First Synthetic Life Created by Humans

[Inico]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPE2CnThito

Scientists created the world's first artificial life form!

It reminded me of an old thing I used to think about - how do lesser life forms relate to the concept of consciousness and the self? Can synthetic life be conscious? Or just function identically to natural living things, like biological machines, without the metaphysical aspect.

[sola~]

it doesn't seem like they're creating life but deciding in what manner it should be created, if that makes sense, still it has an enormous potential and the result is the same.

[Stillwater]

Yeah, I agree that it is not creating life in the sense of building every organelle and membrane from scratch in the cell, but they have indeed made artificially sequenced DNA. Like you say, the result is the same; since DNA codes for everything to be built in the cell, once it is inserted into a previously active cell, the artificially sequenced DNA will build every part of the organism it codes for.

So it does require an initial host to start the process, but on the flip-side, the DNA will code for an entirely new creature, every part of which is specified in the artificial sequence. In every sense but the most extreme reading, I guess I would have to acede that they have indeed created life.

I would imagine the most direct applications of this sort of technology would be to write sequences for bacteria that produce various chemical substances, such as some of the isolated extracts of petroleum- there might be a polypropylene bacterium created, for instance. I also worry about what sorts of terrible uses this technology could be bent to, however.

[owl]

scary, this type of technology will of course be turned into a weapon.

[sola~]

of course, if it can be, it will be, 2012 final doom here we come!! jkjk

[personalreality]

you know whats funny.

i didn't see anything about this on american news.

[CFTraveler]

I did, in the nightly news- they just showed a guy showing a replication of dna on a tv screen.  I knew it took them years to map out human dna, so I assumed that they just put it in a computer and did a simulation with it.
I thought the Sims did something more fun years ago, but that's another post.

[Inico]

you know whats funny.

i didn't see anything about this on american news.

I didn't see anything on local news either. A friend sent me the link, actually.

[Xanth]

So it does require an initial host to start the process, but on the flip-side, the DNA will code for an entirely new creature, every part of which is specified in the artificial sequence. In every sense but the most extreme reading, I guess I would have to acede that they have indeed created life.

That's the first thing I thought of...
They're not "creating" anything... they're just merging it with something that is already alive.



~Ryan

[sola~]

well, they are basically programming it what to be, like, they're telling it, hey you cell there.. you.. be a bacteria!, and the cell is like, "HOKAY!!"

[Chubysnow]

Sola is right, they are not creating life... They are commanding it instead.

[Everlasting]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7dz-RjrmA8