From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,60e2922351e0e780 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-11-21 05:27:09 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!adsl-213-200-246-247.cybernet.CH!not-for-mail From: Vinzent 'Gadget' Hoefler Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: OT: Nuclear Waste (Was Re-Marketing Ada) Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 14:25:27 +0100 Organization: JeLlyFish software Message-ID: References: <3FB22125.1040807@noplace.com> <3FB3751D.5090809@noplace.com> <1069092089.51926@master.nyc.kbcfp.com> <1069341262.907029@master.nyc.kbcfp.com> <2ZudnTAS4uD62yCiRVn-tw@comcast.com> Reply-To: v.hoefler@acm.org NNTP-Posting-Host: adsl-213-200-246-247.cybernet.ch (213.200.246.247) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: news.uni-berlin.de 1069421228 59744539 213.200.246.247 (16 [175126]) X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.8/32.548 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:2801 Date: 2003-11-21T14:25:27+01:00 List-Id: Robert I. Eachus wrote: >So compared to the GM foods, the "natural" foods can contain similar=20 >modifications. Yes, of course. I don't have any concerns regarding genetically modified food in general. I mean, we already eat a lot of crap every day, so why bother? ;-) > Only in the case of the GM foods, there is design intent=20 >involved, and some testing. In natural foods, the genetic splicing and=20 >random point mutations are just that, random. Yes. So the probability to generate something harmful, because someone simply forgot to think of *all* consequences, is pretty much reduced. We call that risk management, don't we? Growing plants which are resistant against most chemicals and spreading their genes wide out into nature *might* have very interesting effects on the whole world. It will probably take some years. But after that, it might be very hard to "clean it up". My trust in Mother Nature's capabilities of being able to handle that is still big enough - but it might be the case that it will take millions of years to clean up what human mankind did in just a few years and unhappy moments. It might even be the simple case that human mankind doesn't survive its own progress. Well, perhaps it already happened... Atlantis might turn out to be a true story. There are still a lot of "might"s, "possible"s and "probable"s. Can you "guarantee"? At least in the famous five-nines-range we are trying to achieve in critical software? Vinzent. --=20 np: Avril Lavigne - I'm With You