Pentagon Looks to Breed Immortal ‘Synthetic Organisms,’ Molecular Kill-Switch Included
February 6th, 2010Via: Wired:
The Pentagon’s mad science arm may have come up with its most radical project yet. Darpa is looking to re-write the laws of evolution to the military’s advantage, creating “synthetic organisms” that can live forever — or can be killed with the flick of a molecular switch.
As part of its budget for the next year, Darpa is investing $6 million into a project called BioDesign, with the goal of eliminating “the randomness of natural evolutionary advancement.” The plan would assemble the latest bio-tech knowledge to come up with living, breathing creatures that are genetically engineered to “produce the intended biological effect.” Darpa wants the organisms to be fortified with molecules that bolster cell resistance to death, so that the lab-monsters can “ultimately be programmed to live indefinitely.”
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:
Develop strategies to create a synthetic organism “self-destruct” option to be implemented upon nefarious removal of organism.
The project comes as Darpa also plans to throw $20 million into a new synthetic biology program, and $7.5 million into “increasing by several decades the speed with which we sequence, analyze and functionally edit cellular genomes.”
Maybe I should have taken their covert military recruitment seriously back in college. Are there no dissenting brave insiders who can see that Monsanto™ as creator just drains the gene pool of actual intelligence and will to survive as human? RTFM. FTW.
I have often wondered if “life as we know it”, that is DNA based life, isn’t some sort of self-replicating construct created by some other life form and perhaps escaped or run amok.
The Panspermia Theory (or more correctly the Exogenesis Theory) and the mounting evidence of “life on Mars” dovetails nicely with this hypothesis.
In any case, this is a truly frightening development. The number of things which could go wrong are too numerous to recount here, but the most likely outcome of anything going wrong is our own extinction. Perhaps this sort of development is one of the contributing factors to the Fermi-Hart Paradox.
References to the Books of Enoch and Jasher and ‘As it was in the days of Noah’-type prophecies are running through my head in a big way after reading this one.
i have heard it argued that man and his crazy errant creations are all part of Nature too. that suggests that those whom wish any return to Nature see something UNnatural about man and his contemporary ‘civilization’. hm. that is indeed a curious proposition. we really need to define our terms; what is ‘nature, or ‘liberty’ for that matter.
personally, my focus is on ‘cognitive liberty’, consciousness itself being so central to everything.
stating the presumably obvious: this new ‘synthetic’ life-form, for all the aims and parameters so described cure reeks of agenda, an anti-liberty agenda for said life-form itself for certain…
demonstrably, earth has not and apparently does not well swallow, much less incorporate, our ‘synthetic’ things. our stubborn denial of the evidence of this, even as we struggle to address the accrued detrimental consequences, speaks volumes on the very sort of ‘fruit’ we ourselves are: anti-life, or at the very least fiercely, ferociously, adamantly (sp?) Stupid.
…my first thought reading this post was ‘by their works shall ye know them’. my second thought was that i never get it through my Stupid head that that’s a misquote. -stupid is easy but monumental Stupidity takes more… stubbornness at least!
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_Bible_verse_says_'by_their_works_ye_shall_know_them‘
This exact phrasing is not in the Bible, the closest being “by their fruits…” :-
Mat 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Mat 7:16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Mat 7:17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
Mat 7:18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Mat 7:19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Mat 7:20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
Mat 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
What kinds of life are they talking about developing? Bacterial, animal, human, or maybe a nice little chimera, or perhaps they’ll just focus on making the most useful parts, i.e. a super-brain that’ll be compatible with conventional electronics and able to process information received from non-biological networks.
Bearing in mind the powerful protections afforded Monsanto et al. by intellectual property rights law perhaps some enterprising young lawyer/pollie could put a spanner in the works by getting some kind of ‘rights for replicants’ bill passed before this stuff hits the streets.
@Dennis: aye, and we could sure use asimov’s laws of robotics incorporated in the meanwhile!