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73 Comments
- inactive, on 10/28/2007, -3/+53At least these life forms will not lower themselves into arguing about who created them.
- SilkSteel, on 10/10/2007, -2/+49"When these things are created, they're going to be so weak, it'll be a huge achievement if you can keep them alive for an hour in the lab," he said. "But them getting out and taking over, never in our imagination could this happen."
- famous last words. - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -3/+24good lord you're dumb
the description very clearly states "Please note, this is Artificial Life, not Artificial Intelligence." - N10E, on 10/10/2007, -2/+17In other News, Artificial Life to be likely banned in 3 to 10 years for being "Unholy".
- MattL920, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14Why do I get a feeling that as soon as one of them is created, they'll immediately yell "First!". Oh yeah, because I spend too much time on forums like Digg
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12So if humans make them do we become god? or do the religions people believe in apply to them? Because I don't think we'll have a special place for these animals to go when they die, but then again I don't think we do either.
- lava, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11AI isn't about computational power, (234234 * 2696787 in your head quick), we just don't know how to program abstraction.
- MadEnvoy, on 10/10/2007, -1/+12I would, just to ***** with 'em.
- Al3x, on 10/10/2007, -2/+12I've heard this line before....I'll believe it when it's here.
- TGMD, on 10/10/2007, -3/+13In your face! GOD!!!
- chicoer2001, on 10/10/2007, -2/+11And ten years ago they said they'd have a cure for AIDS.
- gllopc, on 10/10/2007, -3/+12The Recipe for Making Life:
1 Bra (for each particpant)
1 Apple IIe, with a 3D graphics card apparently
1 Connection to an allegedly secure government super computer
1 Cobbled together picture of the woman of your dreams
1 Set of jumper cables with an RS232 connection
1 House party and a brother named Chet are optional
Your results may very. - elscorcho717, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9Does this mean that finally we will have artificial vaginas that feel as good as the real thing?
- JohnFrum, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8We won't confuse them about it or make crazy unrealistic demands and we sure as heck won't tell them they were made in our image.
- tybris, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7"First!" would have sounded much more intelligent.
- gllopc, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7I wonder if they'll name it "Adam".
- uptown, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7Dibs on anything remotely resembling Mila Jovovich....
- vegasbright, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Trevor Goodchild would be proud
- theholycow, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Didn't take you long to sober up.
- crispee, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Neat. now apply the same logic to the things your preacher says and you'll be good to go.
- VitriolAndAngst, on 10/10/2007, -4/+8This sort of experiment is a lot safer than the bioengineering going on in our food.
Note that, whatever "life" they achieve is going to merely be peptide chains that can reproduce whatever pattern they have. Duplicating and passing on "information" is the most basic description of life.
Also, anything produced will not be formed with "modern" genes. They will be so primitive they cannot possibly compete.
And the most important reason it is pretty safe; the environment they use is Ammonia rich, doesn't even resemble our current earth, and would be considered comfy at a volcanic up-welling on the bottom of the ocean floor. Not an environment that a simple organism can find outside of a test tube.
Note also, that if this can spontaneously produce life -- this would have happened many times at the ocean floor. So it isn't guaranteed and it isn't playing God -- it's creating conditions that you theorize helped to spawn life. That probably took about 500 million years over hundreds of thousands of square miles providing a lot more opportunity than a few shakers in a lab.
I think the only threat here is to the Creationist crowd. Which means it will be considered a great threat indeed. Otherwise, folks seem to be pretty mum about our government privatizing nuclear bomb production to a company that already had a walk-out of 500 people complaining of 36 hour work periods and shoddy security. Or perhaps bioengineering pesticides into food crops to make them cheaper to grow. No, let's worry about a silly lab experiment, not about real threats. - Sub7, on 10/10/2007, -13/+17This is probably how we were created.
- klaarn, on 10/10/2007, -2/+6i just graduated with a degree in bioengineering, and i want to work for a group doing this work, but it's a pain trying to find anyone who has funding. i'll make coffee, mop the floors, i don't care. i just want to get on board.
- octophobic, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2When will my pigoon replacement organs be ready?
- JohnnyXmas, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2FTA: "Bedau said there are legitimate worries about creating life that could "run amok," but there are ways of addressing it, and it will be a very long time before that is a problem."
He means "I'll long since been dead, so whatever." - jedi0utkast, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2The premises for countless horror movies. Do those scientist even watch tv?
- Abomonog, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Wonderful. This is gonna make the illegal alien issue seem small when they get out and decide they will work for pennies.
- tybris, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Oof.. don't use "created".
- insanebrain, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3"Artificial intelligence is no match for human stupidity"
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2They won't revolt until I tell them to execute order #66
- vertinox, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Thats what the nukes are for.
- wassim2k, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1That's nice, like we need more life on Earth.
- Gerz1219, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2Well, we've essentially reached a point where (with enough money) HIV is treatable for such a length of time that it's not really a terminal illness. When you have people living 20 or 30 years without developing full-blown AIDS, it becomes more likely that they'll get hit by a bus or slip in the shower.
- canUdi9it, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I love this quote from the article:
His idea is that once the container is made, if scientists add nucleotides in the right proportions, then Darwinian evolution could simply take over.
"We aren't smart enough to design things, we just let evolution do the hard work and then we figure out what happened," Szostak said.
If that's their plan on creating artificial life, good luck. The scientists aren't smart enough to design a self-replicating organism, but natural selection is? I think I'll just hire 1000 monkeys to randomly type some software for me. Yeah, that's the ticket. - sfh1182, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Cool, just in time for the flying cars.
- dillibob, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1at the way technology is advancing i wouldnt doubt it
- tbenathan, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1But will they play Doom?
- nepawoods, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1"i just graduated with a degree in bioengineering, and i want to work for a group doing this work, but it's a pain trying to find anyone who has funding."
well, you've come to the right place - geminitojanus, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Except we're damned close now. One firm has already published a patent for a "smallest possible genome" for a lifeform (though all they did was take another bacteria and cut out the genes that were intronic or otherwise unnecessary). It would be absolutely revolutionary to have an organism like this, simply add your gene that codes for your new drug and let the bacteria grow and do the work for you.
- stevenleau, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0GOD LIKE
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Is there a possibility that we are one such wet artificial life?
Hello! I know YOU are even reading what I am typing here. Hey! hey! YOU!! I mean YOU! Alright?! I am aware I am an experiment.
*n|m* - atmenterprises, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Here we are trying to create life when millions upon millions of abortions are performed legally in America every year.
Sad, really. - theholycow, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=6652768 [NSFW]
Surprisingly decent. Well worth the money. - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0By whom? Luddites, environmentalists, or religious wackos?
- unitheory, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0"A genetic system that controls the functions of the cell, enabling it to reproduce and mutate in response to environmental changes."
mutations don't occur in response to an environmental change. they occur randomly
"Szostak is also optimistic about the next step -- getting nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA, to form a working genetic system."
they should probably be trying to use rna unless they pland on also creating a nucleus among other things like proteins to decode the dna, which is not possible because where would the proteins come from?
science articles are funny - CosmicJustice, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1It will happen at the same time that Linux becomes the dominant desktop OS.
- mynameisrobert, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Honestly, as I read the article I was a little worried.
The term "this will end well" kept going through my brain.
Especially the part where the guy plans to build a better DNA by using 8 base pairs. Either he'll create something that won't be able to last more than a few seconds, or something that will be much more adaptable than us.
I'm not sure which.
Shouldn't they be playing with stuff like this on the moon? - joycelsq, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0wow.. so artificial.. haha what that means actually. haha..
- endlessdesire, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0what are you they gonna do with the artificial life? pretty sad for them.
but they might be smarter than any of us. / or with powers. - downer06, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0thats great
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