I don’t particularly disagree with the piece, but it’s striking how little effort is put in to make this resemble a news piece or a typical Vox explainer. It’s just blatant editorializing (“Please do this thing I want”) and very blatantly carrying water for the–some how non-discredited–EA movement priorities.

  • -dsr-@awful.systems
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    “If there’s an order for Ebola that’s being ordered by the CDC in Atlanta, that’s great,”

    said no one sane, ever.

    How about: “We have an installation in the CDC’s BSL-4 laboratory where we print dangerous DNA on demand, and a second installation in their BSL-2 space where we print less-dangerous material. Nothing ever has to leave the building.”

    That would be something close to rational policy.

    • 200fifty@awful.systems
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Kelsey Piper is a senior writer at Future Perfect, Vox’s effective altruism-inspired section on the world’s biggest challenges.

      Sounds like it. I’m kind of surprised they’re still making the association so explicit now that effective altruism is more well-known in the mainstream and has a fairly bad public image due to the FTX thing

    • lobotomy42@awful.systemsOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      I mean, yes, but I feel like they at least put in some effort to give it a veneer of seriousness / normality. This struck me as being exceptional in its “we are right and you should go do this” tone with no effort whatsoever at quoting a dissenting voice.