Your Future? Bio-ethnic Warfare

I'm not sure a good word has been coined yet for the weaponized by-product of the advances of understanding DNA, our ability to manipulate and target DNA, and the power of modern computing ... so I'll coin one for today's use; Bio-ethnic warfare.

Advancing technology is dove-tailing with a regressing sectarianism that emphasizes race and ethnicity.

What has been for years simply a "what if" is on the cusp of "when?" 

Combine the technology of "23 & Me" and "Ancestry DNA" to a sociopathic ethno-nationalist, and what do you get?

Some scientists have raised the still-controversial idea that as the availability of basic genetic engineering techniques also rises, it could become easier to create new, more sophisticated weapons, perhaps targeted to the DNA of an individual or even an entire ethnic group.

Last month, former U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman — who has been warning of biological attack since before 9/11 and has said the United States has been “damn lucky” to avoid it — called on President Donald Trump and Congress to make biodefense a national priority.

In a 2010 paper, former CIA officer Rolf Mowatt-Larssen described how al-Qaida wanted to acquire biological weapons with roughly the same level of priority that it sought a stolen nuclear weapon. It never came close to getting either, focusing instead on more conventional attacks.

If I were to place bets, it wouldn't be a large nation or trans-national terrorist organization that would first use this technology. The risk for blow-back etc for most nations and organizations would be too great. No - I think the real danger is a small group of like minded sociopaths or a cult would be the party to step forward.

Jim Jones meets 12-Monkeys;

The greatest danger may come if any of the handful of people who have relevant expertise decide to mount solo attacks. After anthrax-filled envelopes began to appear in government and other offices in late 2001, FBI agents concluded that a microbiologist and U.S. Army researcher, Bruce Ivins, was likely responsible and was believed to have acted alone. Ivins committed suicide in 2007, shortly before his planned arrest; a panel of scientists later cast doubt on the FBI’s evidence against him.

There are other dangers. If the regime in North Korea were to collapse, some worry Pyongyang could unleash its biological arsenal, which may include smallpox.

World War I saw the emergence of chemical warfare, World War II the atomic bomb. The next era-defining superweapon, some experts have long warned us, could be biological.

Do you know your haplogroup? With whom do you share that haplogroup, and would anyone want to eliminate you?

Have a great week!