DARPA Aims for Synthetic Life With a Kill Switch

jkinney3 writes to mention that DARPA's mad scientists have undertaken a new program designed to create synthetic organisms, complete with a "kill switch." The project, dubbed BioDesign, is dumping $6 million into "removing the randomness of evolutionary advancement" by creating genetically engineered masterpieces. "Of course, Darpa's got to prevent the super-species from being swayed to do enemy work — so they'll encode loyalty right into DNA, by developing genetically programmed locks to create 'tamper proof' cells. Plus, the synthetic organism will be traceable, using some kind of DNA manipulation, 'similar to a serial number on a handgun.' And if that doesn't work, don't worry. In case Darpa's plan somehow goes horribly awry, they're also tossing in a last-resort, genetically-coded kill switch."

Comments

Re:Hmmmmm

[gbjbaanb]

I believe the movie you're looking for starred Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer.

artificial life, with serial numbers on DNA, and a pre-programmed lifespan... where did DARPA replicate that idea from, and when can I get a basic pleasure model?

Systemic Shock: kill switch for agents

[handy_vandal]

In the novel Systemic Shock by Dean Ing, special ops agents have devices in their skulls to provide radio communcations, data processing, and a remote kill switch. Ostensibly, the kill switch is for cases where an agent is captured, and is only to be used if the agent explicitly requests termination ... but some of the agents suspect that they may be terminated for reasons other than explicit request. Decent novel; moderately recommended.

Re:Does your tax money go where you want?

[interkin3tic]

Before the government got involved, health care in the US was affordable to even the poor.

There were also some advances in medicine in the meanwhile that raised the price independent of government involvement. Chemotherapy back in the day may have been cheap enough to afford out of pocket, but that's because it was booze.

I guess you could still claim that since the government funded much of the research that led to these advances, they were still responsible though.

Are you sure you want encoded loyalty?

[geekoid]

Some Muslim sects are full of people who are very loyal.

Re:Does your tax money go where you want?

[toastar]

FYI,
Darpa's Budget is about $3 Billion
http://www.darpa.mil/Docs/FY2011PresBudget28Jan10%20Final.pdf

Just in comparison Nasa's budget is about $18 billion

The NSF (National science fund) is about $7.5-8 Billion.

Also for the cost of the bank bailout($700Billion) we could of gone to mars and back($55Billion) about 13-14 times

Re:Junk DNA

[Hurricane78]

Stop it with that old “junk DNA” hat!

That DNA is long proven not to be junk! Your information is deprecated.
No, those who parrot it anyway, over and over again, are not right.