When your check has cleared, we will ship

Friday, December 27th, 2013

The amount of energy that can be aimed and released is getting greater and greater and falling into the hands of smaller and smaller groups, Frank Herbert noted, back in 1984:

The availability of this energy is also being disseminated all through this society. Something I proved conclusively in my research for White Plague. I got on the horn and I started calling suppliers of equipment I would need to engage in recombinant DNA research myself in my basement. I introduced myself only as Dr. Herbert. I didn’t elaborate. You know, what’s the difference between a Doctor of Letters and a Doctor of Medicine? Anyway, I asked, “How, does my purchasing department get your XR 21?” Their reply was, “When your check has cleared, we will ship.” Anything I wanted.

Now does that mean I want to clamp a lid on it? No way! That would only drive it underground and make a black market, which is what we do with hard drugs. We create a black market. A very profitable black market by the way, which can buy the inviolate Briefcases of diplomats, buy the police force of an entire major city or enough of it that it makes no never mind. You know what happened to the heroin the cops seized in The French Connection? It vanished from the police property room in New York City. You can’t control these things with a lid. In fact if you try, like a pressure cooker, you only create dangerous, explosive pressure.

Comments

  1. Abelard Lindsey says:

    The amount of energy that can be aimed and released is getting greater and greater and falling into the hands of smaller and smaller groups, Frank Herbert noted

    This trend applied in the context of DIY biotechnology is the reason why the development of biological immortality is a near certainty by mid century.

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