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

[Brandon Reinhart]

If the goal of the letter was not to raise fears, but to raise awareness,
they dropped the ball. Kurzweil and Joy offer no explanation of the
Manhattan Project idea outside of a relatively brief conclusion. Who would
run such an endeavor? The American federal government? A corporate entity?
An independent scientific organization? Funded by whom? Without some attempt
to answer such questions, the authors fail to create the foundation for a
public dialog on the issue.

I don't necessarily agree with what I envision as a Viral Manhattan Project,
but how do I know what I envision is what the authors mean?

They failed to utilize the ability to easily cross-reference media. Before
sending the letter to the NYT, they could have prepared a site with a
detailed explanation of the anti-viral problem and a set of potential
solutions. The site could provide a list of institutions working on the
problem. A single web link in the letter, with introduction and simple
explanation, would have provided intelligent readers the ability to further
pursue the question at hand.

It's the modern way of saying "write this address for the free pamphlet."