

DNA And Computers Are Reading Each Other - csbartus
http://edge.org/3rd_culture/church_venter09/church_venter09_index.html

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yread
Wow what forum of people there! If the roof fell down in that building, ... :)

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jacquesm
It's a pity this won't get many votes because of the timing of the posting
(which seems to be a big factor in making the homepage of HN), it's very
interesting stuff.

Scroll down for the videos.

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yannis
'In this future — whose underpinnings, as Drs. Church and Venter demonstrated,
are here already— life as we know it is transformed not by the error
catastrophe of radiation damage to our genetic processes, but by the far
greater upheaval caused by discovering how to read genetic sequences directly
into computers, where the code can be replicated exactly, manipulated freely,
and translated back into living organisms by writing the other way. "We can
program these cells as if they were an extension of the computer," George
Church announced, and proceeded to explain just how much progress has already
been made'.

Amazing stuff! 40 years from now login to have your genes changed to change
the colour of your eyes. Pity I will probably not be around!

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csbartus
Wait ... the Singularity is over the corner! In 10 years you'll become part of
this synthetic life.

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jacquesm
I doubt it.

The singularity may be a fluke of observation bias, it is very well possible
that because you are always at the forefront of technological development when
you are alive (or you'd be living in the past) you perceive this tremendous
advance during your lifetime, leading you to conclude that pretty soon we'll
'take off'.

The singularity has been nicknamed 'the rapture of the nerds'.

~~~
csbartus
The Singularity must be the next metasystem transition
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metasystem_transition>), the Control of
Culture.

As soon as old media will get napstered and Culture will become impossible to
be manipulated, and, as soon as we uploaded ourselves completely to the web
--- we will have a new digital universe assuring parallel existences and a
gateway to the 'old' biological life.

Is that good enough for a Singularity?

~~~
jacquesm
> as soon as we uploaded ourselves completely to the web -

I think I see a few technological snags there.

