[Hplusroadmap] Ethics section

[Bryan Bishop]

On Tuesday 12 February 2008, ameluti at gmail.com wrote:
> Hmm, do you really think that we'd see an "evil genius" type
> character suddenly arise from a garage and try to destroy the world?

You will not need to be either evil *or* a genius to screw up.

> If anything, I'd expect such an initiative to come from some
> government or "terrorist" organization, and there's very little that
> one can do to prevent that.

Right.

> The future doesn't look very bright in this regard.

You can see the future?

> Instead, I'm more interested in a survivalist guide on what to do in
> case someone out there lets loose a biological or chemical weapon on
> us. Tips on what to look out for, how to quickly identify the nature
> of the threat, and then how to avoid it would be great.

You would have to know how to make such threats in the first place, and 
experience would help, or experience with biosafety labs and analytical 
methods. In other words, if you advertize publically this sort of work, 
you will look shady.

> So when shit hits the fans, I'd rather be prepared.

Of course.

> In a real life scenario, can current biological weapons pose an
> extinction level threat for the human race?

Other species have, in fact, died out, whether to chemical warfare or to 
lack of food, resources, just general troubles. Definitely possible.

> If a biological weapon is on the loose, is there any way to stop or
> contain it other than to quarantine the infected areas and hope that
> it doesn't come out?

There are many ways to stop the spread of a virus, but look at 20 years 
of AIDS/HIV research. How long did the bubonic plague take to do 
millions of lives worth of damage? Not nearly as long (at least in the 
last great outbreak).

> Yes or No: a big city with sufficient in and out traffic is pretty
> much doomed to fall when faced with a quickly spreading virus.

Any homogenous social network is generally doomed to fail.

> What kind of virus would pose the biggest threat: airborne?
> waterborne? foodborne? anything else?

Airborne - air filters. Waterborne - water filters. Foodborne - grow 
your food on a stick in a purified chamber. STDs might make it by.

> What can we do as individuals to minimize the risk of biological
> weapons to ourselves?

Redundancy and purification processes.

> What can we do as a society to minimize the risk of biological
> weapons to the human race as a whole?

von Neumann probes -> backups across the galaxy.

- Bryan
________________________________________
Bryan Bishop
http://heybryan.org/