[ExI] 23andme again

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of BillK
Subject: Re: [ExI] 23andme again

On Mon, Jul 1, 2013 at 1:47 PM, Mirco Romanato wrote:

>>... The truth will make you free(er).  As you didn't anything evil or
wrong, what's the problem with the true?  Mirco

>...The difficulty is that human society is dependent on lies for
survival...BillK

 _______________________________________________

Hey another idea occurred to me after thinking about BillK's comment.  Human
society, and definitely criminals are heavily dependent on deception and
stealth.  Imagine that you are a victim of any crime in which the perp
leaves any DNA trace which can be recovered.  You are a lot more motivated
to catch the bastard than the cops are.  That isn't to say they are lazy or
unmotivated; they are busy and don't worry as much as you do about catching
that particular suspect.

But imagine the perp does leave some trace of DNA, but that's all.  There
are no witnesses, no security camera evidence, and even the fingerprints
bring up no matches, so all you have is a DNA sample full stop.  Looks to me
like you now have the power to send that sample to 23andMe, then you now
have at least a list of the perp's distant cousins.  With a bit of detective
work that you are willing to put in, but not the police department, you
might be able to figure out whodunit, just by looking at the intersection of
all the cousins.  If not, all you need to do is wait, because more and more
people sign up for this all the time.

That makes for a hell of a note: some sleazy bastard does some crime, gets
away, some arbitrary period of time later, you figure out who it is, and
even where he lives.  The cops will not do anything about what you have
discovered, they don't act on that kind of information.  But you know who it
is.  

With all our sophistication and everything we know how to do, what happens
next?

spike