From: VACCINIA@UNCVX1.OIT.UNC.EDU
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 93 12:23:44 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re:Bandwidth limitations
Message-ID: <01H58E3K6E4I0028OU@UNCVX1.OIT.UNC.EDU>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


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Perry writes:
>The human genome fits nicely in 1 GB. Mere Gigabit networks could allow you
>to send your whole genome in seconds -- and fiber can do many orders of 
>magnitude better than that.

The human genome has approximately 3 x 10^9 base pairs. Each base is 
represented as the following binary code: G=1000, A=0100, T=0010, C=0001. 
Thus the human genome represents about 3 gigabytes of info (uncompressed),
as Perry said easily transmitable by fiber optics.

When you all do finally get your genome sequenced, the last thing you should 
do is let anyone see it (perhaps only small segments of it). I can think of 
no better use for cryptography than to keep citizens genomes to themselves. 
Would you give anybody a crystal ball which tells of your past, present and 
future? 

Some of us write genetic code and, IMHO, one's own genetics are a source code 
which should not be freely distributed.

Scott G. Morham            !The First,
VACCINIA@uncvx1.oit.unc.edu!          Second  
PGP Public Keys by Request !                and Third Levels 
                           !      of Information Storage and Retrieval
                           !DNA,
                           !    Biological Neural Nets,
                           !                           Cyberspace


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