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Another step towards that artificial life thing (guardian.co.uk)
3 points by kf on Sept 8, 2007 | hide | past | favorite | 3 comments



> But some campaigners worry about the new technology's unsettling potential and argue there should be a moratorium on the research until the ethical and technological implications have been discussed more widely

Are we going to have to listen to these people complain until they all die off?

> In an interview with Newsweek magazine earlier this year, Dr Venter claimed that a fuel-producing microbe could become the first billion- or trillion-dollar organism. The institute has already patented a set of genes for creating such a stripped-down creature.

Energy technology this big does not deserve to belong to a corporation. Free energy should belong to the people. We need to rewrite market economics for breakthroughs like this.


The phrase "artificial life" has a long (in tech terms) history, referring to digital systems. For example, http://alife.org

Regarding hand-crafted systems of chemicals, I don't see that the word "artificial" is even appropriate. The stuff is alive or it isn't.


Biotech is going to be very big soon. Remember, in five years you'll be able to store your genome on your personal data network.




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