Kevin Esvelt on cults that want to kill everyone, stealth vs wildfire pandemics, and how he felt inventing gene drives
80,000 Hours, October 2, 3023
Abstract
In today’s episode, host Luisa Rodriguez interviews Kevin Esvelt — a biologist at the MIT Media Lab and the inventor of CRISPR-based gene drive — about the threat posed by engineered bioweapons.
They cover:
- Why it makes sense to focus on deliberately released pandemics
- Case studies of people who actually wanted to kill billions of humans
- How many people have the technical ability to produce dangerous viruses
- The different threats of stealth and wildfire pandemics that could crash civilisation
- The potential for AI models to increase access to dangerous pathogens
- Why scientists try to identify new pandemic-capable pathogens, and the case against that research
- Technological solutions, including UV lights and advanced PPE
- Using CRISPR-based gene drive to fight diseases and reduce animal suffering
- And plenty more.