Life Made to Order

Roland Piquepaille writes "When he was president of Celera Genomics, Craig Venter was the leader of the private project which deciphered the human genome. Now, he has another goal: create custom-made organisms -- one DNA letter at a time. 'Venter's objective is not merely to tweak existing life forms by inserting genes that confer specific traits -- the main tactic in conventional genetic engineering. Instead he wants to assemble an entire genome, DNA letter by DNA letter, putting together only the genes he wants: those necessary for an organism's survival and those that will allow it to carry out a desired task.' If successful, maybe in a decade, this could yield new sources of energy or novel drugs. Venter is not alone in this quest. Other institutions, private companies or universities, have similar efforts under development. Check this column for a summary of this eye-opening -- but quite long -- Technology Review article."

Comments

Scary

[Musashi Miyamoto]

I heard about scientists trying to create a new type of organism a little while ago... It scared me then and it scares me now.

However, I would think that it would be totally possible to generate TONS of energy and other useful things from something like this. It might be possible to generate oil from sunlight. Huge tanks of stuff making food, energy, whatever.

The ethical complications are interesting.
If you create a new life form, do you have the right to destroy it? Maybe. If you can re-create it at a whim, why not? But then, what about existing life forms? Eventually scientists might be able to re-create just about any species in a petri dish. Can they then justifiably destroy a species, since they can re-create it at any time?

Cool sci-fi... or more accurately, cool sci-soon-to-be-not-fi.

Re:I have a great Idea!

[Daniel Dvorkin]

Let's play God!

I have a better idea: let's stop using that silly phrase "play God" with respect to biotech. We've been "playing God" for thousands of years, ever since farmers first started selective breeding and hybridization of crops and livestock. Every tool of medical diagnosis and treatment in history, from traditional herbal remedies to antibiotics to MRI machines, has been "playing God," in that they interfere with the "natural" progression of disease and death. Indeed, all technology is "playing God" -- God didn't give us sharp teeth and claws, so we learned to chip spearheads out of flint; God didn't give us hooves, so we learned to ride horses and invented saddles; God didn't give us gills, so we built ships; et fucking cetera.

There will always be fanatics whose fear of divine wrath keeps them back in the muck and mire. That's their right, and their business. But when they stand in the way of progress that will immeasurable improve my life and the lives of my children ... well, they'd better get the hell out the way.