There’s no going back once a technology is out there, but DNA analysis raises a host of tough questions. From Semper Doctrina at semperdoctrina.substack.com:
You might have heard in the news that the once-“unicorn” 23andMe genetics testing company filed for bankruptcy this Monday. Earlier, in mid-November of 2024, 23andMe laid off around 40% of its staff, a cost-cutting measure driven by declining revenues.
More than 15 million people submitted their data to the company, and now a multitude are scrambling to delete their personal, genetic information before it is sold to someone else.
All eyes are on the matter, even those in White House.
“The inevitable fire sale of this mess to an overseas PE [private equity] firm is going to be a national security matter on the scale of which we haven’t seen in healthcare in years.” – Will Manidis, healthcare investor
DATA, AND KNOWLEDGE GENERALLY, CAN POSE A PANDORA’S BOX PROBLEM
You remember the story of Pandora from Greek mythology. Her husband was tasked to take care of a box. Curiosity led Pandora to open it; sickness, death, and many other evils were then released into the world.
A “can of worms”, opened. Let me give you a couple real-world examples.
First, in 1957, as a part of the worldwide, Atoms for Peace initiative, the US started a program called Project Plowshare. You can watch a documentary about it on your favorite streaming site, “Plowshare” (1961) from the Atomic Energy Commission. The idea was to use nuclear explosions for peaceful construction, to widen the Panama Canal, to create new harbors, to extract oil from shale deposits, and more. The nuclear industry and our government were trying to make us less scared of nuclear technology so we’d be more accepting of nuclear weapons.
The project tests generated radioactive contamination, leading to significant public opposition. Ultimately, the government relented, and, in 1977, the program was terminated. The most significant public use of nuclear technology left to us today is power generation. And, as I discussed in a recent post, “AI Lusts for Nuclear Power”, the industry is currently going through a renaissance.
I use this illustration to remind you that once we “cracked the atom”, once we let that nuclear “genie” out of the bottle, it is difficult to put it back in. Even now we hear about the genie: Recently, there’s been renewed calls for Iran to cancel its CIVILIAN nuclear power program, for fear it leads to weapon development.
