From: Black Unicorn <unicorn@schloss.li>
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 1996 06:47:43 +0800
To: Bill Frantz <frantz@netcom.com>
Subject: Re: Fear of Flying -- from HotWired
In-Reply-To: <199609181446.HAA10952@netcom8.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.94.960918144837.7596B-100000@polaris>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Wed, 18 Sep 1996, Bill Frantz wrote:

> At  1:21 AM 9/18/96 -0400, Black Unicorn wrote:
> >> On Thu, 12 Sep 1996 12:03:18 -0700, Bill Frantz wrote:
> >> >Gee, biotech has come a long way.  Now I can download the Anthrax DNA
> >> >sequence from the net and insert it in some carrier bacteria and start
> >> >making Anthrax bacteria.  Neat!
> >
> >Culturing and growing anthrax is painfully simple.  No DNA required.
> 
> Sorry Unicorn, you missed my point.  (1) You need DNA to grow bacteria. 
> You can get the DNA two ways.  (A) You get a sample of the beast, or (B)
> You get a DNA sequence and then regenerate the DNA.  (I don't think B is
> technically feasable yet.)  (2) You can't send samples of the beast thru
> the net.

I think your point was that the net was not responsible for the
proliferation of Anthrax development data.  (Am I wrong?)

My point was that in the eyes of the "leaders" all that is required to
make the net responsible for the proliferation is for the process to be
describeable in a simple one or two page set of instructions (such as
Anthrax is).

> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Bill Frantz       | "Cave softly, cave safely, | Periwinkle -- Consulting
> (408)356-8506     | and cave with duct tape."  | 16345 Englewood Ave.
> frantz@netcom.com |           - Marianne Russo | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA

--
I hate lightning - finger for public key - Vote Monarchist
unicorn@schloss.li