Deus is arriving sooner than expected...

Well, Deus is a good thing... actually, he'd solve the problem listed in the article. It is a valid point, but I'm not sure if the materials currently being considered that I'm aware of would really spark a reaction...

~J

Eh. Once nanotech becomes feasible, it'll be another checklist in Humanity's history.

"Did they obliterate themselves with chem/bio weapons? Nope."

"Did they obliterate themselves with nuclear weapons? Nope."

"Well, how about nanoweapons? Um...still working on it."

-Siege

Indeed. Really, the only thing to fear is some idiot creating infinitely self-replicating nanites, and that's not exactly easy to do. Certainly having pushed the button sometime during the Cold War would've been easier.

~J

In theory, nanoweapons could better refine bioweapons to the point some idiot decides to unleash one.

I am reminded of "Hardwired" with custom viruses unleashed to create a market for a company's medicines.

Never mind Kage's excellent point regarding self-replicating nanites. Replicators, anyone? (Stargate SG-1 reference)

-Siege

They already have infinitely self replicating (almost) nanites. They're called viruses. What I'd really worry about is a nanomachine that self replicates, is easily dispersed, and uses something truly unusual for food (like plastics or rubbers). Unlike us, tires don't have a natural defense.

I was more worrying about nanites that could use anything with the proper molecules in it as food, especially if said molecule was carbon.

~J

Imagine the natural version, just altered to have a longer incubation period. The only reason ebola isn't a lot more dangerous is because it kills its victims too quickly to propagate effectively.

~J

Well, logical extension of theoretical tech.

As it stands, medieval biowarfare involved flinging corpses into cities to help spread plague.

Mankind loves being able to tweak something to make it better.

I'm not a big Tom Clancy fan.

-Siege

[Derail]
Don't like Clancy? Why? The Ryan series are pretty cool.
(OpCenter, however, I've been told is crap written by someone else with his signature)
[/Derail]

Isn't there a bio-weapon version of Ebola in SOTA:2063?

Yes, there is. Very nasty stuff.

~J

The problem with ebola isn't its short incubation time. There have actually been cases where the virus hangs around for a week to two weeks before kicking your ass, which is a quite reasonable incubation time. The problem with ebola is that it doesn't spread through an aerosol vector.

Thing is, that ought to be easy enough to do. Reference the Reston monkey house outbreak talked about (a bit inaccurately) in Richard Preston's The Hot Zone. Ebola with an aerosol vector would be a very, very scary bug.

On the plus side, there's been some great research in vaccination recently...

eh, give it five years. And assuming there's not another major antigen shift...