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Terrorist Target Mexican Nanotechnology Professors
An anonymous reader writes "A Mexican terrorist organization sent an explosive device to an ITESM professor due to his research in nanotechnology. ITS or Individuals with Wild Tendencies in english, is a group that claims to be against the 'nanotechnology revolution' in fear of a nanomachine take over that will mean the end of civilization. The group has published on their website that they plan to target individuals in this research field to ensure the survival of mankind. Mexican authorities are investigating the case."
n/t
The Unobomber.
OMGWTFBQQ, ROFLOL!
Anyone ever hear of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo?
I think that bombing people is horrible. But the public needs to become aware of the very real danger that nanotechnology, biotechnology, and AI pose. It is indeed very, very likely that humanity will not survive this century.
I reject the notion that "anything man does is unnatural".
Even if nanotechnology led to a significant change in our species and others, it's just as natural as anything else that happens in the universe. I wish these Luddites would realize that we don't need to stop where we are.
Damn, these greasy mexicans, I say good job for the terrorists in trying to kill them all.
Somebody reads too much Michael Crichton
Any new technology brings risk. However, it also brings empowerment. As a species, we simply need the knowledge in order to survive. If we don't, then the next meteor collision will just wipe us all out.
Besides, you can't halt research. You can kill a few scientists, but you simply can't kill them all. All you can do is ensure that someone else figures it out first.
Sometimes fear is an appropriate response, but cowardice is not.
There is only one thing man sometimes does that is unnatural:
celibacy.
We'll be fine so long as we stick with IPv4.
ass hjion.kjms'[/ 'o'p0';p,98soloy* yhiunwayft hun,w4l; /'[p[[p ass -=_+_+_++_- 9itknm theass y9PHUINM the ass t9,k3alu;/m/.l/.l OODSPODP the ass ass ass ass grit0roienwkjlny7P(*#W)( SSSS ASS the the the the ass!
UNITE with the Campaign for a Free Internet because today, our future begins with tomorrow!
and not unabomber 2
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=415319&CategoryId=14091
n/t
that these terrorists have watched too much G.I Joe: The Rise of Cobra.
They have used a bomb that is considered cutting edge technology centuries, if not millenia, ago. So indeed they were using a man-made device which beats their purpose. Maybe after some time, nano-tech will be as common as your i which probably human kind will be researching on a field that we do not know at this time.
If someone is willing to fight for something, they might as well live the life on what is being fight for. If your anti-tech, then live without tech. Don't use plastic, cellular phone, tv, and specially gun powder or any explosive substances.
Hey geniuses - I mock your mocking of the threat of NanoTech. Just yesterday I read a post talking about how someone (perhaps the nanotech industry) wants to use "tiny micro filters" **in the water** to catch those pharmaceuticals that are gaining steam as a waste product. **Tiny filters** **in the water** ?? I rest my case
Get this baw out of my R9k1 moment in Slashdot!
Replicators already exist. They are robust, they use materials in the environment, they reproduce. They're called "bacteria" and the reason they can't overtake the planet is that it's a very hostile place. Organisms have evolved for a very long time, and generally they get more efficient at making more of them. Yet here we are. I, for one, am not worried about grey goo.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
If Mexico has enough prosperity for head cases like these to think up crazy shit to bomb people over it will very soon surpass the US and the flow of illegal immigrants will reverse.
Anyone who buys into this sci-fi bullshit view of nanotechnology doesn't understand the purpose of stomachs, cell membranes, or any other reaction chamber. As a rule, you need rather tight control to orchestrate such a detailed chemical reaction.
We're talking about carefully orchestrated chemical reactions, not atomic sized robots. You're grey goo will need reaction chambers in which to carry out it's reactions. Ergo, you're grey goo looks an awful like living cells.
There is vastly more risk from advanced bioweapons like designer viruses, i.e. weapons that exploit our cell's machinery to kill us. Is a racial targeted virus impossible? I donno, maybe, maybe not, but it's infinitely less stupid than the grey goo idea. And I'd think considerably more concerning to anyone of native central american ancestry, given the racist psychopaths elected by the Tea party in the U.S.
This title could have been so much more awesome (with 60% more alliteration): "Terrorists Target Tijuana Tech Teacher"
The main reason our particular species of green goo hasn't overtaken the planet, for example, is that we find lots of other species cute and so we've made a conscious decision not to exterminate them. And even then we lost (and are still losing) quite a few other interesting and useful parts of the biosphere, as we pass through the dangerous "apes with tools" phase on the way in between "apes" and "apes with tools and self-restraint".
What if "bacteria with tools" turn out to be just as big a step above bacteria? Evolution has surely found a pretty good local optimum for bacteria, but intelligent invention may still be able to find a non-local improvement. Apes evolved to be successful omnivores for a very long time, but that didn't mean it wasn't a huge change when some of them started equipping themselves with spears, bows and arrows, guns...
Terrorist acts like these must be dealt with severely, but they are a reaction to a threat that really does exist. Mind-invasive technology exists in the form of implants that can digitize the brainwave patterns corresponding to verbal thoughts, and the digital signal then transmitted wirelessly to a remote system. Basically iPhone type of technology 20-30 years advanced, but it's being put in people's brains today without their knowledge or consent. Modern technology makes (synthetic) telepathy a reality.
Check out the podcast links at http://www.areyoutargeted.com/ for more information. Be warned, though, it isn't pleasant.
Really, samzenpus? Why not do your job and turn that into actual English?
Hey, I thought they already killed that guy!
>The group has published on their website that they plan to target individuals in this research field to ensure the survival of mankind
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
on a nano level
I for one welcome our nanotech overlords... clearly having nanotech rule our lives is better than having another human do it.
The issue is that nanotechnology might wipe us out. I don't want that to happen, even if it is "natural".
Exactly, many of us have been working very hard on the LHC to ensure that we get to wipe us all out first. After all we all know from Hollywood documentary movies that all of us scientists are hell-bent on performing insanely dangerous experiments without regard to the fact that they would result in the deaths of our own families and loved ones, not to mention ourselves too.
Today, Mexico is performing advanced research in nanotechnology, and has an educated segment of the populace to comprehend nanotechnology, with a tiny extremist fringe. The fact Mexico has any anti technology terrorists is a sign that Mexico is a modern nation. Go Mexico!
Due to carbon assymetry and chirality most of those self replicating machine use left sided molecules/proteins and would not be able to touch the right sided one. If you could come up with a machinery with protein which are right sided instead of left sided, NOTHING living on earth could attack it. Granted the tricky part would be to make it able to metabolyze left sided molecules...
I wouldn't call it "fear mongering", but the claim that the Manhattan project tests could "ignite the atmosphere" via a chain reaction involving nitrogen was raised by none other than Edward Teller. Another scientists (can't recall who) calculated that this was highly unlikely and Teller subsequently retracted his claim.
As for grey goo, it happened ~3.8 billion years ago, we call it the biosphere. Nothing short of vaporising the top few kilometers of the Earth's crust will totally destroy it, and even then it will probably come back when things cool down.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Unless he's in the unabomber league, I don't see how much one lone person can do.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
In the near future, it shouldn't be that difficult to construct proteins that will target DNA sequences that occur often/only in specific races of humans. Combine that with smart drug delivery systems, and the result can be quite troublesome.
We need very good regulation, perhaps even stricter than the regulation we have for nuclear devices.
I certainly don't foresee a future where people can produce nano-particles using home-equipment.
Stupid mexicans. Now make my burrito!
I didn't see this one coming but should have. The farther away one is from a phenomenon the more mystical and threatening it feels and the opposite. Just ask the Italians about the Pope.
That is what should be worried about: particles already on the market that are so small, they easily get past the blood / brain barrier.
At one time, asbestos seemed miraculous too.
...we're worried about the Mexican Macroimigration take over that will mean the end of civilization.
This kind of stuff has the typical flavour of the USA-brand of lunatics...
About the mechanization/dehumanization of colonialism.
This sounds like a incidental headline one would see in some movie script where people get sent back in time to stop the advancement of some technology that ultimately leads to some sort of global doom or financial ruin for someone.
And who knew Jeri Ryan was living in Mexico these days?
Maybe the whole thing will turn out to be a Deus Ex 3 promotional campaign.
"Grey goo" today is about as likely as a renaissance inventor building a thermonuclear weapon.
Focusing on just "today" is rather short sighted.
Let's look at the timeline from renaissance-man to nuclear-physicist:
It took about 200 years to go from the simple phsyics like the pendulum (Galileo, 1581) to the discovery of oxygen (Lavosier, 1778).
It took another 120 years to invent quantum theory (Planck, 1897).
Another 35 years to find the neutron (Chadwick, 1932).
15 years to the atom bomb (Trinity, 1945).
7 years to fusion (thermonuclear) (Ivy Mike, 1952).
Oh, and just for fun, about 40 years later the Human Genome project kicked off (1989).
Our species has a knack for figuring out small things.
As for nano tech, it's hard for me to believe we'll be blindly stumbling about at "renaissance inventor level" even 10 years from now.
Our species also has a knack for being short sighted and focusing only on "today" :-(
A closing thought for you: "grey goo" doesn't have to be a long-term stable system to be a serious problem; suppose it "just" eats the world's food crops for a year (think blight + major famine) and then, if we're "lucky", fades away.
Here's an interesting read for you The Windup Girl (Paolo Bacigalupi) about destabilized ecosystems. Imagine some MBA's in Monsanto saying, "You know, if we release genetic plant 'malware' we could own the planet! Of course we would control it. What could go wrong?"
Most of the posts I see here assume well-intentioned non-malicious researchers.
People haven't hesitated to crash the economy to line their pockets.
Why would the ecosystem be any different?