We examine how several prominent and (generally) salutary human pursuits may be aided or altered using a wide variety of biotechnologies that lend themselves to purposes “beyond therapy.” In each case, we discuss the character of the end, consider the novel means, and explore some possible implications, ethical and social.

In surveying the pertinent technologies, we take a somewhat long-range view, looking at humanly significant technical possibilities that may soon -- or not so soon -- be available for general use, yet at the same time trying to separate fact from science fiction.

Biotechnology beyond therapy deserves to be examined not in fragments, but as a whole. Yet, the "whole" that offers us the most revealing insights into this subject is not itself technological. For the age of biotechnology is not so much about technology itself as it is about human beings empowered by biotechnology

Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness

] Beginning next summer, a tiny bio-chip developed at UC
] Berkeley will help researchers in Nicaragua understand
] and screen for a tropical disease that incapacitates as
] many as 100 million people each year.

Lab Notes: Research from the Berkeley College of Engineering

] Two Americans have won the 2003 Nobel Prize in chemistry
] "for discoveries concerning channels in cell membranes,"
] the Nobel Foundation announced Wednesday from its
] headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden.

CNN.com - Cell research wins Nobel Prize - Oct. 8, 2003

Fukuyama argues that the United States, like Japan and Germany, has been a high-trust society historically but that this status has eroded in recent years. This well-researched book provides a fresh, new perspective on how economic prosperity is grounded in social life.

Trust: Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order

UM, yeah, this is an autonomous robot that goes around cracking wifi passwords. Once it cracks a password it triangulates the person who is transmitting it, drives up to you, and shows you your password on a big LCD screen. Promptly you begin to kick it. Thats why these guys need to talk to the people at battlebots.

ToorCon Pics: Hackerbot

] EFF last week called on IEEE members and other citizens
] to voice their concerns about the standard. Nearly five
] hundred people wrote to IEEE leadership pointing out
] flaws in the draft standard. On September 22, the first
] working group ballot on the draft failed overwhelmingly,
] causing the simultaneous ballot at the sponsor level to
] fail as well.

EFF: Flawed E-Voting Standard Sent Back to Drawing Board

] Not only was BlackBoxVoting.org pulled down, but ALL of
] the documents, databases and programming for approximately
] 500 pages of material, most of which did not relate to Diebold at
] all, was confiscated. Dozens of web pages were pulled down which
] had nothing whatever to do with the disputed information. AIT Inc.
] has indicated that it believes it has the right to pull down the entire
] web site including unrelated pages. AIT Inc. is now prohibiting Bev
] Harris or Black Box Voting from accessing any of her own files, even
] for the purpose of removing them.

If these allegations are correct, there could be another interesting DMCA court case in here...

[IP] yet another misuse of dmca? Black Box Voting files confiscated

] Patriot Act II would give the government broad powers to
] seize documents and force testimony without a court
] order, expand use of the death penalty and make it harder
] to be released on bail. None of these tools are necessary
] to fight terrorism, and each threatens to infringe on the
] civil liberties of Americans.
]
] The most troubling part of the new plan is the call for
] expanding government access to private data, allowing
] federal agents to issue subpoenas for private medical,
] financial and other records, without a court order. The
] lack of judicial oversight removes an important check on
] government misconduct. Record holders would be required
] to comply, or face prison, and would be barred from
] telling anyone about the subpoena.

Patriot Act, Part II - Fucking Insane

] To gather new strains, Sulakvelidze need only drop a
] bucket into Baltimore's Inner Harbor. The waters of the
] Chesapeake Bay, of which the harbor is an inlet, have
] enough exchange with the Atlantic that he can find a
] phage for almost any species of bacteria, he says. If one
] doesn't work, he simply refills his bucket and looks for
] another that does.
]
] "This upgradability is one of the unique qualities of
] phages," Sulakvelidze adds. "Developing a new antibiotic
] takes 10 years and God knows how many millions of
] dollars."
]
] As he puts it, "Mother Nature runs the best genetic
] engineering lab out there. No institution or company can
] match it."

Wired 11.10: How Ravenous Soviet Viruses Will Save the World

... In a nation that flaunts its capacities to produce and consume, much of the culture's heat now lies with the ability to cut, paste, clip, sample, quote, recycle, customize and recirculate.

[Sad...whatever happened to coming up with original ideas? - Nano]

Beyond File-Sharing, a Nation of Copiers