7 points

Some GATACA shit where I gotta make sure I don’t shed any DNA

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11 points
*

I find myself waking up in an even stranger world than the one I left the night before.

It’s one thing to understand that while surfing the Internet you expose yourself to being monitored, it’s quite another to take a walk around the park and have someone trying to ‘sniff out’ your movement and potentially your identity.

Are there people who don’t really understand the implications of this?

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5 points

Once everyone’s DNA is recorded (it’s being done at birth now, at least in some US states), you will eventually be able to find out a person’s identity by vacuuming their surroundings.

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22 points

This is really exciting tech. The potential for this is huge, especially when this data is compared with other population estimates, which should get it more accurate. All while being non-invasive to the species.

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5 points

I think one of the most interesting applications of this technology is linking suspects to crimes. One of the key pieces of evidence used in convictions is proving that the suspect was at the scene of the crime. If they can’t provide a solid alibi, or reason for them to have been there, then they’re basically screwed.

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5 points

Hopefully, it can also be used to prove that someone was not at the scene of a crime, enabling prosecutors to rule out suspects and innocent people to get off.

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17 points

Another is to find out who was at a protest the institutions in power deemed unacceptable :)

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6 points

This is terrifiying.

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7 points
*

It sounds like it’s literally just catching hairs and things like that, though. We already knew we leave DNA samples everywhere, so that’s not more scary than DNA analysis already was.

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1 point

I think when this tech is matured it will just another standard procedure, but from the current state of forensics it’s pretty wild to think about regardless. It’s kind of scary, but it also kind of feels like organic progression.

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7 points

Need an aquatic version for Nessie.

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2 points

That actually happened a while back - https://www.otago.ac.nz/news/news/otago717609.html

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6 points

I seem to remember the BBC lighting the whole pond up with sensors at the same time, and confirming it’s empty.

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1 point

Will look for it, thanks.

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