Disruptive Technologies Push Bioterrorism To A Whole New Level

Terrorism is and will always be out there as we do not live in a world depicted in the movie Minority Report where crimes can be prevented by foreseeing them. We cannot and we do not want to supervise people’s lives as that would be the death of privacy. Also, disruptive technologies not only enhance the opportunities of true visionaries who want to make the world a better place but also the dreams of the bad guys ready for such dreadful acts as bioterrorism. We need to talk about it. Biological sabotage campaigns and anthrax attacks: bioterrorism in the past Although the term bioterrorism was coined in a book entitled Killing Winds by Jeanne McDermott only in 1987, in its modern meaning – so not looking at such ancient examples as when the German tribes poisoned wells to thwart the Roman invasion – it goes back at least to the First World War. At that time, Germany launched a biological sabotage campaign in the United States, Russia, Romania and France with the overall purpose to infect animals such as cavalry horses or mules with e.g. glanders. Later on, the use of biological weapons was not only limited to animal populations, but these were used to cause harm to people. One of the most famous attempt for a bioterrorist attack was carried out in Japan in the 1990s – and blissfully not a single person got hurt. The religious cult Aum Shinrikyo released anthrax in the subway of Tokyo in June 1993, however they used vaccine strains which are missing the genes that ...
Source: The Medical Futurist - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: Bioethics 3d printing artificial intelligence biological bioterror bioterrorism digestables GC1 Healthcare Medicine robotics wearables Source Type: blogs