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Programming Molecules To Let Chemicals Make Decisions
Nerval's Lobster writes "Computer scientists at Harvard University have come up with a way to convert algorithms that teach machines to learn into a form that would allow artificial intelligence to be programmed into complex chemical reactions. The ultimate result could be smart drugs programmed to react differently depending on which of several probable situations they might encounter – without the need to use nano-scale electronics to carry the instructions. 'This kind of chemical-based AI will be necessary for constructing therapies that sense and adapt to their environment,' according to Ryan P. Adams, assistant professor of computer science at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), who co-wrote the paper explaining the technique (PDF). 'The hope is to eventually have drugs that can specialize themselves to your personal chemistry and can diagnose or treat a range of pathologies.' The techniques are part of a larger effort to program the behavior of molecules in manufacturing, decision-making and diagnostics, using both nano-scale electronics and the still-relatively-new study of bionanotechnology."
At least software bugs rarely kill people. It would be a very long time before I trust something like this for common treatments.
Sounds like the first step to creating Orson Scott Card's "descadola" virus. When reality imitates fiction....
Come on. Men have been letting testosterone make decisions for them since the dawn of mankind.
Lots of stuff could go right as well, but it is a question worth asking.
a super-smart kryptonian white cell? :) lets' just make sure we stay under a yellow sun! :)
If I understand that correctly, it can work like a selection expression from XPath, aspect languages or graph search terms to match on the right "locations" in a lifeform body or any other complicated mixture, like soil.
http://www.amazon.com/Queen-City-Doherty-Associates-Books/dp/0765307510
While some countries think it's vital to re-create the space theater of half a century ago, the real breakthroughs will be understanding how matter organizes itself into life.
Awesome - I can't wait until the script kiddies get hold of this and use it hack people and create armies of zombies.
Requiem for the American Dream
Rather than talking about these molecules in terms of Artificial Intelligence I think it would be more accurate to say that the molecules instead have some very rudimentary if-then logic designed into them. At this stage it doesn't sound *that* much more advanced than a reagent that turns blue in substance A and green in substance B.
This is ALL KINDS OF AWESOME! The power of science is truly amazing.
Yes, things could go wrong. Things could *always* go wrong, with anything and everything. That is *no excuse whatsoever* to abstain from the development of technologies that will benefit humanity.
My only concern is that too little effort is being spent researching and engineering means of surviving the next super volcano eruption. People like to brush this off because there hasn't been one in a long time....but that is precisely the problem....
We are due.
And when one of these volcanoes (there are 40 of them on the planet!) goes pop, it will be a planet wide extinction-level event. All human ambition will be buried under a thick blanket of ice for decades. If we don't have our self-sustaining underground bunkers ready by then, we are toast.
Just sayin'
Wait, use chemical reactions on the scale of femtometers to avoid using electronics on the scale of nanometers? Got it.
I am an organic chemist. I'm not the smartest guy in the world but I do know a little bit about making molecules and their chances of doing useful things in the body. I've been doing this for 35 years and I have some credentials though I'm not a Harvard professor. My opinion is that this article is pure, extremely well crafted, bullshit. Throwing in all that math only makes it more so.
We already have chemicals making decisions. There are chemicals storing the program (DNA), chemicals reading the program (ribosomes), and chemicals executing the program (enzymes). The systems running on such molecular logic are usually called "organisms".
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Soon they can spray this over Washington to turn all those communists into capitalists.
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While the potential for chemical engineering is great (think self-adjusting reactions), and the potential for a combined lab tests-diagnosis-treatment is awesome (think rejection vs infection or emergency room treatments. (i.e. Patient has replacement operation, has what appears to be a strong rejection response, is treated with immune-suppressant which allows in-reality-infection to kill patient.) Where time is critical the treatment could test-and-treat in one application without waiting for lab results, diagnosis, prescription, and treatment.
But I think the most popular use will be designer drugs. They can get you wasted but never kill you. Maybe even help. If you "OD" they could do the opposite, treating you for poisoning. In spite of thousands of drunk deaths every year in Russia and the U.S. I don't see these ever becoming cheap enough to become a required additive to booze.