KILLING BY NATURE KILLING BY HAND KILLING BY TECHNOLOGY
The end of the world syndrome has probably been with mankind since the beginning of recorded history. Nature was so powerful and relatively, man so weak that the idea of a major storm, flood or earthquake could kill, was not far from the minds of primitives. Men, of course, killed other men by whatever means at hand in order to dominate, get women and be supreme over land. But very powerful killing ability until recent times, was still in the hands of nature The ability of men to kill one another became more sophisticated with bows and arrows, guns, tanks, aeroplanes, mechanized guns, bombs and poison gases. Nature was all powerful until recent times and then came the nuclear age, a concept that changed thinking because with an all-out nuclear exchange and the ensuing radiation, the idea of a war to obliterate man was not impossible.
But a nuclear exchange had to have a substantial base of scientific intellect, and substantial industrial power. No one person or even a small group of people could bring this about,and as well it required a sophisticated delivery system. There are hundreds, much to my surprise, of people willing to commit suicide for a nation or a religious cause, and do so on a regular basis. However it is not realistic or probable to have hundreds of people with nuclear weapons at hand, travelling around the world with the desire to annihilate enemies.
But never minimize the ingenuity of men who have minds forever looking for the secrets of life and its beginnings. J.Craig Venter and his company team started with DNA, the building blocks of life and constructed a genetic sequence of more than a million bits of coded information, known as nucleotides and made a functioning creature from information. Venter figured out how to make an artificial bacteria cell, inserted their man-made DNA genome inside,watched as organic life formed, moved, ate, breathed and replicated itself. When the team first created the phiX174 viral genome, he commissioned a large analysis of the implications of synthetic genomics, for national security and public health. He warned of 2 problems. The work on synthetic genomics was not difficult and could be done by less than classically trained biologists and the regulations instituted by government were outdated and unknown to younger practitioners. As Venter put in 2009 “what we have done so far is going to blow your freakin mind”
In 2002 researchers at Suny Stone Brook made a living polio virus. constructed from genetic code. Three years later scientists worried about pandemic influenza decided to recreate the devastating 1918 Spanish flu for research purposes and identified key elements in the flu that gave it the ability to kill 50 million people in less than 2 years. We are treading on dangerous territory. Suppose these scientists had malevolent intentions in mind. We now have the dual-use dilemma at hand. Chemistry 100 years ago ,physics a generation later and now emerging as a force, biology.
In 2010 Venter created life and it is now possible, cheaply and by many, scientist or not, to reproduce Ebola, Sars and other destructive entities, that could be transmitted throughout the world in a suitcase.
Once humanity learns something, it can never be unlearned and not easily controlled.
