Making Sense with Sam Harris Special Episode: Recipes for Future Plagues
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Feb 28, 2022 
Rob Reid, a venture capitalist and science fiction author, joins Kevin Esvelt, an MIT professor known for his work on CRISPR, to discuss urgent pandemic-related issues. They delve into the controversial Deep VZN program, which aims to identify and share new pandemic-grade viruses. Reid highlights the alarming number of individuals who could exploit this information. The conversation raises ethical concerns regarding viral genome sharing, the risks of synthetic biology, and the crucial balance between scientific progress and global security.
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Information and Attention Hazards
- Information hazards, like nuclear weapon blueprints, pose risks.
- Attention hazards, like Hiroshima, incentivize proliferation by revealing a weapon's power.
1918 Flu Genome Online
- The 1918 Spanish flu virus genome, sequenced from museum specimens, is online.
- The CDC published it, enabling labs worldwide to rebuild this deadly virus.
Mitigating Factors for 1918 Flu
- Releasing the 1918 flu today is unlikely to cause a pandemic as deadly as the original.
- Modern flu strains offer partial immunity, and antibiotics combat secondary infections.