetical  
capabilities a decade hence arbitrarily mixed with what is dangerous  
today is *very* problematic.    Methinks you are engaged in apologetics.

- samantha