Micro-Drones Combined With DNA Hacking Could Create A Very Scary Future!

Mockup of mosquito drone

• Micro-Drones Combined With DNA Hacking Could Create A Very Scary Future! 
  by Robert Johnson, http://www.businessinsider.com/defense 
  Sightings of insect-sized micro drones have been occurring for years, but  combined with the direction of genome sequencing outlined in this  Atlantic piece— the pair make for a futuristic and potentially deadly  mix.
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  Even back in 2007, when Vanessa Alarcon was a college student attending an  anti-war protest in Washington, D.C. she heard someone shout, “Oh my God, look  at those.”
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  “I look up and I’m like, ‘What the hell is that?’” she told  The Washington Post. “They looked like dragonflies or little helicopters.  But I mean, those are not insects,” she continued. A lawyer there at the time confirmed they looked like dragonflies, but that they “definitely weren’t insects”.
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  And he’s probably right. In 2006 Flight International  reported that the CIA had been developing micro UAVs as far back as the 1970s  and had a mock-up in its Langley headquarters since 2003.
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  While we can go on listing roachbots, swarming  nano drones, and synchronized  MIT robots — private trader and former software engineer Alan  Lovejoy points out that the future of nano drones could become even more  unsettling.
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  Lovejoy says ”Such a device could be controlled from a great distance and is equipped with a  camera, microphone. It could land on you and then use its needle to take a  DNA sample.”
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  Assuming all that to be possible, the  Atlantic  paints a complimentary scenario. Authors  Andrew Hessel, Marc Goodman, and Steven Kotler outline futuristic human  genome work that evolves from the very real GE  $100 million breast cancer challenge. In the group’s scenario a bunch of brilliant freelancers receive  bids to design personalized virus’ offering customized cures for the sick.
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  Say you get pancreatic cancer, instead of chemo’ — the first step  in treatment will be decoding your genome — which costs about $1,000 right now  and takes a couple of days.
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  read more!

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