What is the least expensive way to annihilate humanity?
Suppose an evil genius (in 2015) wants to kill as much of humanity as possible. But he's on a budget; despite his years of stealing priceless historical artifacts, and despite having been selected for several excessively over-funded research grants, and despite having rigged AAPL value to shoot sky high in the 90s, he can barely scrape together $1 billion. Sure, he figures, he could always just set off a few H-bombs in some major cities, and hope for maximum carnage. Or, he could plant a dirty bomb in pretty much every decently sized city. But either way there would be a bunch of survivors, and survivors are not something this evil genius wants.
Robot minions have been planted in high levels of every major world government, so getting resources that would normally be inaccessible to ordinary citizens isn't a problem, though he'll still have to pay for them. However, these robots don't hold top-level positions (and believe me, he's certainly tried), so he can't make his doomsday project fully government funded.
Basically: What is the cheapest (preferably under $1 billion) way to kill off the most people, with only modern technology (no far futuristic stuff, though extension of modern tech trends is fine)?
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1 answer
Design a self replicating robot that consumes natural resources.
Picture a machine that can convert wood and straw into plastic and carbon nanotube conductors and piezoelectric actuators and thin film printed semiconductors and all sorts of other good stuff using just wood and straw as raw materials and power source. Drop a few in every forest in the world and wait. Unless they are all hunted down before the exponential growth gets too big that will be the end for humanity.
Long live RepRap and organically powered scout robots.
Remember when people stop looking after nuclear plants they overheat or meltdown and cause radiation leaks, weapons stockpiles also need TLC. Also remember the people in disaster shelters and nuclear submarines will be around for a couple of years even if the rest of the planet falls apart.
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