Well said. My fear is that this sort of virus engineering could create deadly viruses that could get out of control. Basically because we don't know enough about viruses to be able to engineer a on-demand vaccine to any possible kind of virus. In my computer scientist kind of mind, I believe that we should only play with this kind of stuff if we can undo any kind of problem that can arise from playing with it. I know that science doesn't work like that, and neither I am saying this kind of research should be stopped. However, I confess sometimes I fear the biological disaster I see in movies.

Am I wrong to be a bit scared about this kind of research?

Done already: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otFQcmE3G5s

I find the comparison a bit exaggerated, but I agree with the conclusions. We need legislation to cover the relation between social agents and information keepers. For example, any company should allow for any customer to migrate all her data to another service, without the information loosing its original structure. The custumers should be also safeguarded against information companies going bust with their data. Etc.

These? http://www.freakingnews.com/Iranian-Missiles-Pictures---2029.asp

For free?! I give back to Pandora a lot of "packet received" packets.

How exactly blocking Gmail et al. would make China become backward?

I mean, it is a fair question.

Some dictators might have said the same thing...

True, but we also form opinion about phones. Which phone will you recommend to others?

Or having a tablet you could use with a proper video screen, keyboard and mouse. Actually, I believe that is the whole point of Windows 8: two different GUI environments intended for two working environments.

Greetings to the parallel world, stranger! Almost all technological, economic and social indexes have improved since the 90s in Brazil. The country improving dramatically, despite the left versus right babbling.

... and Valve had already embraced other HL mods before.

Which brings up a interesting question: can a cyberwar escalate to a real war? If so, what would provoke that transition?

There is a better article from NASA:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/milky-way-collide.html