Laurie sez, "This is a reproduction of a very funny slide/talk by biologist/SF author Peter Watts (actually delivered at a Toronto SF convention this spring) with audio track and PowerPoint type slides. It brilliantly satirizes talks at Big Pharma conferences as it describes (from a Big Pharma standpoint) the evolutionary explanation for the existence of vampire, and the argument for genetic tweaking to create more vampires, backed up with real biology. Runs approximately 30 mins. Take special note of the various "company" slogans in the bottom corners of the slides."
Peter is a real wild talent: his novel Behemoth (Book 1, Book 2) contains a plausible explanation for the co-evolution of a computer virus and a human virus. I described the mechanics of this to an epidemiologist at the World Health Summit in Geneva last week and, as always, got a satifyingly mind-blown reaction. This presentation evinces just the same kind of reaction.
(Thanks, Laurie!)
