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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FREEMAIL_FROM, LOTS_OF_MONEY autolearn=ham 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 08:05:19 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!small1.nntp.aus1.giganews.com!border1.nntp.aus1.giganews.com!intern1.nntp.aus1.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!nntp.comcast.com!news.comcast.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 10:03:48 -0600 Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 11:03:46 -0500 From: "Robert I. Eachus" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: OT: Nuclear Waste (Was Re-Marketing Ada) 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> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.34.214.193 X-Trace: sv3-YSiO8VYfU2txuuC8lKOtudKLG7+4UBTWmuJSUQ09wn8ASxVaohujO2szOjWula4MfIK+I1ZP2VQwEZB!bD3zY8mNoK0Avqe0djhdFpf9HBZN/Uf/KNCpHc7iMOAcFBmWhW16c2iO4ha1Kg== X-Complaints-To: abuse@comcast.net X-DMCA-Complaints-To: dmca@comcast.net X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.1 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:2817 Date: 2003-11-21T11:03:46-05:00 List-Id: Vinzent 'Gadget' Hoefler wrote: > 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? You still don't get it do you. The probability that a genetically modified food has not already occured naturally somewhere is small. The probability that a GM food that has an evolutionary advantage will not eventually be producted by random, natural mutations is zero. Every day nature does millions of genetic experiments and immediately releases the resulting species into the wild. Trying to hold GM foods to a higher standard than natural products is a bad joke. In fact, let me put all this on a sound economic footing. What is the probability that a GM foodstuff will do one millionth the damage that a new influenza variant will? Near zero. How often do natural processes create new 'flu variants? About once a year. So for every million dollars we spend on finding and controlling new 'flu variants, how much should we spend on preventing GM food adverse effects? Or look at how much SARS cost the world economy this year, and it killed significantly more people than 9/11. The only prediction I can be confident about is that in the future there will be another new disease like SARS that will be worse. How much effort should be spent on containing the next SARS than on the possibility that some GM food plant will cause upset stomachs? The real answer is that the developer of the GM food that hypothetically causes upset stomachs is going to consign it to the circular file before it ever becomes a problem. No regulation required. -- Robert I. Eachus 100% Ada, no bugs--the only way to create software.