The Speculist

a caveat: i am neither advocating this work, nor claiming that it's necessary.

if those terrorists develop such a capability and we don't understand how it works, then we will be less able to defend against it.

it certainly is possible that some wacko is funding this development with the thought that we should have it as a weapon. however, it's also possible that the funding agencies (primarily the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, see link below) want the research to lead to the development of new vaccine technologies etc.

i do not know enough about the technologies involved to say.

link: http://www.bizjournals.com/birmingham/stories/2001/01/08/daily9.html

Good points, Chris. Thanks.

In a protection racket, there's strong incentives for the protector to artificially increase the risk for nonpayers. Eg, the local gang might burn down a store that refuses to pay protection money. We would be very upset if an insurance company did the same thing to people who didn't buy policies from them. Well, this appears to me to be the situation the US government is currently in. What guarantees are in place that the US government won't use this new knowledge to increase its power?

Remember a few weeks ago when we talked about technology advancing to the point where in order to protect the human race we either reduce or eliminate human freedoms or genetically/behaviorally modify humanity to eliminate the type of thought that could result in the destruction of the human race? Now we find out that yet again, the US government is behaving in a way that will bring that day closer. Whose interests do they serve by this?

What guarantees are in place that the US government won't use this new knowledge to increase its power?
The same question can be asked about any weapon system or technology that could be used to gain power over others. I do not suggest that we should complacently trust that our government or any other government will always do the right thing. We have ample evidence to the contrary. However, we developed nuclear weapons nearly 60 years ago, and have used them as weapons exactly twice, nearly 60 years ago. And we did not use them to increase our power in the usual sense of that phrase. Does this mean we never will? Or, more to the point, that our government never will? I don't think it does. However, the vast majority of Americans do not seem to be interested in controlling the world, but are interested in understanding how to defeat those who are, and to get along with the rest.

And as for Whose interests do they serve by this?, I think it's at least somewhat likely that we (the U.S.) are serving our own (the human race) interests by developing this understanding in a nation that is mostly dedicated to "life, liberty, and all the rest of it," before it gets developed by groups or nations that are mostly dedicated to death, enslavement, and all the rest of that.

i just noticed the trackback to this post under the heading "Terrorist Government Developing Super Viruses."

Pathetic.

We are as God made us, and often a great deal worse.