Going by people’s reactions to AI, what will our reactions be to artificial humans generated from these methods?
Will they be hated? Killed off? Will they ever be see as legitimate, or just soulless beings, p-zombies.
For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides
31–40 of 323 posts
Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides
#32"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe"
"And that is why God is far less interested in modern mortal affairs than Theists want Him to be." - [source forgotten]
Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides
#33> “It’s a big step forward to this holy grail of making a living thing out of dead components,” said Sijbren Otto, a systems chemist at the Stratingh Institute for Chemistry in the Netherlands who was not involved in the work. That is the holy grail? I get that the goal is to "grow" biofuels, plastic, fertilizer, drugs, or whatever else we can imagine. But is that worth the many apocalyptic sci-fi outcomes we can ima…
> That is the holy grail? If you can disassemble and reassemble a thing, you can say you understand it. Not perfectly. But understand it. I’d imagine properly understanding rudimentary cellular biology will come with perks. (Also, does the Holy Grail imply both a boon and a cost? Or is that just Indian Jones.)
To your aside: No, in this abstract sense Holy Grails are just a boon, a desirable piece of knowledge, achievement, that sort of thing.
Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides
#34The aliens that seeded life on Earth are seeing us making baby steps. Expect a visit soon!
It's rare to see posts like this with such pure, crystalized ideology.
Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides
#35The aliens that seeded life on Earth are seeing us making baby steps. Expect a visit soon!
> aliens that seeded life on Earth are seeing us making baby steps Or like a grad student didn’t dispose of their work properly and are desperately trying to distract from their scandal.
I vastly prefer the explanation like of Roadside Picnic. They didn't try to create us, they don't care that we're here, and, ultimately, we will never be able to know them in any meaningful sense. ;)
Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides
#36This is so cool! I had once gone in the rabbit-hole of finding artificial life and there were experiments which did multiple phases but none which did the whole thing and I was left wondering why. I am a bit happy to see that someone was working on it (and succeeded!)
There is another submission on Hackernews which talks about: The first early human eggs from stem cells[0] which is an interesting discussion to read through on hackernews as well.
Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides
#37> “It’s a big step forward to this holy grail of making a living thing out of dead components,” said Sijbren Otto, a systems chemist at the Stratingh Institute for Chemistry in the Netherlands who was not involved in the work. That is the holy grail? I get that the goal is to "grow" biofuels, plastic, fertilizer, drugs, or whatever else we can imagine. But is that worth the many apocalyptic sci-fi outcomes we can ima…
Yeah, imagine if one day it will become trivial to blow up the world. Enough people hate humanity that they would do it, by tomorrow if they could. Seems like out exponential growth in technology will eventually lead up to that. If not actual nuclear explosion, then biological weapons. Would we need to enslave humans not to do it. How would that work.
Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides
#38This is awesome! Can someone in this field comment on the implications of sidestepping the cytoskeleton?
Yes, this is definitely awesome.
In eukaryotic cells (your cells) the cytoskeleton is needed to shape the cell, position DNA, and most importantly for this study, separate daughter cells allowing replication. Think of the complexity here, you need to make compartments to separate the copies of the genetic material, physically separated during division. Microtubules assemble the "mitotic spindle" and then pulls the sister chromatids apart from each other. After the chromosomes separate, other cytoskeletal filaments (actin and myosin) form a contractile ring, which tightens to create a cleavage furrow. The membrane pinches inward until the cell splits in two.
Bacteria work slightly differently, since they don't have a eukaryotic cytoskeleton, but they do have cytoskeletal-like proteins (FtsZ), since they divide by building the cell wall inward (I am not an expert on bacteria lol).
SpudCell doesn't have a cytoskeleton, so instead it relies on a physical membrane-rupture strategy. It makes membrane proteins from its own DNA (a-hemolysin), which inserts into the membrane. They help fuse with feeder liposomes for growth. For division, these proteins crowd on the membrane surface, creating mechanical stress which leads to membrane instability, which then splits on its own.
Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides
#39Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides
#40For the love of all things holy, can we not do these kinds of experiments on the same planet we live on?
I blame black mirror for this attitude. If you're going to speculate on imaginary futures why can't they be positive?
>why can't they be positive?
Because no one minds if good things happen...