What is America's secret weapon?

[The Gardener]

Actually, THIS is our secret weapon:

 

[The Gardener]

Darn it... that's not our secret weapon. THIS is:

 

[The Gardener]

Whoops, sorry... neither of those were the secret weapon. HERE it is:

 

[Hammy070]

Nanotechnology is awesome! Yes the pitfalls of such advancements sometimes being used for less than innocent purposes exist, but it always has done and continue to do so. Nuclear technology can kill hundreds of thousands or millions of people, but also provide cleaner energy for the same number of people. Rocket technology can advance space science or deploy horrible weapons, etc etc.

The purposes of new technology reflect not the science but humanity itself.

I follow advancements in nanotech almost daily, the possibilities are endlessly awesome as well as endlessly scary. It's up to us as a species to choose what path to follow.

Do some creative googling and you can learn about the details. It's some sick sh*t, really inhumane and disgusting... but empires in decline historically tend to do inhumane things. The sick dog is the most dangerous to poke at, and this dog is not only sick, but he's also a violent pit bull. Expect the worst.

The technology in it's current state is inadequate. Perfecting the tech so that for example - only certain individuals(s) are affected and everyone else unharmed will (as others have mentioned) almost totally prevent civilian casualties. Your scenario of a generalised genetic weapon attacking an 'ethnicity' I agree is sick and inhumane. It would be little different than blindly bombing an area indiscriminately. So if the technology manifests in that manner and is operational, I'd be disgusted with it. But once/if perfected and thus targets only pre-retrieved genetically identified individuals then it will have progressed beyond current warfare enormously. The next step then will inevitably be a cessation of warfare, humanitys' moral standards today necessitate this technology - and humanitys' morality of the future will be focussed on not having to use any violence at all.

Its' interesting to imagine though how the 'conflict culture' among states and militias will change as a result of nanotechnology.

To map a persons entire genome is becoming exponentially cheaper. It used to to take years and cost billions.

It currently costs roughly $60,000 to sequence a human genome, and a handful of research groups are hoping to achieve a $1,000 genome within the next three years. But two companies, Complete Genomics and BioNanomatrix, are collaborating to create a novel approach that would sequence your genome for less than the price of a nice pair of jeans--and the technology could read the complete genome in a single workday. "It would have been absolutely impossible to think about this project 10 years ago," says Radoje Drmanac, chief scientific officer at Complete Genomics, which is based in Mountain View, CA.

The most recent figures for sequencing a human genome are $60,000 in about six weeks, as reported by Applied Biosystems last month. (That's down from $3 billion for the Human Genome Project, which was sequenced using traditional methods and finished in 2003, and about $1 million for James Watson's genome, sequenced using a newer, high-throughput approach and released last year.)

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/20640/

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Illumina Inc., the maker of high- speed gene analysis equipment, said it sequenced the first complete genome of an African man, completing the task at record time and cost.

The sequence was completed in less than four weeks at a cost of about $100,000, said Jay Flatley, Illumina's chief executive officer, at a conference yesterday in Florida. Roche Holding AG's 454 Life Sciences unit said last year it had sequenced a complete genome in two months for about $1 million.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... refer=home

The cost of sequencing human genomes is dropping steadily, from several hundred million dollars a decade ago to $100,000 or so today, thanks to a bevy of entrepreneurial companies that have attacked the problem of making the process faster and cheaper with gusto.

Now another startup is preparing to establish a new benchmark in the fast, cheap and out-of-control gene-sequencing race. Intelligent Bio-Systems, a Waltham, Mass., sequencer, says that by late next year, its new technology should make it possible to sequence a full genome in 24 hours at a cost of just $5,000, according to this VentureWire story (subscription required). Not only is that a jaw-dropping reduction compared to today’s costs, it potentially brings the Holy Grail of the $1,000 genome far closer than than even many optimistic forecasts.

http://venturebeat.com/2007/11/28/intel ... next-year/

A person wanting to know his or her complete genetic blueprint can already have it done — for $350,000.

But whether a personal genome readout becomes affordable to the rest of us could depend on efforts like the one taking place secretly in a nondescript Silicon Valley industrial park. There, Pacific Biosciences has been developing a DNA sequencing machine that within a few years might be able to unravel an individual’s entire genome in minutes, for less than $1,000. The company plans to make its first public presentation about the technology on Saturday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/09/busin ... oref=login

In a matter of years, a full genetic map can be completed in a day at minimal cost. With gene-specific weapons entering the scene, and the technology possibly crossing national boundaries and easily attainable by militias - just imagine the security climate, where not only one's body is protected like today, but that key individuals (Presidents, militia leaders, celebrities etc) may even have to ensure no trace of them remains behind. A single hair, a used glass, a cigarette butt could potentially be used to map the persons entire genome cheaply - which can then be used as a target. Imagine a water supply is tampered with so that it could kill only one person who drinks, or a meal, a bomb - the possibilities are vast (or maybe I'm just twisted).

Hmmm....genetic control - frightening but I feel will be a reality sooner than later. On the positive side of things, healthcare will vastly improve. No more general medicine - each patient will have their treatment customized according to their genetic information. Some drugs may work better in one person but not the other, some genetic data can reveal likelyhoods of possible diseases etc. Even hair loss, some people may be genetically resistant to propecia, but curiously very receptive to dutasteride. No more waiting a year to see what happens when you already know.

 

[iwantperfection]

What is America's secret weapon?

...the British.

 

[HughJass]

a little bit more on this-

Spy Chips Guiding CIA Drone Strikes, Locals Say

It sounds like a tinfoil hat nightmare, come to life: tiny electronic homing beacons, guiding CIA killer drones to their targets. But local residents and Taliban militants in Pakistan’s tribal wildlands say that’s exactly what’s happening. Tribesman in Waziristan are being paid to “plant the electronic devices†near militant safehouses, they tell the Guardian. “Hours or days later, a drone, guided by the signal from the chip, destroys the building with a salvo of missiles.â€

Ever since 9/11, locals in Central Asia and the Middle East have spread tall tales about American super-technology: soldiers with x-ray glasses, satellites that can see into homes, tanks with magnetic, grenade-repelling armor. But small radio frequency or GPS emitters have been commercially available for years. A veteran spy tells Danger Room that the use of these Taliban-tracking devices entirely plausible.

“Transmitters make a lot of sense to me. It is simply not possible to train a Pashtun from Waziristan to go to a targeted site, case it, and come back to Peshawar or Islamabad with anything like an accurate report. The best you can hope for is they’re putting the transmitter on the right house,†says former CIA case officer Robert Baer.

Herndon, Virginia-based defense contractor EWA Government Systems, Inc. is one of several firms that boasts of making tiny devices to help manhunters locate their prey. The company’s “Bigfoot Remote Tagging System†is a “very small, battery-operated device used to emit an RF [radio frequency] transmission [so] that the target can be located and/or tracked.â€

The tag has sophisticated power management features to allow use over a long period of time (months)… Each tag can be installed on a witting or unwitting person, material, vehicle, ship, etc. Power is supplied by installed battery or host power source. The tag can be augmented with GPS to allow data logging for later exfiltration or geo-fencing functions (on/off when inside defined geographic boundaries). Bigfoot provides the warfighter with real-time tracking intelligence on potential adversaries conducting threat activities.

Word of these tiny transmitters has been circulating in militant circles for months. In early April, the Pakistani Taliban leader Mullah Nazir said he had caught “spies†who were inserting into militants’ phones “location-tracking SIMs†— Subscriber Identity Module cards, used to identify mobile devices on a cellular network.

Ten days later, 19 year-old Habibur Rehman made a videotaped “confession†of planting such devices, just before he was executed by the Taliban as an American spy. “I was given $122 to drop chips wrapped in cigarette paper at Al Qaeda and Taliban houses,†he said. If I was successful, I was told, I would be given thousands of dollars.â€

But Rehman says he didn’t just tag jihadists with the devices. “The money was good so I started throwing the chips all over. I knew people were dying because of what I was doing, but I needed the money,†he added. Which raises the possibility that the unmanned aircraft — America’s key weapons in its covert war on Pakistan’s jihadists and insurgents — may have been lead to the wrong targets.

One much-disputed Pakistani media report claimed that the drones have killed hundreds of civilians, just to take out a few militants. That’s unlikely. But what’s indisputable is that the robotic planes (and the innocent deaths they’re alleged to cause) have become increasingly controversial, both in Pakistan and in America.

“Anti-U.S. sentiment has already been increasing in Pakistan… especially in regard to cross-border and reported drone strikes, which Pakistanis perceive to cause unacceptable civilian casualties,†Gen. David Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, wrote in a secret assessment, obtained by the Washington Post. “Thirty-five percent say they do not support U.S. strikes into Pakistan, even if they are coordinated with the GOP [government of Pakistan] and the Pakistan Military ahead of time.â€

But Pakistani and American intelligence officials swear the drones are getting more accurate. “There are better targets and better intelligence on the ground,†on Pakistani official tells the Post. “It’s less of a crapshoot.â€

– Noah Shachtman and Adam Rawnsley

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/06 ... ocals-say/

 

[Ian Curtis]

Mcdonald's is america's secret weapon.