How long will it be (if ever) before a typical bio-science Ph.D will have the capacity to kill, say,a million people?
I certainly think there is a considerable risk, as bio-engineering becomes routine even in smaller labs. One could rely on brute force methods, like creating an array of random compositions of influence viruses for example, attempt to infect a few people, hope something sticks(selection). And then several different strains with non-overlapping surface antigens - you get no overlapping immunity - emerge from your batch, instead of one super pathogen.
A Ph.D student in neuroscience shot at least 50 people at a showing of the new Batman movie. He also appears to have released some kind of gas from a canister. Because of his educational background this person almost certainly knows a lot about molecular biology. How long will it be (if ever) before a typical bio-science Ph.D will have the capacity to kill, say,a million people?
Edit: I'm not claiming that this event should cause a fully informed person to update on anything. Rather I was hoping that readers of this blog with strong life-science backgrounds could provide information that would help me and other interested readers assess the probability of future risks. Since this blog often deals with catastrophic risks and the social harms of irrationality and given that the events I described will likely dominate the U.S. news media for a few days I thought my question worth asking. Given the post's Karma rating (currently -4), however, I will update my beliefs about what constitutes an appropriate discussion post.