Rob Reid: How synthetic biology could wipe out humanity -- and how we can stop it
Rob Reid: 合成生物学如何毁灭人类——以及我们如何阻止它
Rob Reid is a humor author and the founder of the company that created the music subscription service Rhapsody. Full bio
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seven and a half billion of us.
that 300 million of us are depressed,
有3000万人身患抑郁症,
take their lives every year.
结束自己的生命。
a profoundly nihilistic route,
一种深刻的虚无主义路线,
as many people as possible.
尽可能多的人的方式死去。
It happened about nine weeks ago.
这件事发生在大约九个星期前。
a lot of this going on.
counted 323 mass shootings
323起大规模枪击事件,
枪击犯都想自杀,
their death tolls,
最大化死亡人数,
What limits do these people have?
这些人有上限吗?
因为他杀够了吗?
he shot and injured another 422 people
因为他击伤了另外422人,
preferred to kill.
选择杀死他们。
he would have stopped at 4,200.
会在4200人时停下来。
he may well have gladly killed us all.
他可能会非常乐意把我们都杀了。
of 10 mass school attacks in China
不顾后果的校园攻击,
like knives and hammers and cleavers,
铁锤和劈刀等工具,
this last attack occurred
袭击发生的时间
in Newtown, Connecticut.
大屠杀的几个小时前。
roughly the same number of victims
受害人数量大约
knife: terrible; gun: way worse.
刀:可怕;枪:更糟糕。
when he forced 149 people
他强迫149个人
weapons in our near future than airplanes,
比飞机更加致命的武器出现,
dynamics that will ensue
如果大规模自杀式谋杀
on a rapidly advancing field
那么世界末日的动力将随之而来,
boundless promise for society.
能为社会带来无限的希望。
there's a tiny group of people
有那么一小部分人,
could just figure out how.
have been one of them,
也可能不是这其中的一员,
nihilists out there.
that they can't even control.
也无法控制的严重的情绪障碍。
deranging traumas, etc. etc.
until the Cold War,
of two global alliances
with actual doomsday buttons
世界末日按钮的人数
like a tech business plan.
像一个技术企业计划。
of exponential technologies,
eternal impossibilities
of one or two living geniuses
实实在在的超能力,
to more or less everybody.
会扩散到每一个人。
with a computer in 1952,
19 copies of that computer,
电脑的其中一台,
to teach it checkers.
的大脑教它下跳棋。
who knows someone who owns a telephone,
知道谁有电话的人,
is an exponential technology.
did something every bit as ingenious
用H5N1病毒做了件
up to 60 percent of the people it infects,
than 50 people since 2015.
不到50人死亡。
编辑了H5N1的基因
but also wildly contagious.
更广泛的传染性。
top two scientific journals
的新闻部门表示,
it would likely cause a pandemic
很可能会大面积传染,
as scary as this,
I personally want to hear
Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity.
主席那里听到的。
is scary at all compared to this."]
我不认为炭疽热可怕。】
(笑声)
didn't mean us any harm.
does not freeze in place,
because as we learned yesterday morning,
因为我们昨天早上了解到,
for genome editing.
massively easier --
is now taught in high schools.
就开始教授CRISPR了。
quicker than computing.
computing is getting cheaper.
genetic sequencing is getting cheaper.
如何变得越来越便宜。
and synthesis and sequencing,
but they're tightly related.
in these headlong rates.
are these tiny, tiny data files.
很小很小的数据文件。
on just a few pages.
as soon as you get home.
就可以谷歌搜索它了。
to pick an arbitrary year,
hoping to advance science
抱着推动科学进步的希望
before causing an outbreak,
before the first sign of trouble.
出现之前都被感染了。
this is not science fiction.
of over 300 universities.
spreads to the internet's dark corners.
被传播到互联网的黑暗角落。
it never comes back --
它就再也回不来了——
a movie studio or a music label.
电影和唱片公司的人。
like our virologist
you can find at any high school.
找到的DNA打印机就能做到。
and is only 0.1 percent effective,
并且只有0.1%奏效了,
to be concerned about anybody
我们需要关注任何一个
handful of geniuses
and maybe even a little bit more.
and so not part of this group.
所以不属于这个群体。
barely OK-ish with that.
grad students are enabled?
的学生也参与其中了呢?
going to be perfectly stable?
预科医学生也武装上了呢?
premed is fully enabled?
hundreds of thousands of people
who dressed up like the Joker
at a Batman premiere.
国家卫生研究院资助的
if we start focusing on it now.
这个问题,实际上可以挺过这次危机。
countless hours
for science podcasts I create.
研究他们的工作。
I haven't gotten that out there yet --
我可能还没有表达出这个意思——
to revere its potential.
heal our environment
恢复我们的环境,
of other creatures.
you know, annihilating ourselves?
的情况下实现?
synbio is here,
合成生物已经出现了,
the wheel to bad actors.
on bioweapons treaties
illegal drug lab in the world.
都清楚地表明了这一点。
bioengineers we have,
are going to be on our side.
would be on our side in this one.
is just so low.
advantages do matter,
can inflict grievous harm,
也能造成巨大的伤害时,
the hell out of this:
to prepare and prevent.
的时间来准备和预防。
and there will be somebody --
就会有另一个人——
that spans society,
a tiny group of experts
and exploiting synthetic biology,
with the financial system,
massively corrupted
how they could cut corners,
on the rest of us
with the $22 trillion bill.
the thank-you letters?
too busy to be grateful.
as a huge issue,
to safeguard our prosperity,
来保护我们的繁荣,
for the whole damn ecosystem?
生态系统构建一个?
be given on this first critical layer.
就足以举办整整一年的TED演讲。
of many great ideas that are out there.
pathogen sensors that we currently have
非常原始的病原体传感器,
price performance curve
的价格性能曲线上,
as smoke detectors and even smartphones.
甚至智能手机那样逐渐普及。
and distribution,
to new threats or mutations.
新的威胁或突变。
and maybe even our homes.
甚至我们的家庭。
and medicines is within reach
疫苗和药物打印技术
suicidal mass murder
treatment-resistant depression or PTSD.
或创伤后应激障碍。
like Rick Doblin working on this,
高尚研究者来研究这个问题,
who are way more numerous
更多自私的傻瓜认识到,
suffering will soon endanger all of us,
join us and Al Capone
can be and should be a white blood cell
应该成为这个免疫系统的
can be despicable, yes,
broken and sad people,
need to do what we can
fighting these dangers
of synthetic biology.
that at least claim
spend 20 percent of their time
to building defenses for the common good?
共同利益进行防御上会怎样?
go to some very, very dark places,
非常,非常黑暗的地方,
take you there this evening.
and respected the danger,
when it's incredibly productive
to fight this danger.
来对抗这个危险。
terrible scenarios I've painted --
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Rob Reid - Author, entrepreneurRob Reid is a humor author and the founder of the company that created the music subscription service Rhapsody.
Why you should listen
Rob Reid is an author and a serial entrepreneur. He founded the company that created the Rhapsody music website, and his latest book, Year Zero, was published in July 2013. In it, aliens seek to erase the ruinous fines on their vast collections of pirated American music by destroying the Earth. Parts of it are made up. The audiobook version will be read by John Hodgman.
On the TED Blog, read more on the numbers behind Copyright Math >>
Rob Reid | Speaker | TED.com