the things you mentioned would be harmless, not harmful. at worst they would waste some resources. they certainly wouldn't requisition resources by force (unless you want to talk about ideology as a "technology" :)
Er, prions, viruses, bacteria, runaway breakout of monoculture -- these things use up resources, and have the potential to cause great harm. It's just that few of them are likely to rise to the level of existential threat, while in the field of recursively self-improving AI, the likelihood is strongly the other way.
Comments
the things you mentioned would be harmless, not harmful. at worst they would waste some resources. they certainly wouldn't requisition resources by force (unless you want to talk about ideology as a "technology" :)
Er, prions, viruses, bacteria, runaway breakout of monoculture -- these things use up resources, and have the potential to cause great harm. It's just that few of them are likely to rise to the level of existential threat, while in the field of recursively self-improving AI, the likelihood is strongly the other way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_worm
http://online.sfsu.edu/~rone/GEessays/killervirus.html