Now that we’ve gone over some of the considerations, here’s some of the concrete topics I see as generally high or low hazard for open discussion.
Good for Open Discussion
Broad-application antiviral developments and methods
Vaccines
Antivirals proper
T-cell therapy
Virus detection and monitoring
How to report lab hazards
...and how to normalize and encourage this
Broadly-applicable protective measures
Sanitation
Bunkers?
The state of funding
The state of talent
What broad skills to develop
How to appeal to talent
Who talent should talk to
Bad for Open Discussion
These things may be worth specialists discussing among themselves, but are likely to do more harm than good in an open thread.
Disease delivery methods
Specific Threats
Specific Exploitable Flaws in Defense Systems
Ex: immune systems, hospital monitoring systems
It is especially bad to mention them if they are exploitable reliably
If you are simultaneously providing a comprehensive solution to the problem, this can become more of a gray-area. Partial-solutions, or challenging-to-implement solutions, are likely to fall on the bad side of this equation.
Much of the synthetic biology surrounding this topic
Arguments for and against various agents using disease as an M.O.
Now that we’ve gone over some of the considerations, here’s some of the concrete topics I see as generally high or low hazard for open discussion.
Good for Open Discussion
Broad-application antiviral developments and methods
Vaccines
Antivirals proper
T-cell therapy
Virus detection and monitoring
How to report lab hazards
...and how to normalize and encourage this
Broadly-applicable protective measures
Sanitation
Bunkers?
The state of funding
The state of talent
What broad skills to develop
How to appeal to talent
Who talent should talk to
Bad for Open Discussion
These things may be worth specialists discussing among themselves, but are likely to do more harm than good in an open thread.
Disease delivery methods
Specific Threats
Specific Exploitable Flaws in Defense Systems
Ex: immune systems, hospital monitoring systems
It is especially bad to mention them if they are exploitable reliably
If you are simultaneously providing a comprehensive solution to the problem, this can become more of a gray-area. Partial-solutions, or challenging-to-implement solutions, are likely to fall on the bad side of this equation.
Much of the synthetic biology surrounding this topic
Arguments for and against various agents using disease as an M.O.
Here’s a simplification of my current assessment heuristic...
What order-of-magnitude is the audience? (a multiplier)
Any relevant audience skews/filters?
What are the tails?
What’s the trade-off for offense vs defense? (+/- direction, & size)
Is it + or—overall? How big?
Do any points swamp the others in importance?
What am I not easily factoring in? Are there any gotchas? (checklist + Murphyjutsu)
Future Advances
Idea Inoculation
Second-degree and unintended audiences
Murphyjutsu it
Sanity Check: Other
Roughly how much do I actually trust the judgement I reached?
Should I sleep on it? Withhold it?
Anyone I should run things by?