It was the subject of Sci Fi. The generation of a biological weapon that took out only a single species or sub species. In the Sci Fi books it was Jews, blacks or asians that were the targets for genocidal maniacs. Now, in real life it’s bugs.
Now, where I get a bit conserned is that everything on this planet evolved to take a niche in the eco system and we don’t really fully understand these roles. Slow change allows species to adapt and for other species to take up gaps or we could identify an issue and make changes to stop the change or find alternatives.
Biological attacks like this may not allow those options. If a biological weapon spread uncontrollably across the world we could find that our target was a species that in another part of the world provided a different role. One that other species could not adapt quick enough to pick up the slack and we cannot resolve either.
I’m very much for using technology in this way but I’m a firm believer in having them on timers. I’m actually concerned about biological weapons like this as we cannot be 100% that the biological weapons cannot reproduce and will have a limited lifespan. Enough to keep them in a small area anyway. Thus infestations can be targetted. Any outbreaks are limited and no species is taken to extinction.
The good news about this one is that is is supplied as food. Therefore it is limited and is unlikely to spread far beyond the application area.
I actually wonder though if we could ever really predict with absolute certainty that there would not be any side effects. For example a pregnant creature that ate the food which modifies it’s childs DNA so it became an excreter of the tainted genes. Making it able to be spread about.
We do play at being God sometimes and every time is a risk which we don’t know how to evaluate yet.
So, I’m sticking with the little robots that simply target their species and kill them for their limited lifespan. No chance of spreading, no chance of unintended consequences. Little robot killers.
The Judas Gene
It was the subject of Sci Fi. The generation of a biological weapon that took out only a single species or sub species. In the Sci Fi books it was Jews, blacks or asians that were the targets for genocidal maniacs. Now, in real life it’s bugs.
Now, where I get a bit conserned is that everything on this planet evolved to take a niche in the eco system and we don’t really fully understand these roles. Slow change allows species to adapt and for other species to take up gaps or we could identify an issue and make changes to stop the change or find alternatives.
Biological attacks like this may not allow those options. If a biological weapon spread uncontrollably across the world we could find that our target was a species that in another part of the world provided a different role. One that other species could not adapt quick enough to pick up the slack and we cannot resolve either.
I’m very much for using technology in this way but I’m a firm believer in having them on timers. I’m actually concerned about biological weapons like this as we cannot be 100% that the biological weapons cannot reproduce and will have a limited lifespan. Enough to keep them in a small area anyway. Thus infestations can be targetted. Any outbreaks are limited and no species is taken to extinction.
The good news about this one is that is is supplied as food. Therefore it is limited and is unlikely to spread far beyond the application area.
I actually wonder though if we could ever really predict with absolute certainty that there would not be any side effects. For example a pregnant creature that ate the food which modifies it’s childs DNA so it became an excreter of the tainted genes. Making it able to be spread about.
We do play at being God sometimes and every time is a risk which we don’t know how to evaluate yet.
So, I’m sticking with the little robots that simply target their species and kill them for their limited lifespan. No chance of spreading, no chance of unintended consequences. Little robot killers.