Great article! Another possible case study: The apollo mission IIRC had a bio-quarantine procedure for the astronauts, in case they had contracted some sort of contagious moon disease. I don't know much about the story and am unsure why they took this concern seriously, but they seem to have.
Another possible case study would be scientists and engineers and military types building the nuclear arsenals and MAD systems and so forth being concerned that global nuclear war could be triggered by accident (or on purpose for that matter).
Dec 19, 2023Liked by Rick Korzekwa, Harlan Stewart
This was a great read. The recombinant DNA story reminded me of a similar, recent example from biology: the invention of CRISPR. Jennifer Doudna, the technology's inventor, realized that her technology could be used for evil - she had a dream about Adolf Hitler using her invention.
Afterwards, she publicly called for a halt to human gene editing and met with peers to discuss CRISPR's dangers. Eventually, that led to the 2015 International Summit on Human Gene Editing, which decided on a self-imposed gene editing moratorium.
Great article! Another possible case study: The apollo mission IIRC had a bio-quarantine procedure for the astronauts, in case they had contracted some sort of contagious moon disease. I don't know much about the story and am unsure why they took this concern seriously, but they seem to have.
Another possible case study would be scientists and engineers and military types building the nuclear arsenals and MAD systems and so forth being concerned that global nuclear war could be triggered by accident (or on purpose for that matter).
And then there's some stuff in synthetic bio...
This was a great read. The recombinant DNA story reminded me of a similar, recent example from biology: the invention of CRISPR. Jennifer Doudna, the technology's inventor, realized that her technology could be used for evil - she had a dream about Adolf Hitler using her invention.
Afterwards, she publicly called for a halt to human gene editing and met with peers to discuss CRISPR's dangers. Eventually, that led to the 2015 International Summit on Human Gene Editing, which decided on a self-imposed gene editing moratorium.