61–70 of 152 posts
Definitely interesting work, and some very clever solutions to difficult problems, but to be clear, they only had a single unnatural base pair, and it was only in a plasmid. Addressing the other comments about this leading to some crazy scifi scenario, imagine telling someone you used machine learning to identify spam emails and they started freaking out about how you're going to start Skynet. If you understand how t…
"create organisms with wholly unnatural attributes and traits not found elsewhere in nature" I'd argue that this shouldn't add anything categorically new, just like switching from 32 to 64 bit programs doesn't change the world.
Star Trek depicted one of the scarier applications of such a technology: There, The Jem'Hadaar are a genetically engineered race of warriors controlled by the Dominion, who exert power over them by being the sole provider of a substance (Ketracel-White) that they need in order to survive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_(Star_Trek) http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Ketracel-white If my reading of the paper is…
That's actually differently to how I've read it - it appears to me that the XY pairing is stable and not harmful to the host and so is not degraded or removed (recognised as foreign by mis-sense DNA proof readers) but is therwise not performing any function, although some of the technical details are missing.
As to your second point, we already have highly perfected 'terminator' technology, currently in 3 forms:
1) the infamous Monsanto terminator technology, where second generation seeds would not be viable (which, incidentally, would be a significant benefit to some farmers growing genetically engineered cotton and potentially their crops, as spilt seed from harvest would not germinate)
2) in bacteria and other organisms etc in the form that you describe above - ie lack of a substance is fatal - usually this substance is some generic low dose antibiotic that triggers a genetic switch when present
3) as you suggest, removing an organisms ability to synthesise a particular amino acid and having it dependent on food
Definitely interesting work, and some very clever solutions to difficult problems, but to be clear, they only had a single unnatural base pair, and it was only in a plasmid. Addressing the other comments about this leading to some crazy scifi scenario, imagine telling someone you used machine learning to identify spam emails and they started freaking out about how you're going to start Skynet. If you understand how t…
Software systems are relatively predictable, and built on mathematical models and rules that we designed. Even so, there are still many negative unforeseen consequences of their operation. Biological systems are relatively unpredictable, and based on rules that we didn't design and cannot begin to claim we fully understand. Your analogy therefore strongly predicts negative unforeseen consequences.
Definitely interesting work, and some very clever solutions to difficult problems, but to be clear, they only had a single unnatural base pair, and it was only in a plasmid. Addressing the other comments about this leading to some crazy scifi scenario, imagine telling someone you used machine learning to identify spam emails and they started freaking out about how you're going to start Skynet. If you understand how t…
Software systems are relatively predictable, and built on mathematical models and rules that we designed. Even so, there are still many negative unforeseen consequences of their operation. Biological systems are relatively unpredictable, and based on rules that we didn't design and cannot begin to claim we fully understand. Your analogy therefore strongly predicts negative unforeseen consequences.
If the field "cannot begin to claim we don't fully understand" things now, when do we reach the point where we suddenly "know enough to begin to do things", and why should we be listening to you about that point instead of experts in the field?
The reality is that this system is highly predictable in the way it was intended, and the changes made are understood extremely well at a molecule and cellular level. You can't come up with a specific concern with this system because you don't have a clue about it. Anyone who does cannot come up with a specific concern of this system because it is extremely predictable.
This anti-scientific Taleb-esque argument is just used by people who have no idea what they're talking about to try and speak over those who do, and is anti-intellectual and anti-scientific to its core. The OP's comment holds very well- this is no different from a layperson worrying about someone implementing an SVM on some dataset "becoming skynet, because computers aren't always predictable!" - it's nonsensical the minute you have any idea what you're talking about.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We have no idea what happens in our own code That's an overstatement. Sure code can be very complex but we actually can see exactly what's going on whenever we really want to. It's just that we cannot see what's going on with all the code all the time.
code can be very simple, and we don't always know what it will do. Simple example: can you tell me if this snippet of (python) code will ever terminate or not? x=0.5 while x 0.7: x=3.59*x*(1-x) print x ... and what if the 3.59 was replaced by a different number - maybe 3.60 ? or 3.84 ?
Star Trek depicted one of the scarier applications of such a technology: There, The Jem'Hadaar are a genetically engineered race of warriors controlled by the Dominion, who exert power over them by being the sole provider of a substance (Ketracel-White) that they need in order to survive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_(Star_Trek) http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Ketracel-white If my reading of the paper is…
Such a mechanism would also do for an explanation for a Blade Runner style replicant that had an extendable lifespan.
Star Trek depicted one of the scarier applications of such a technology: There, The Jem'Hadaar are a genetically engineered race of warriors controlled by the Dominion, who exert power over them by being the sole provider of a substance (Ketracel-White) that they need in order to survive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_(Star_Trek) http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Ketracel-white If my reading of the paper is…
It's good as long self-termination is a nice-to-have feature. If you REALLY want them to self-terminate but you found out that they mutated and can now synthesize X & Y, you're in trouble. Genetically modified organisms are a bit scary, but genetically modified organisms that replicate autonomously are more than a bit scary. As programmers - a profession that managed to spread Shellshock, the dumbest imaginable backd…
Documented: Computer viruses mutating in the wild by two different viruses accidentally copying themselves into overlapping regions of memory.
> "The other reason we don't need to be freaking out, says Romesberg, is that these molecules have not been designed to work at all in complex organisms, and seeing as they're like nothing found in nature, there's little chance that this could get wildly out of hand." This is how the plot of every horror/disaster movie starts.
> This is how the plot of every horror/disaster movie starts. Because its a trope. Can you explain how it gets wildly out of hand beyond speculation?