There a terrorist attempt only recently:
"Nation on edge after Christmas terrorism attempt"
Read some Schneier. A more accurate headline should be: "Nation on edge after an idiot demonstrates his idiocy". Nearly all terrorism has been performed by people who have serious mental deficiencies - even the 9/11 attacks depended on a lot of luck to succeed. Shit happens, but random opportunities usually aid the competent more than the incompetent. And nearly all criminals and terrorists are of lower intelligence, the few that are reasonably intelligent are seriously lacking in impulse control, which screws up their ability to make and carry through plans. Besides Bruce Schneier's work, see "The Bell Curve", and most newer literature on intelligence.
In this video, Julian Savulescu from the Uehiro centre for Practical Ethics argues that human beings are "Unfit for the future" - that radical technological advance, liberal democracy and human nature will combine to make the 21st century the century of global catastropes, perpetrated by terrorists and psychopaths, with tools such as engineered viruses. He goes on to argue that enhanced intelligence and a reduced urge to violence and defection in large commons problems could be achieved using science, and may be a way out for humanity.
Skip to 1:30 to avoid the tedious introduction
Genetically enhance humanity or face extinction - PART 1 from Ethics of the New Biosciences on Vimeo.
Genetically enhance humanity or face extinction - PART 2 from Ethics of the New Biosciences on Vimeo.
Well, I have already said something rather like this. Perhaps this really is a good idea, more important, even, than coding a friendly AI? AI timelines where super-smart AI doesn't get invented until 2060+ would leave enough room for human intelligence enhancement to happen and have an effect. When I collected some SIAI volunteers' opinions on this, most thought that there was a very significant chance that super-smart AI will arrive sooner than that, though.
A large portion of the video consists of pointing out the very strong scientific case that our behavior is a result of the way our brains are structured, and that this means that changes in our behavior are the result of changes in the way our brains are wired.