It's very hard to stop human initiative. So cloning a, for example, the human level, as unknown consequences for our culture or civilization. You see, this is why we worried about g m o. I'm not worryig about antabiatics because, you know, it may harm some people, they don't multiply. It won't change a planet. E worry about lot of things.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of Antifragile, Black Swan, and Fooled by Randomness, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about a recent co-authored paper on the risks of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the use of the Precautionary Principle. Taleb contrasts harm with ruin and explains how the differences imply different rules of behavior when dealing with the risk of each. Taleb argues that when considering the riskiness of GMOs, the right understanding of statistics is more valuable than expertise in biology or genetics. The central issue that pervades the conversation is how to cope with a small non-negligible risk of catastrophe.