pathogen than to create smallpox from the genome.
"the genome" wouldn't help really be of much use, in order creating pox from a genome you need to transplant the genome into a similar bacteria, which is no small feat, it would be much easier just to get your hands on the pathogen somehow, and you don't need to know anything about bio-science to do that, just have a source. In this matter advancing technology is will not likely result increase risk.
I know, it's hard to restore smallpox without a sample, harder still to create a new and unrecognizable disease, harder still to make one without using identifiable dangerous already-studied genes.
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.