In case you missed it, some scientists are claiming that we are within a decade of being able to create (basic) artificial life.The quote that has me just a bit worried is this one:
"We're talking about a technology that could change our world in pretty fundamental ways - in fact, in ways that are impossible to predict."
Of course, that's followed by this one:
"When these things are created, they're going to be so weak, it'll be a huge achievement if you can keep them alive for an hour in the lab," he said. "But them getting out and taking over, never in our imagination could this happen."
Hmm... I guess I should feel better now.
Still, I'm left to wonder - are we really wise enough to be messing about with these things?
Perhaps it's time Joe Q. Public tuned in and started really, seriously thinking about what is coming down the pike.
In other words, perhaps they should stop watching Oprah and Springer, and start watching Battlestar Galactica.
Paul Kimball
4 comments:
Let me be the first to say that I would let Tricia Helfer turn me into a Cylon. I would.
Ross
Perhaps such should be a more humble aspiration forgetting for a moment that it remains decidedly indefinable. I'm reminded that if we can think it can be so.
Be as God? Given time and the required humility it would seem inevitable or what's the point, eh?
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I don't think the question is even when we create artificial life, we have been creating and modifying DNA/RNA based life for decades. The question is whether or not we create life that is fundamentally unlike our own.
I think the big "thing" on the near horizon is machinery that closely resembles conventional life. Some tentative steps have been taken in this direction already.
Of course, waking up naked in warm goo with Tricia Helfer bending over you does have some advantages..
careful, you'll be labeled a christofascists on a crusade against science.
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