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colingauvintoday at 4:07 PM3 repliesview on HN

No, a human could do (and have, many many many times, see like half of molecular biology) this as well. If anything this will help with vaccine development.

Edit: I'm a PhD biochemist that has done a fair bit of virus modification. Love the downvotes. Never change HN. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


Replies

estearumtoday at 4:22 PM

Same reason it couldn't be a problem to sell aerosolized anthrax at the hardware store. Humans have (many many times) made aerosolized anthrax. Can't see any conceivable problem with more people having access to it.

nozzlegeartoday at 4:55 PM

I agree with you. I favor the view that humans are generally morally good when taken on the whole. There already exists the technology for ne'er-do-wells to engineer viruses and unleash them on the world. But I submit that A) there aren't many people who want to do that in the first place; and B) there's a vanishingly small amount of people who want to work with those people to help them achieve it.

dgellowtoday at 4:37 PM

That doesn’t invalidate the point, you’re just saying it’s already a risk

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