How long before you can buy an "RNAduino" kit online?
You plug into your USB and launch the RNAduino IDE, import some receptor nucleotide patterns, some expression nucleotide patterns, type in a little glue code, hit "compile", and you're off to the races with something innocuous to turn your pet mouse fluorescent green or a simple virus that can wipe out half the planet.
The clock cycles on these "computers" are measured in milli- or micro-Hertz and the error rates are huge... They're likely to be useful despite that, but the "computer" metaphor creates some unreasonable performance expectations.
I think you're missing the point. I'm not looking to have a computer in RNA that rivals a even a 6502 in instructions per second. I'm not looking to play Doom on it. "Performance expectations" don't even apply.
I'm talking about making biological modification and hacking as easy as the Arduino has made computer hacking. I'm talking about being able hack biological systems from your desktop by creating cellular machines that could be injected into living beings.
One day, enterprising hackers might use such tools to attempt to cure their own diseases, combat aging, etc. Who knows how people would want to use this kind of technology... add some THC producing RNA to yeast samples and make beer that produces a pot-like high?
The initial hobbyist community will make THC beer. Then about five months/minutes/seconds later, the cartels will have E. coli with opioid production rates to rival even the healthiest poppies. And even if bacterial opioid yields never rise very high, comparatively, it's a lot easier to hide a brewing operation or other microbial growth platform than it is to grow large fields of poppies in the open.
Although it's apparently not illegal to grow opium poppies openly as decorative and culinary plants in the US. No, the laws make absolutely no sense.
The kinds of problems these machines might be able to solve are of a completely different type than current computers, so the way their "speed" is measured will be different. For example, a biological system might be able to perform calculations in a few seconds which we simply don't have the techniques or methods to solve with modern computers in any reasonable amount of time.
You plug into your USB and launch the RNAduino IDE, import some receptor nucleotide patterns, some expression nucleotide patterns, type in a little glue code, hit "compile", and you're off to the races with something innocuous to turn your pet mouse fluorescent green or a simple virus that can wipe out half the planet.
Exciting and scary times.
Edit: rnaduino.com is still available! Go for it!