Hacker News Reader

Comment by knallfrosch | Hacker News Reader

If that's your only concern, you need to read up on something called "Nazis." Imagine what they would do with a database of genetic information.

View on HN

Look at what they did without it. Godwin's Law aside, the point is, if a sufficiently powerful group is set on doing something, they'll do it. Such a group won't let "facts" or "accuracy" get in the way. Look at McCarthyism.

People bent on doing evil things are going to do evil things, but perhaps it's a good idea to not build systems that will let their evil be faster and more efficient.

I have yet to see how this allows them to move faster and be more efficient. People have this fear of some orwellian government killing or imprisoning with little regard for ethics or due process except they will stop all of that for careful analysis of DNA. Seems bizarre to me. Either you are getting screwed or you aren’t but this stuff makes no screwing possible that wasn’t already.

"careful analysis of DNA"

No need for careful analysis, just force the company to give you a list of registered users matching some criteria. Your kill list is just a SQL query away.

"makes no screwing possible that wasn’t already"

Sure, but it makes it easier and faster to select targets for your screwing.

Historically the people doing the screwing weren’t so concerned about precision. Imprecision lets you throw in political enemies who don’t fit the demographic you are directly targeting so its quite useful

Imagine what a racist government would do if they were able to tell who's black!

Sure, now they can start hating on people who have the gene that makes Cilantro taste like soap, but a lot of genetic things are already visible so I don't see this as being fundamentally different.

They'd populate the database by making participation compulsory.

That Nazis could use something for truly evil purposes is hardly limited to this but, I think, the concern is. You can imagine nazis transporting Holocaust victims and soldiers by rail, because they did, but I’ve never heard anyone argue against adding more rail infrastructure because if Nazis take over they could use the rail infrastructure to enable genocide.

Both railways and population registries were blown up by anti-nazi sabotage and resistance groups during WWII.

So place your data like your railways, where you can blow em up when circumstances necessitate it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com