New species

[dhorne at telus.net]

At 09:49 PM 12/10/1999 +1100, you wrote:
>G'day Observers,
>
>So I see we're about to start creating life-forms from scratch.  Put that
>together with a world in which profit drives production, and you have
>life-forms created to help some increase their profits.  In a world
>infested with wars, we might expect handy little warriors (you can't make
>antidotes for germs that don't exist yet, for instance).  *Brave New World*
>needs updating, perhaps.
>
>Anyway, is there anything we should be thinking about in this respect?
>
>Cheers,
>Rob.
>
>
>"Brave New Nightmare" is more like it. Once again [as always?] technology 
is running far ahead of ethics. The scope and sophistication of electronic 
and virtual snooping is nothing less than terrifying. The other day, some
cop or other was
waxing enthusiastic about a "DNA sweeper", a device that could pick up your
DNA
from traces of your breath that you leave behind you in a room. Germs that
attack 
specific groups of people. Etc and more etc.

And as Rob says, a technology controlled by people whose only motive is
profit, and
who [my addendum]  would cheerfully destroy the planet and enslave its
people just to look
good a stockholders meeting.

Was Seattle important or what?

David Horne
Vancouver BC