Craig Venter, the man who in the ninety's sequenced the human genome, has recently created the first synthetic life form.
Eventually this will be bigger than the discovery and application of electricity. Like all new discoveries, synthetic life has the potential, if mishandled, to create much trouble. Electricity replaced gas lighting, which was burning down entire cities. Does electricity still start fires? Sure, but much less often than did gas plumbing throughout the buildings of old. Will some folks screw-up, or intentionally misuse this new discovery? Of course, but the positives will greatly outweigh the negatives. I prefer to concentrate on the positives.
Synthetic life in a nutshell At the hardware level, all living cells are basically the same. A bacterial cell, or a cell from a jellyfish, dandelion, or any other, is no different than a cell in your big toe. What makes them different is the software. A cell's software is its DNA. Craig Venter, and his team, have assembled their own DNA molecule, from scratch, then replaced the original DNA in a cell with their synthetic one. The cell reproduces and creates exact copies of its new self. This newly programmed cell has now changed its entire behavior, and so have all its offspring. Its diet is now completely different, and its products of metabolism are also completely different. On the cellular level, they have turned a once natural animal into an imaginary critter. A bit like changing a mouse into a self-replicating and repairing toaster.
DNA and the Sea
Synthetic biology will eventually change our lives in more and better ways than has electricity. Think of the millions of differences between our founding father's lives, and the lives we live today. The one single thing that has caused these stupendous changes in mankind's life and environment is electricity, and the billions of applications thereof.
You are witnessing the birth of a new era, eventually to overshadow everything man has done in his entire history. This will become the most profound discovery of all time.
The Digital Universe of Life
Not tomorrow, but soon, everything from clean and renewable energy, laboratory grown perfect meat and other foods, to cures for all of man's ailments - including old age - will be forthcoming from this wondrous new field of science. Your children or grandchildren, and maybe a few of the younger readers of this web page, will have the option of living as long as they wish. Imagine living at your peak of mental and physical performance, probably much better than your natural peak, for a thousand years, or ten thousand. Before you tire of one aspect of your multi-millennial life, a hundred new and intriguing options will be made available to you. With a little biological tinkering humans, of the near future, will retain their love of life and incessant curiosity indefinitely.
Pros & Cons
What would the world be like if Einstein, Jonas Salk, and other great thinkers and creators, throughout history, had a hundred or a thousand years of productivity?
As electricity, and all it brought with it, forced many societal changes, this new era will require even more. At some point in this new era there will be great turmoil. The modern day Luddites will once again come out of the woodwork, as they have at each major milestone in history, but this too will pass, as we learn and accept this radically new life. Space travel for the masses, to send our surplus population to other worlds. Maybe mandatory sterilization, or licensing for the creation of children, and a thousand other changes that today we find unacceptable, will be accepted and even embraced, as we move through the next few generations. Many millennia from now, man's creative mind will encompass the entire universe.
Star Trek - Here We Come!
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