[ExI] 23andme again

Mirco Romanato painlord2k at libero.it
Mon Jul 1 16:52:39 UTC 2013


Il 01/07/2013 17:54, spike ha scritto:

> Of course there is always the possibility of a mistake, as pointed out by
> other posters on this topic.

Usually, hinting the mistake could be your or someone else's is a good
way to lower their defenses and allow communication to happen.

> In any case, I think BillK is right on.  Nature is filled with examples of
> wildlife using camouflage and deception, so it should come as no surprise
> that human society is deeply dependent on it.  23andMe exposes lies and lays
> bare secrets long cherished.

Good.

> It is my prediction that by whatever mysterious or overt means, 23andMe will
> be shut down.

To be substituted by one of many business doing the same from some
island of Caribbeans or from China.

>  I don't know how, but possibilities include massive waves of
> lawsuits from which it must defend even if frivolous, inexplicable IRS
> audits, predator drones armed with hellfire missiles, etc.

The majority of the people is not able to pay a lawyer for this.
Not if the jurisdiction is in some remote part of the US (say, Alaska)
or abroad (say Cambodia)

> Society and
> government is filled with people dependent on lies and secrecy; judges,
> legislators, religious leaders, IRS directors all have the possibility of
> illegitimate children too.  It is easy to imagine them working together,
> using whatever means available, legal or illegal, to stop 23.  I hope that
> 23andMe can withstand all the pressures, but I fear it cannot.

The problems for these types to band together are multiple:

1) they should in some way know they have illegitimate children or relatives
2) they should, in some way, trust their allies to not exploit their
admitted weakness
3) they should think they have a reasonable risk/reward ratio acting
against 23andme

Problem is, with 23andMe, the R/R ration go from negligible to
overwhelming in just few weeks. Not fast enough to mount any legal or
illegal defense.

> Here's how you will know I am right.  Watch for legislation making it
> illegal to do health insurance pricing based on DNA.  If that fails, look
> for societal pressure in the form of bad PR for any company suspected of
> offering health insurance discounts based on DNA sampling.

I think the US obsession with health insurance is amusing.
I suppose it is based on the deep, probably unconscious, understanding
that the system is broken and it is falling apart at the seams.
But, if you understand and accept there is nothing you could do to
change this outcome, you will find the good side is a new better system
could be built in its place.

Mirco

p.s.
The Italian health service (SSN) is broken as much as the US system (and
I work for it). No way to fix it.
To many lies, not enough people willing to tell the bitter truth.
So it will go along until it will not. And when it fall apart no one
will be interested in rebuilt it again.




More information about the extropy-chat mailing list