From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Tue Jul 15 2003 - 05:31:56 MDT
On Mon, Jul 14, 2003 at 02:56:19PM -0700, Jeff Davis wrote:
[Excellent analysis of the problem of mosquitos]
> Rehabilitate the former bad boy (girl, actually).
> Enlist her talents. Make her a friend and ally.
This is a very nice scenario, and I really like the image of
medical mosquitos flying around with vaccines (the latest updates
of nanoimmune systems, maybe - better get them into all of the
environment).
The main problem is of course that it is hard to achieve this
optimization in the near future, and that is why I promote the
cheap evolutionary fix. In 30 years redesign might be the way to
go, but we can save literally millions of lives in a very
eco-friendly and fairly low-tech way before that.
Another issue is of course public goods and ownership. Medical
mosquitos are wonderful public goods. But I wouldn't trust the
governments to run the mosquitos, even with very nice health goals
- because next update might include a vaccination against cocaine
or that little genetic update making people like taxes better.
Involuntary medical upgrades have some risks. So rehabilitated
mosquitos better respect privacy and self-ownership (wear a little
transmitter telling mosquitos whether they can approach or not?).
Otherwise the bad girls will become bad government employees...
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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