Quote: (04-08-2017 05:39 AM)Orson Wrote:
And what's the cheapest to get right now? Reverse engineering deadly smallpox, perhaps?
CRISPR and Cas9 have made fast gene editing techniques cheap and widely available. All that's necessary is enough time to reverse engineer it.
Biological agenst are much tougher to reproduce and not nearly as deadly. I studied that aspect of human history extensively and also alternative view of medicine.
All the viruses you had in the past that were decimating the populations tremendously would have zero power today. Maybe some genetic engineering could make them more deadly, but not much. The reason for all those plagues was lack of nutrition, endemic crappy pregnancies, crappy dietary habits even if they had access to it (nobility at one time did not eat anything green, no vegetables, nothing - only meat and bread, sweets and pastries). Then there was the issue of the most basic understanding of hygiene both personal as well as in houses, plumbing, access to clean water etc. If you had implemented current-day knowledge in the Middle Ages in Europe even under their conditions, then you would have instantly created a society living over 70yo and most children surviving (if most had access to food of course). All the plagues would disappear as if by magic. The last time we had any was a period where a large part of the population preferred to wear wigs and have lice and various diseases than to take a bath - no further commment there.
Chemical attacks however - that is easy enough to reproduce, though to be fair - nothing will be as easy as truck attacks. 10 Jihadis with trucks can next time do a joint attack at a concert, massive public square where they run over hundreds at a cost basis of 500$ while having working IQs in their 70s (with only one smarter commander).
We will get more of them. The Jihadis will easier dirty-nuke a city than come up with a truly effective bio-agent.