Vince Gilligan (the Breaking Bad guy) has a new show Pluribus which is many things, but also illustrates an important principle, that being (not a spoiler I think since it happens in the first 10 minutes)...
If you are SETI and you get an extraterrestrial signal which seems to code for a DNA sequence...
DO NOT SYNTHESIZE THE DNA AND THEN INFECT A BUNCH OF RATS WITH IT JUST TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS.
Just donāt. Not a complicated decision. All you have to do is go from āI am going to synthesize the space sequenceā to ānopeā and look at that, x-risk averted. Youāre a hero. Incredible work.
I work at SETI and this simply isnāt realistic because we have to use our large supply of experimental rats every quarter. What else would you propose we do with them?
Vince Gilligan (the Breaking Bad guy) has a new show Pluribus which is many things, but also illustrates an important principle, that being (not a spoiler I think since it happens in the first 10 minutes)...
If you are SETI and you get an extraterrestrial signal which seems to code for a DNA sequence...
DO NOT SYNTHESIZE THE DNA AND THEN INFECT A BUNCH OF RATS WITH IT JUST TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS.
Just donāt. Not a complicated decision. All you have to do is go from āI am going to synthesize the space sequenceā to ānopeā and look at that, x-risk averted. Youāre a hero. Incredible work.
I work at SETI and this simply isnāt realistic because we have to use our large supply of experimental rats every quarter. What else would you propose we do with them?
I just remembered Matthew Barnettās 2022 post My Current Thoughts on the risks from SETI which is a serious investigation into how to mitigate this exact scenario.