I've always thought if the US and China ever entered an armed conflict the first indication of this would be our computers and cell phones would all spontaneously brick themselves.

Anyone seen the opening episodes of Battle Star Gallactica?

There are people out there who know, without having to work another day in their life, that they will always have more money than they'll ever be able to spend and so will their children and their grand children and... etc etc etc. Should I have said relatively care free?

Most people don't even understand they are slaves... To quote Goethe "None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."

1. Curiosity.

Heh.... funny, heard of the expression "Curiosity killed the cat?".

2. Chance to develop a better understanding of infectious diseases.

I don't understand how this sort of research helps our understanding of infectious diseases, I've read nothing to indicate it does.

3. Ability to study highly-virulent strains creates an opportunity to develop new control measures.

Great! Create solutions for problems you've invented, the best kind of marketing there is.

I think your point of view isn't shared by a large portion of the scientific community who as stated in the article have major concerns about this type of research.

You are kidding yourself if you think the 1% need more than half of the remaining 99% to keep living a blissful care free life. Technology is rapidly advancing beyond the need for serfs. I laugh at the fools who call themselves right wing/republican, most of them are in no way served by the interests of the right.

Create a list of all the valid reasons for engineering a virus designed to kill billions of people, how many of the top 10 get rated as paranoid?

Or does anyone out there think the likelihood of a extremely contagious flu virus going into the wild would escalate somewhat if the occupy protests escalated into a popular uprising that could overthrow the capitalistic system?

You want to occupy hey? This will keep you occupied !

Anyone have the feeling that if the US and China ever went to war, half the computer systems in the US and other allied nations would act in a similar to the colonial computer systems in the initial cylon attack in battlestar gallactica?

The cost of this system would be in the thousands.

How much do you need to pay that nurse annually?
How many jobs would these systems eliminate?

Even if it fucks up once a year, do you think a hospital is going to ignore a system that allows them to eliminate the need for that highly payed nurse in the OR?

Technology always has and always will be used to reduce costs by eliminating the need for human resources. When technology like this is introduced, nearly always the complaint is the technology isn't as good or reliable as the human being it replaced, but the bottom line always wins.