Re:Bandwidth limitations

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Perry writes:
>The human genome fits nicely in 1 GB. Mere Gigabit networks could allow you
>to send your whole genome in seconds -- and fiber can do many orders of 
>magnitude better than that.

The human genome has approximately 3 x 10^9 base pairs. Each base is 
represented as the following binary code: G=1000, A=0100, T=0010, C=0001. 
Thus the human genome represents about 3 gigabytes of info (uncompressed),
as Perry said easily transmitable by fiber optics.

When you all do finally get your genome sequenced, the last thing you should 
do is let anyone see it (perhaps only small segments of it). I can think of 
no better use for cryptography than to keep citizens genomes to themselves. 
Would you give anybody a crystal ball which tells of your past, present and 
future? 

Some of us write genetic code and, IMHO, one's own genetics are a source code 
which should not be freely distributed.

Scott G. Morham            !The First,
VACCINIA@uncvx1.oit.unc.edu!          Second  
PGP Public Keys by Request !                and Third Levels 
                           !      of Information Storage and Retrieval
                           !DNA,
                           !    Biological Neural Nets,
                           !                           Cyberspace


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VACCINIA@UNCVX1.OIT.UNC.EDU wrote:

> The human genome has approximately 3 x 10^9 base pairs. Each base is 
> represented as the following binary code: G=1000, A=0100, T=0010, C=0001. 
> Thus the human genome represents about 3 gigabytes of info (uncompressed),
> as Perry said easily transmitable by fiber optics.

Um, minor correction: There are four base pair combinations, and each
can be represented by two bits.

> When you all do finally get your genome sequenced, the last thing
> you should do is let anyone see it (perhaps only small segments of it).
> I can think of no better use for cryptography than to keep citizens
> genomes to themselves.  Would you give anybody a crystal ball
> which tells of your past, present and future? 

Frankly, if I had the kind of technology to easily sequence my entire
geneome, I doubt I'd be content to just look at it.  I'd probably be
saying, "Hmm.. I don't like that gene, it might give me heart desease,
I'll just use a modified retrovirus to substitute a better one..." :)
Maybe one day genetic identification tests won't be so accurate as they
are today.