It's also a step towards there being a greater risk of it being done deliberately. For example, it means that if we completely sequence the genes of smallpox, then destroying all the (very few) remaining samples of smallpox in the world doesn't ensure that smallpox never exists again - someone might be able to recreate it.
(Smallpox is actually a bad example, because it's a virus, and viruses arguably aren't alive without a host cell, and synthesising them is an earlier step - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/2122619.stm )
But smallpox didn't kill us all before, and we know how to vaccinate against it, so that will be nasty, but not the end of the human race or anything.
But it might also lead to someone saying "aha, I can see how to tweak this into something much much nastier". Which in turn might lead to deciding to try it in a lab with insufficient precautions against it getting out, or deciding to be the instrument of wreaking God's wrath upon Earth.
Or "my new oil-producing plant will solve our energy problems - the sting isn't really a problem even though they move about, you would have to be blind not to be able to avoid them...."
no subject
(Smallpox is actually a bad example, because it's a virus, and viruses arguably aren't alive without a host cell, and synthesising them is an earlier step - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/2122619.stm )
But smallpox didn't kill us all before, and we know how to vaccinate against it, so that will be nasty, but not the end of the human race or anything.
But it might also lead to someone saying "aha, I can see how to tweak this into something much much nastier". Which in turn might lead to deciding to try it in a lab with insufficient precautions against it getting out, or deciding to be the instrument of wreaking God's wrath upon Earth.
Or "my new oil-producing plant will solve our energy problems - the sting isn't really a problem even though they move about, you would have to be blind not to be able to avoid them...."