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PostPosted: Mon May 24, 2010 3:10 pm    Post subject: Playing God? Reply with quote

Scientists have created artificial life!

I'm not pulling your leg!

This, in my mind, is an incredible technological step. However it is rather creepy! Imagine the mischief one could get upto if they wanted to with this technology

So enough explanation marks!

Do you reckon this should be allowed? Is this ethically wrong or right? How can we 'police' this technology to ensure if doesn't get into the wrong hands? Who hands are the wrong hands? What can this technology be used for?

This is the first step - so what next?
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PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2010 6:29 pm    Post subject: Re: Playing God? Reply with quote

Helly wrote:

Is this ethically wrong or right?


Depends on your ethics, but despite this technology being in gestation ( I can hardly describe it being in its infancy ) I can see how this can be used for good and for bad.

The potential here can be such a force for good, if used for good. And that will define the ethics of the person. Not necessarily that of the technology.

Helly wrote:

How can we 'police' this technology to ensure if doesn't get into the wrong hands?


As it develops I guess it could be policed like other things, requiring licences, legislation based on the scientific community and what they have studied of the technology as it grows and how it can be used?

I would imagine that being on the cutting edge of biotechnology, you'd need a fair bit of knowledge to get this to work in the first place, so only those who know, will be able to get anywhere close at the moment.

Helly wrote:

Who hands are the wrong hands?


I think I remember reading an article ( will have to dig it out for here ) on 2 people who tried to be the first to discover 'DNA'. One was a commercial interest, the other was a 'public domain' open affair, the people who championed the public domain interest won out, and now anyone can access that information.

If this has been carried out by a closed group, and they seek to hold this information away, then this may hamper development of how this could be used.

Helly wrote:

What can this technology be used for?


I'm no biologist ( I got a C at GCSE level ) but the article on Nature's website ( http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100526/full/465406a.html )

Suggest :-

Quote:

Potential applications for the technology include developing innovative ways to produce energy, creating novel sensors to monitor the environment or building bacterial factories to churn out medicines.


However, are the full implications known :S

Quote:

In response to the Venter group's announcement, US President Barack Obama charged his bioethics advisory council with exploring the implications of the research in a report to be completed in six months.


Helly wrote:

This is the first step - so what next?


Getting them to play nicely together sounds likely

Quote:

The next challenge will be working out how to build genetic circuits — artificial sequences of genes that interact with each other in complex patterns to produce desired traits. So far, researchers can reliably design gene circuits about 15,000–25,000 base-pairs long, a sequence that contains about six to ten gene promoters. Anything larger, Weiss says, and "nobody right now will be able to give you a design that works".



How long before we start seeing Bladerunners, or valids walking the streets?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gattaca

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner


A few years i'd imagine.
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