Long term self-protection [was Re: BIAS: CNN commits fraud...]

From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Sun May 18 2003 - 14:12:40 MDT

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    IMO, the points recently raised by M.L. vis-a-vis the
    CNN/congressional debate on assault weapons point out
    how out of touch with the "leading edge" most of the
    public/politicians and perhaps even extropians(?) may be.

    I took an opportunity at the recent Foresight S.A.
    conference to stand up and point out that I had
    the genomic sequence of the SARS virus on my computer,
    I had access to the machines and resources necessary
    to recreate it. (This effort would not be much
    different from the recent efforts that recreated
    the polio virus.) I also pointed out that I could
    return to the conference in the next year and easily
    infect everyone attending with the SARS virus.

    There are at least two other individuals from time to
    time contributing to this list (Aubrey de Grey and
    Rafal Smigrodski) who I am sure have equivalent
    knowledge bases and perhaps half a dozen individuals
    I can think of who could rapidly develop such a
    knowledge base. (So my perspective is hardly unique.)

    What Mike (and the congresspersons) seem to be
    forgetting is that as we move into the future
    the (historic) weapons debate may well become
    pointless (sound and fury signifying nothing?).

    An interesting exercise for extropes might be to
    consider -- "What fraction of individuals on
    the Extropian list could I not easily defend
    myself against should someone decide that I should
    be toast?"

    This is the question that one may be dealing with with
    the increasing frequency of suicide bombers (i.e. they
    don't care if they survive) and/or the cleverness
    (increasingly high tech tools) of assassins.

    (Of course these questions are based in my perspective
    that Americans have the right to "keep and bear arms".
    But my emphasis would be on the idea that ineffective
    arms aren't worth the time spent discussing them.)

    I'll simply observe that assault weapons are
    unlikely to stop the momentum of an SUV packed
    with C4 and they don't help much with the
    SARS virus spread in large quantities over the
    envelope in your mailbox.

    Robert



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