17. The representation that books and
articles about global risks can change a situation considerably
Books
and articles about global risk are not enough, and may create a false sense of
security that knowledge is being spread. What is needed is real money and
manpower being put towards creating systems and protocols to prevent global
risks, systems that have barely been conceived of today. For instance, we
should be acutely aware that there is no plan and no proposals to regulate the
synthesis of dangerous genetic sequences, such as the Spanish flu virus. What
are we going to do about it? A book about global risk alone is not sufficient
to prevent these gene sequences from popping out of synthesizers and into real viruses which find their way into airports.