
DNA-based chemical compiler - lainon
https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.04790
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myrryr
Ok, that is amazing. How long before llvm has dna support?

Once that happens you will be able to make a self hosting dna builder, and
have a bunch of high level languages along for the ride :)

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ben_w
Hmm. On the one hand that’ll be great for cosmetic surgery and furries (grow
compatible but different body parts in vitro); on the other hand, do we really
want to live in a world of constant security patches for our DNA because
someone’s found a new vulnerability that hackers can exploit? Or worse, CSS
for limbs?

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myrryr
Or worse, have to deal with viruses...

Oh, wait....

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ben_w
Natural viruses aren’t malicious; they even have evolutionary pressure to
become self limiting. Artificial ones, not so much.

Natural ones also appear far more infrequently than computer viruses, and I’d
expect the same pattern with artificial organisms.

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Drakim
The same is true for computer viruses! Being a huge menace to your computer
host is a good way to get yourself deleted. The best computer viruses are
careful and spread silently.

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Avamander
And in both cases I'm sure we haven't even found the most silent virus there
is.

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djfm
Isn't the title a bit misleading?

> Hence, our attempt to convert high-level code to assembly code takes us
> __one step closer __to completing the dream of making a chemical compiler.

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mjfl
This reminds me of Nuskell, a chemical reaction network to "DNA domain-level
strand displacement" compiler build by Stefan Badelt et al in Erik Winfree's
lab at Caltech.

[https://github.com/DNA-and-Natural-Algorithms-
Group/nuskell](https://github.com/DNA-and-Natural-Algorithms-Group/nuskell)

