Posted: Apr 16, 2018 9:36 am
Thommo wrote:There is nothing we can do that wouldn't be the most horrendous genocide the world has ever seen and that's almost certainly a far worse option.
By far the best, IMO, of Dan Brown's novels is Inferno, which is about a mad scientist on a mission to release a genetically engineered, highly transmissible and infectious virus whose only effect is to reduce human fertility by a factor of about 2/3.
Once I managed to get over the obvious credulity barrier, I actually hugely enjoyed the story (possibly helped by the fact that I was poolside with muchos beeros at the time of reading).
With the coming Robotocene era likely to help with the declining youthful workforce, I reckon humanity is just about perfectly placed to release such a virus, once we get CRISPR and its successors tarted up a bit.
ETA: Damn. For a moment there I imagined I might have just invented the term 'Robotocene'. But sadly it's been a Twitter hashtag for a couple of years.