The range of quantified DIY lab tests for health is on the rise. There's already gadgets to measure steps taken, energy used, heart rate, blood pressure, sleep patterns, etc. A device called Cue lets people track their biochemical status and offers five DIY lab tests, automates the testing procedure, and sends the results to the user's (bugged) smartphone. Test offers are testosterone levels, fertility status, flu virus, vitamin D levels, and an inflammation-marker protein. More tests are expected.
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The Power of DIY Lab Tests on the Rise
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(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 15 2014, @04:52PM
Is this a good thing?
I do not think so.
It is dangerous to put these kinds of powers into the hands of the many without supervision.
I know know freedom, blah blah. I get it. I support it. But there is also survival. It is easier to destroy than to maintain or create. If tech ever provides the means for any individual to do mass destruction, how can we not have either a surveillance state or extinction?? Maybe a third alternative exists, but I do not know it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 15 2014, @05:03PM
The third alternative involves people not automatically doing whatever's easier. Yes, it would be harder to give the surveillance state a toggle switch and a panic button (watch and protect me/private at my own risk/help me now!). That doesn't mean no one would do it. Unlikely, yes. Implausible, maybe. Impossible to the point that we shouldn't develop capabilities with great promise and obvious pitfalls? That's protection I'll forego.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 15 2014, @05:12PM
> If tech ever provides the means for any individual to do mass destruction,
> how can we not have either a surveillance state or extinction??
Keyword if.
If that ever happens, then we can worry about it.
Until then it would be foolish to set up a system for turn-key totalitarianism because of a scifi fantasy.