Synthetic Biology: Future Tech

[Care]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKxmq...ure=plpp_video


Basically 8 year old kids are replicating the greatest scientific achievements in the last 5 years.

People are using "bioblocks", that is computer code that contains the information for specific gene sequences, and mashing them together to create different properties in bacteria... (glow in the dark etc)

Massive implications for the future.

Imagine using bioblocks to make your kid enjoy studying more, make people enjoy fighting, killing, hugging etc.

Could it mean an awesome future? or the end of the human race? maybe the next step of evolution into something altogether different....

Its kind of like fast forwarding evolution but with a choice rather than a forced selection.

what do you think?

[Kamber Parrk]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKxmq...ure=plpp_video




Its kind of like fast forwarding evolution but with a choice rather than a forced selection.

what do you think?

Indeed, perhaps the more "evolved" amongst us need to start forcibly eradicating the rest of the savage brutes. . .

Oh, wait. . .

[JFierce]

I'm as much nurture as I am nature. Even the most docile, non violent, nicest people can be corrupted. As weird as it sounds in a thread about changing genes you can't change human nature.

When we can I don't even know if I want to be around for it. Might have some utopian society where those who want to cling to their emotions and humanity dwell in the sewers while those on the surface go to fine dining at Taco Bell. Then this murderer and Cop get unfrozen from the past, but the murderer has been programmed with deadly skills that tops even modern law enforcement which is just a joke at this point.

[Care]

its gonna happen....

Weird i feel like i heard that happen before....


but yea i guess what they are saying is that human nature is actually changeable. because its genetic and by messing with the genes we can come up with different results. Combine that with cyborg or mechanical assist technology and we are going to have a crazy future.

sounds expensive though i better get saving.

[kev ferrara]

Its all much more complicated by the fact that any particular protein in the human body might do 8 different things depending on the combination it makes with other cells. So if you eradicate the code for one particular protein, you might be eradicating 5 other things that are necessary for life that that protein gets involved in.

The human genetic code is an absolute mess. Even worse than IE 6.

[Velocity Kendall]

Agreed. Debugging DNA is would be herculean task.

"As weird as it sounds in a thread about changing genes you can't change human nature. "

You should read some of the history of human DNA, its fascinating.
Several times a piece that coded for brain growth got accidentally duplicated, and lead to a much smarter new ape.. Or a protein coding for muscle density flipped to a configuration that made our jaw muscles smaller, allowing a arger cranium, or.. on and on.
Similar things happened in the deep past, where the entire DNA strand got doubled in length through some glitch, instantly hugely increasing its information capacity.
The complexity, elegance and extreme messiness of DNA is breath-taking considering the average persons genome is smaller than a typical digital camera JPEG image of that person.

Theres a pub in my town where Watson and Crick announced the helical nature of the DNA molecule. Does a good stout. Dont drink it near a waterfall though your body will collapse into the water and form the basis for life or some fucking shit that doesnt make sense.

[Care]

yea im not sure they could ever exert a specific control over emotions, but im sure they could definetly lay the groundwork in for eugenics etc...

Would be interesting to see a society created with a high amount of mdma being released naturally into their bodies as they lived. would be awesome to see. imagine engineering humans to release serotonin at a higher rate... or to produce more etc would be crazy!

Or glow in the dark people. I would settle for that.

[Hobitt]

I actually think humans should stay the way they are, only thing i would like is much longer life spans. Imperfections make us human.Unless a communist society then engineer humans to be perfect

[meth]

i like it, especially that younger are included.
I think sf movies are closer then we thought, and much needed apparently
Fractions will be made

M