
Who Owns Molecular Biology? - bootload
https://bostonreview.net/books-ideas/yarden-katz-who-owns-molecular-biology
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Moshe_Silnorin
I continue to think patents are hilariously bad at promoting innovation. Many
people try to justify them. But I wonder if in the counterfactual world where
we never had patents economists are advocating for this type of government-
granted monopoly.

I honestly think banishing them would make everything, including
pharmaceutical research, faster and more competitive. However, I think
synthetic biology and genetic engineering may be moving too fast, so perhaps
the patent breaks will give us some time to build institutions that can cope.
Then I again, this quote might have some truth to it:

Germ-line engineering posses ethical dilemmas of such complexity that it is
imperative we create genetically-engineered supergenius babies to tackle them.

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marcosdumay
Well, patents do not stop ill intentioned people.

About the ethical dilemmas, they'll get solved when they get more formally
stated (that is, when they get practical). It's not intelligence that we are
lacking. Unintended side effects are much more troubling.

~~~
Moshe_Silnorin
Sure, but ill-intentioned people don't make much progress. If patents slow
progress they'll stay the power of the ill-intentioned.

It's looking like weaponized biotechnology is going to be ridiculously cheap
very soon. Delaying this may be worth the opportunity cost.

