The White Plague
Novel by Frank HerbertWikipedia
16
MENTIONS
6
EPISODES
6
PODCASTS
Search complete. 16 mentions across 6 episodes found for "The White Plague".
Oct 7, 2026
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
I had seen a quote from Danny in Kurzweil's book in which he said, "I'm as fond of my body as anyone, but if I can be two hundred with a body of silicon, I'll take it." It seemed that he was at peace with this process and its attendant risks, while I was not.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
While talking and thinking about Kurzweil, Kaczynski, and Moravec, I suddenly remembered a novel I had read almost twenty years ago, The White Plague by Frank Herbert, in which a molecular biologist is driven insane by the senseless murder of his family.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
To seek revenge, he constructs and disseminates a new and highly contagious plague that kills widely but selectively.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
We're lucky Kaczynski was a mathematician, not a molecular biologist.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
It seemed that he was at peace with this process and its attendant risks, while I was not.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
While talking and thinking about Kurzweil, Kaczynski, and Moravec, I suddenly remembered a novel I had read almost twenty years ago, The White Plague by Frank Herbert, in which a molecular biologist is driven insane by the senseless murder of his family.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
To seek revenge, he constructs and disseminates a new and highly contagious plague that kills widely but selectively.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
We're lucky Kaczynski was a mathematician, not a molecular biologist.
7 MINS LATER
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
I was lucky enough to get a job programming early supercomputers and discovered the amazing power of large machines to numerically simulate advanced designs.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
When I went to graduate school at UC Berkeley in the mid-1970s, I started staying up late, often all night, inventing new worlds inside the machines, solving problems, writing the code that argued so strongly to be written.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
In The Agony and the Ecstasy, Irving Stone's biographical novel of Michelangelo, Stone described vividly how Michelangelo released the statues from the stone, breaking the marble spell, carving from the images in his mind.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
In my most ecstatic moments, the software in the computer emerged in the same way.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
I had seen a quote from Danny in Kurzweil's book in which he said, "I'm as fond of my body as anyone, but if I can be two hundred with a body of silicon, I'll take it." It seemed that he was at peace with this process and its attendant risks, while I was not.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
While talking and thinking about Kurzweil, Kaczynski, and Moravec, I suddenly remembered a novel I had read almost twenty years ago, The White Plague by Frank Herbert, in which a molecular biologist is driven insane by the senseless murder of his family.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
To seek revenge, he constructs and disseminates a new and highly contagious plague that kills widely but selectively.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
We're lucky Kaczynski was a mathematician, not a molecular biologist.
7 MINS LATER
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
I was lucky enough to get a job programming early supercomputers and discovered the amazing power of large machines to numerically simulate advanced designs.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
When I went to graduate school at UC Berkeley in the mid-1970s, I started staying up late, often all night, inventing new worlds inside the machines, solving problems, writing the code that argued so strongly to be written.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
In The Agony and the Ecstasy, Irving Stone's biographical novel of Michelangelo, Stone described vividly how Michelangelo released the statues from the stone, breaking the marble spell, carving from the images in his mind.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
In my most ecstatic moments, the software in the computer emerged in the same way.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
I had seen a quote from Danny in Kurzweil's book in which he said, "I'm as fond of my body as anyone, but if I can be two hundred with a body of silicon, I'll take it." It seemed that he was at peace with this process and its attendant risks, while I was not.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
While talking and thinking about Kurzweil, Kaczynski, and Moravec, I suddenly remembered a novel I had read almost twenty years ago, The White Plague by Frank Herbert, in which a molecular biologist is driven insane by the senseless murder of his family.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
To seek revenge, he constructs and disseminates a new and highly contagious plague that kills widely but selectively.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
We're lucky Kaczynski was a mathematician, not a molecular biologist.
7 MINS LATER
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
I was lucky enough to get a job programming early supercomputers and discovered the amazing power of large machines to numerically simulate advanced designs.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
When I went to graduate school at UC Berkeley in the mid-nineteen seventies, I started staying up late, often all night, inventing new worlds inside the machines, solving problems, writing the code that argued so strongly to be written.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
In The Agony and the Ecstasy, Irving Stone's biographical novel of Michelangelo, Stone described vividly how Michelangelo released the statues from the stone, breaking the marble spell, carving from the images in his mind.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
In my most ecstatic moments, the software in the computer emerged in the same way.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
I had seen a quote from Danny in Kurzweil's book in which he said, "I'm as fond of my body as anyone, but if I can be two hundred with a body of silicon, I'll take it." It seemed that he was at peace with this process and its attendant risks, while I was not.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
While talking and thinking about Kurzweil, Kaczynski, and Moravec, I suddenly remembered a novel I had read almost twenty years ago, The White Plague by Frank Herbert, in which a molecular biologist is driven insane by the senseless murder of his family.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
To seek revenge, he constructs and disseminates a new and highly contagious plague that kills widely but selectively.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
We're lucky Kaczynski was a mathematician, not a molecular biologist.
7 MINS LATER
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
I was lucky enough to get a job programming early supercomputers and discovered the amazing power of large machines to numerically simulate advanced designs.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
When I went to graduate school at UC Berkeley in the mid-1970s, I started staying up late, often all night, inventing new worlds inside the machines, solving problems, writing the code that argued so strongly to be written.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
In The Agony and the Ecstasy, Irving Stone's biographical novel of Michelangelo, Stone described vividly how Michelangelo released the statues from the stone, breaking the marble spell, carving from the images in his mind.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
In my most ecstatic moments, the software in the computer emerged in the same way.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
It seemed that he was at peace with this process and its attendant risks, while I was not.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
While talking and thinking about Kurzweil, Kaczynski, and Moravec, I suddenly remembered a novel I had read almost twenty years ago, The White Plague by Frank Herbert, in which a molecular biologist is driven insane by the senseless murder of his family.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
To seek revenge, he constructs and disseminates a new and highly contagious plague that kills widely but selectively.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
We're lucky Kaczynski was a mathematician, not a molecular biologist.
7 MINS LATER
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
I was lucky enough to get a job programming early supercomputers and discovered the amazing power of large machines to numerically simulate advanced designs.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
When I went to graduate school at UC Berkeley in the mid-1970s, I started staying up late, often all night, inventing new worlds inside the machines, solving problems, writing the code that argued so strongly to be written.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
In The Agony and the Ecstasy, Irving Stone's biographical novel of Michelangelo, Stone described vividly how Michelangelo released the statues from the stone, breaking the marble's spell, carving from the images in his mind.
Brendan NorthNARRATOR
In my most ecstatic moments, the software in the computer emerged in the same way.