Most of the truly frightening possibilities are simply too unlikely. To produce them from a genetic algorithm, you’d have to expend massive amounts of resources creating a specific environment that would select for the traits you desired—no mean feat. Imagine what it would take to develop a hypervirulent and extremely lethal plague through an algorithm on purpose. The requirements are crushing.
Making people more aware of such algorithms, and their potential, might force a shift in the way food animals are dealt with so that they don’t act as a optimalization procedure for plagues.
Most of the truly frightening possibilities are simply too unlikely. To produce them from a genetic algorithm, you’d have to expend massive amounts of resources creating a specific environment that would select for the traits you desired—no mean feat. Imagine what it would take to develop a hypervirulent and extremely lethal plague through an algorithm on purpose. The requirements are crushing.
Making people more aware of such algorithms, and their potential, might force a shift in the way food animals are dealt with so that they don’t act as a optimalization procedure for plagues.