A Simple guide to the future: Bioviolence

Today, there is increasing uncertainty and unrest in the future as we seek to adjust to the new order with economic and social interconnections all over the world. There will be changes in education, automobiles, aquaculture, communications, and medicine. New technologies will open up new jobs and scarce resources will drive new ways to do many things. People will live longer and the way we honor the dead will change. The one thing that we are guaranteed is that change will always be a part of our future. These changes will affect which jobs we pursue and how we manage our lives.

News today is filled with stories about North Korea and Iran developing nuclear technology but you rarely hear about biological weapons. No country admits to biological weapons but there is evidence that several countries have ongoing programs to further bioviolence. So what is bioviolence? Bioviolence is the hostile infliction of disease. A threat that is growing each and every day due to genetic engineering.

One facet of bioviolence is biological terrorism. A terrorism that is much easier to accomplish than developing nuclear technology and just as deadly. The Center for Strategic and International Studies ran a simulation to predict the deaths that would be associated with a single carrier of a contagious disease like smallpox. With international travel and globalization, diseases travel much faster than they ever did in the past. In the simulation, one person infected up to 20 people and they spread the disease to 3 million people with 1 million dying. How long before someone decides this is a much better weapon than a nuclear bomb?

You might has seen the movie I am legend with Will Smith where a virus designed to fight cancer virtually wiped out all humans. Well, today, there are many scientists that are working on genetically engineering cures to many diseases. Do you trust them to not make a mistake? All we have to do is look to the British Petroleum (BP) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to see what kind of collateral damage can be caused by a mistake.

What is going to happen when it isn't a mistake? How many news stories do we hear about genocide, the killing of a single race. Bosnia, Darfur, Sudan, Rwanda, and now Kyrgyzstan have experienced this type of massive racial killings with conventional weapons. What happens when someone gets their hands the ability to genetically engineer a disease to just kill one race? It will be worse than Hitler ever conceived of during World War II.

Globalization now passes on genetic engineering technology to help fight diseases but this technology isn't limited to doing good. Recently, the Chinese announced their currency the Yuan
wouldn't be held artifically low anymore and the is supposed to equalize the trade deficit further strengthening globalization and the sharing of technology. So what can you do to prepare your self for this type of future? Well, there isn't a need to go out and buy a bio hazard suit just yet.

1. Only use antibiotics if you really need them. Don't let the doctor give you antibiotics if you don't really need them. Doctor's often prescribe them to placate their patients. The more we use the few antibiotics we have, the less effective they are against disease.

Limit the amount of unknown mail sent to your house. contact junk mail center
pay your bills online and throw away those pieces of junk mail

Get the Vitamin D that you need and keep up that exercise.
The better health you are in, the less susceptible you are to an outbreak.

Even doctors and nurses don't clean their hands often enough. Use a wipe to clean your hands and disinfect them when you are out in public.

If you can, live away from the big population centers where disease spreads more rapidly due to the high density of people.

Take the stairs instead of the elevator, do not fly unless you have to fly, and minimize crowds by going out in public at off times.

These suggestions may not completely keep you from being a part of bioviolence but they help limit your exposure, help with most diseases, and give you peace of mind.