A Firebreak for Mirror Life
CommentaryPosted on rand.org Jan 20, 2026Published in: Issues in Science and Technology, Volume XLII, No. 1 (Fall 2025)
CommentaryPosted on rand.org Jan 20, 2026Published in: Issues in Science and Technology, Volume XLII, No. 1 (Fall 2025)
In “Building Decision Points Into Research’s Slipperiest Slopes” (Issues, Summer 2025), John H. Evans, Craig Callender, Neal K. Devaraj, Farren J. Isaacs, and Gregory E. Kaebnick make a valuable contribution to the mirror life debate by looking more closely at, if not “red lines,” then possible “stop and think” lines. However, the article does not sufficiently recognize the potential for actors who would deliberately seek to inflict catastrophic harm by developing mirror organisms and releasing them into the wild.
This publication is part of the RAND external publication series. Many RAND studies are published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals, as chapters in commercial books, or as documents published by other organizations.
RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.