Rob Reid: How synthetic biology could wipe out humanity -- and how we can stop it
羅勃‧瑞德: 合成生物學如何消滅人類—我們如何阻止它
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,
有三億人有憂鬱症
take their lives every year.
a profoundly nihilistic route,
一種極端虛無主義的路線
as many people as possible.
也要盡可能殺死愈多人愈好
It happened about nine weeks ago.
它發生在九個星期前
a lot of this going on.
counted 323 mass shootings
就有 323 起大規模槍擊事件
their death tolls,
把死亡人數衝到最高
What limits do these people have?
這些兇手殺人有沒有限度?
he shot and injured another 422 people
因為他還射傷另外 422 人
preferred to kill.
he would have stopped at 4,200.
他會在殺了 4200 人時停手
he may well have gladly killed us all.
他可能很樂意殺光我們
of 10 mass school attacks in China
共十起大規模學校攻擊事件
like knives and hammers and cleavers,
this last attack occurred
最後一次攻擊的發生時間
in Newtown, Connecticut.
roughly the same number of victims
受害人數的加總
knife: terrible; gun: way worse.
刀子:很可怕;槍枝:更糟糕
when he forced 149 people
證明了他可以強迫 149 個人
weapons in our near future than airplanes,
還會出現比飛機更致命的武器
dynamics that will ensue
如果有自殺傾向的兇手
on a rapidly advancing field
會造成什麼樣的大災難
boundless promise for society.
there's a tiny group of people
could just figure out how.
只要他們想出辦法來
have been one of them,
可能是這種人,也可能不是
nihilists out there.
that they can't even control.
他們自己甚至無法控制
deranging traumas, etc. etc.
until the Cold War,
of two global alliances
with actual doomsday buttons
like a tech business plan.
of exponential technologies,
eternal impossibilities
of one or two living geniuses
to more or less everybody.
普及到每個人身上
with a computer in 1952,
用電腦玩西洋跳棋
19 copies of that computer,
而世界上僅有十九台
to teach it checkers.
who knows someone who owns a telephone,
而他又認識有手機的人即可
is an exponential technology.
did something every bit as ingenious
做了一件事情
up to 60 percent of the people it infects,
高達六成會死亡
than 50 people since 2015.
死亡人數不到五十個
but also wildly contagious.
還能廣泛傳染
top two scientific journals
新聞部門指出
it would likely cause a pandemic
會造成一場大規模流行病疫情
as scary as this,
I personally want to hear
顧問委員會主席口中聽到這話
Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity.
【我不認為炭疽比這更可怕】
is scary at all compared to this."]
【我不認為炭疽比這更可怕】
didn't mean us any harm.
does not freeze in place,
並沒有適時停下來
會變得輕而易舉
because as we learned yesterday morning,
因為昨天早上我們得知
for genome editing.
做基因組編輯
massively easier --
is now taught in high schools.
quicker than computing.
computing is getting cheaper.
genetic sequencing is getting cheaper.
and synthesis and sequencing,
but they're tightly related.
in these headlong rates.
are these tiny, tiny data files.
就是這些極小的資料檔案
on just a few pages.
as soon as you get home.
to pick an arbitrary year,
hoping to advance science
before causing an outbreak,
before the first sign of trouble.
全世界可能已經被感染了
this is not science fiction.
of over 300 universities.
spreads to the internet's dark corners.
便散播到網路的黑暗角落
it never comes back --
a movie studio or a music label.
他們知道這種事
like our virologist
you can find at any high school.
DNA 列印機就可以辦到
and is only 0.1 percent effective,
儘管成功機率只有 0.1%
to be concerned about anybody
達成這個目標的人
handful of geniuses
and maybe even a little bit more.
或稍微高一點
and so not part of this group.
【想殺光所有人的一群人】
barely OK-ish with that.
【想殺光所有人的一群人】
grad students are enabled?
都能夠做得到呢?
going to be perfectly stable?
premed is fully enabled?
也都能做到呢?
hundreds of thousands of people
who dressed up like the Joker
有一位穿著像是小丑
at a Batman premiere.
if we start focusing on it now.
是有機會安全度過
countless hours
for science podcasts I create.
我也去研究他們的成果
I haven't gotten that out there yet --
即便我還沒完全弄懂
to revere its potential.
heal our environment
改善我們的環境
of other creatures.
you know, annihilating ourselves?
同時不要毀滅我們自己?
synbio is here,
合生學的時代來臨了
the wheel to bad actors.
on bioweapons treaties
就是很好的證明
illegal drug lab in the world.
世界各地的非法藥品實驗室
bioengineers we have,
are going to be on our side.
would be on our side in this one.
也會站在我們這邊
is just so low.
advantages do matter,
can inflict grievous harm,
造成巨大傷害的情況下
the hell out of this:
to prepare and prevent.
可以做好準備和預防
and there will be somebody --
將來會做這件事的人
that spans society,
a tiny group of experts
and exploiting synthetic biology,
又要利用合成生物學
with the financial system,
massively corrupted
how they could cut corners,
on the rest of us
with the $22 trillion bill.
一張 22 兆美元的帳單
the thank-you letters?
我還在等我的信
too busy to be grateful.
as a huge issue,
to safeguard our prosperity,
for the whole damn ecosystem?
be given on this first critical layer.
就可以辦一整年的 TED 演說
of many great ideas that are out there.
這些只是其中一部分
pathogen sensors that we currently have
病原體感測器
price performance curve
as smoke detectors and even smartphones.
甚至是智慧手機一樣普遍
and distribution,
to new threats or mutations.
就無法適應新的威脅或突變
and maybe even our homes.
或甚至我們的家中
and medicines is within reach
已經快要實現了
suicidal mass murder
treatment-resistant depression or PTSD.
或是創傷後壓力症候群
like Rick Doblin working on this,
優秀的研究者如瑞克‧杜布林
who are way more numerous
suffering will soon endanger all of us,
很快就會危及到我們所有人
join us and Al Capone
can be and should be a white blood cell
也應該成為白血球
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?
為公共利益建立防禦機制好嗎?
go to some very, very dark places,
一些非常灰暗的地方
take you there this evening.
讓我今晚能夠帶著各位省思
and respected the danger,
而且敬畏戰爭的威脅
曾用了幾十年的時間
when it's incredibly productive
to fight this danger.
作為對抗危險的動力
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