Microsoft Will “Solve” Cancer Within Next 10 Years By Treating It Like A Computer Virus

Megalith

Megalith

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The company is attempting to crack the code of diseased cells so they can be reprogrammed back to a healthy state. While most of this may be in the realm of possibility, are certain industries going to let them pull this off?

The ultimate goal of this computational approach: to program biology like we program computers. That’s a breakthrough that would open all sorts of possibilities for everything from treating diseases to feeding the world with more efficient crops. “All aspects of our daily lives will be affected,” said Andrew Phillips, who heads the Biological Computation Research Group. Phillips said one approach is to create a kind of molecular computer that you would put inside a cell to monitor for disease. If the sensor detected a disease, it would actuate a response to fight it.
 
Cancer mutates though. They may solve one form of cancer but by then other versions will exist. Would be nice to pull it off though soo go for it :)
 
MS will cure cancer, maybe, but it'll probably require a subscription to Windows 10 to update their free Cell Defender implant with GPS chip for new definitions. "Cured" yes but to avoid relapses you'll have to sign in to your MS account and be tracked for the rest of your life for your targeted ads. Agree to the EULA and privacy violations or die from future mutations.
 
LurkerLito said:
MS will cure cancer, maybe, but it'll probably require a subscription to Windows 10 to update their free Cell Defender implant with GPS chip for new definitions. "Cured" yes but to avoid relapses you'll have to sign in to your MS account and be tracked for the rest of your life for your targeted ads. Agree to the EULA and privacy violations or die from future mutations.
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You win today.
 
MS cant do shit about computer viruses so how in the hell are they gonna do shit about cancer. Seems like people get a fat bank account and all of a sudden they have all the answers.

Pound sand.
 
Next windows 10 update will add a feature that use your idle CPU cycle to calculate for a cure.
 
Don't kid yourselves. Microsoft's seemingly laudable Cure Cancer initiative definitely has ulterior motives. The point is, curing cancer by running a human version of a virus scanning software system means alot of breakthrough technologies will need to be developed.
1) Real time microscopic device that can travel through the bloodstream and carry out intra-cellular changes (ie make internal changes to individual cells without destroying the cell's wall and membrane).
2) Real time genetic detection and recognition of what is a normal gene sequence vs. what is abmormal / Cancerous gene sequence and a targetting system with 100% accuracy on effecting only the targetted cells.
3) New genetic replacement technique with orders of magnitude higher accuracy on changing only the targetted gene in a entire DNA gene sequence while causing near zero unintended gene changes at other points on the DNA sequence. CRISPR-9CAS still has an error rate that is too high for the required accuracy rate of such a treatment.

So lets say Microsoft does manage to develop all of these technologies and then puts out a anti-cancer human anti-virus program/ microscopic robot system. The above technologies would open up to Microsoft a huge market for Designer Genetic Augmentation and that will probably lead the world into a much more disturbing reality than already exists. Of course, we should all relax,cause with Microsoft leading the way, I'm sure everything will be just great in our Brave New World of Genetic Engineering.
 
This from the same company that allowed *.jpeg files to be run as executables?
 
More likely someone will come up with the cure first, MS will then come up with a variant of the cure and through its powerful marketing arm and online shill army try to convince everyone how much better their cure is than the original. In time people will figure out their cure is really just hype. After this MS will drop their cure and then try to piggy back onto some other up and coming tech they didn't originate. When this fails and people begin to dump their stock they will do another stock buy back and lay off more people.
 
DrLobotomy said:
MS cant do shit about computer viruses so how in the hell are they gonna do shit about cancer. Seems like people get a fat bank account and all of a sudden they have all the answers.

Pound sand.
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Well, the last MS conference was held at a Holiday Inn...
 
DrLobotomy said:
MS cant do shit about computer viruses so how in the hell are they gonna do shit about cancer. Seems like people get a fat bank account and all of a sudden they have all the answers.

Pound sand.
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Personally, I believe they have an incredible amount of smart people there from a lot of different nations. If they can do it, I would say to go for it. (Oh, and Microsoft cannot do anything about the user itself, which is typically the largest avenue of infections.)
 
As long as it solves the long standing issue of men having to get a 10 feet of tube shoved up their ass so doctors can do an "examination" that's all I really care about, I mean the TSA can scan my junk no problem, and that's just me going through a damn airport!
 
Maybe this should focus on "solving" the cancer that is Windows 10 first.
 
One challenge with creating programmable cells capable of destroying cancer is that if they themselves become damaged, they may potentially destroy a chunk of healthy tissue.
 
I have more faith in SENS than Microsoft. It's great and all that they're doing something, but I have a feeling it's more of a PR compaign than a than any actual progress.

 
Are people just stupid or do they not know that cancer isn't one thing? There are roughly 100 types of cancer and within each of those a number permutations. There is no "cure for cancer". You may find a solution for treating a type of cancer or reduce the chance of a cancer mutation to begin, but you cannot "cure" it, since it isn't a disease. To make matters even more complicated many types of cancer are very individualized in their mutation and growth, meaning that any treatment has be adapted for a specific person. This isn't to say Microsoft's announcement isn't valid, in fact it is the only way we can treat cancer. Microsoft , SENS or other analysis solutions the result in individualized treatment of cancer or the only solution stands a chance at making inroads towards effective treatment. Currently we use sledgehammer, because we don't know enough to create the proper tools. The bigger issue and the one that is neglected is prevention. Virtually no money goes into prevention and it is the easiest one to implement, but it involves diet and exercise.... something most people won't do.
 
The number of times I've lost windows to malware makes me not so believing in this.
 
EchtoGammut said:
Are people just stupid or do they not know that cancer isn't one thing? There are roughly 100 types of cancer and within each of those a number permutations. There is no "cure for cancer". You may find a solution for treating a type of cancer or reduce the chance of a cancer mutation to begin, but you cannot "cure" it, since it isn't a disease. To make matters even more complicated many types of cancer are very individualized in their mutation and growth, meaning that any treatment has be adapted for a specific person. This isn't to say Microsoft's announcement isn't valid, in fact it is the only way we can treat cancer. Microsoft , SENS or other analysis solutions the result in individualized treatment of cancer or the only solution stands a chance at making inroads towards effective treatment. Currently we use sledgehammer, because we don't know enough to create the proper tools. The bigger issue and the one that is neglected is prevention. Virtually no money goes into prevention and it is the easiest one to implement, but it involves diet and exercise.... something most people won't do.
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And not frying your skin in a tanning bed or a beach like a grilled cheese sandwich. That's the one that really gets me.

Diet exercise you can somewhat understand. The USA is a land of workaholics with the most hours worked and fewest vacation days just about anywhere. Hard to have energy to exercise considering how much you have to put in at the office to pay bills. Finding healthy food in a rush, again hard to do.


Frying the hell out of your skin with UV? Takes thought and time and premeditation
 
DrLobotomy said:
MS cant do shit about computer viruses so how in the hell are they gonna do shit about cancer. Seems like people get a fat bank account and all of a sudden they have all the answers.

Pound sand.
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^ The pharmaceutical company rep. just revealed himself.
 
EchtoGammut said:
Are people just stupid or do they not know that cancer isn't one thing? There are roughly 100 types of cancer and within each of those a number permutations. There is no "cure for cancer". You may find a solution for treating a type of cancer or reduce the chance of a cancer mutation to begin, but you cannot "cure" it, since it isn't a disease. To make matters even more complicated many types of cancer are very individualized in their mutation and growth, meaning that any treatment has be adapted for a specific person. This isn't to say Microsoft's announcement isn't valid, in fact it is the only way we can treat cancer. Microsoft , SENS or other analysis solutions the result in individualized treatment of cancer or the only solution stands a chance at making inroads towards effective treatment. Currently we use sledgehammer, because we don't know enough to create the proper tools. The bigger issue and the one that is neglected is prevention. Virtually no money goes into prevention and it is the easiest one to implement, but it involves diet and exercise.... something most people won't do.
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Treating (curing) cancer also has a lot to do with diet.

The Latest Cancer-Fighting News
 
EchtoGammut said:
... To make matters even more complicated many types of cancer are very individualized in their mutation and growth, meaning that any treatment has be adapted for a specific person. ...
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Fully agree; even more important to gather as much as possible data and try to understand the dependencies between. With the goal to develop individual threatment with less side effects.
 
How about they fix computer viruses first, because they've done so well at that...
 
EchtoGammut said:
Are people just stupid or do they not know that cancer isn't one thing? There are roughly 100 types of cancer and within each of those a number permutations. There is no "cure for cancer". You may find a solution for treating a type of cancer or reduce the chance of a cancer mutation to begin, but you cannot "cure" it, since it isn't a disease.
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Our understanding of cancer is still a long ways to go, but we do know that cancer uses a mechanism to stay immortal. Normal cells have a limit to how much they can divide until they reach their limit in which they either become senescent or kill themselves via apoptosis. Cancer though uses a mechanism known as telomerase to extend telomeres to keep themselves alive.

Stop the mechanism to produce telomerase, and you stop cancer. Hence a universal cure. That's what SENS is trying to do. There is a woman from 1950's known as Henrietta Lacks who is dead but her cancer cells are still alive.
To make matters even more complicated many types of cancer are very individualized in their mutation and growth, meaning that any treatment has be adapted for a specific person.
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It isn't clear what cancer really is. It's thought to be a mutation of the DNA, but some evidence is suggesting it's damage to the epigenetics. Which means some cells are turning on genes meant for other cells. For example your brain cells are suddenly turning on genes meant for the liver. This is why cancer can turn on the telomerase gene which is usually restricted to only a few cell types in the body.
This isn't to say Microsoft's announcement isn't valid, in fact it is the only way we can treat cancer. Microsoft , SENS or other analysis solutions the result in individualized treatment of cancer or the only solution stands a chance at making inroads towards effective treatment. Currently we use sledgehammer, because we don't know enough to create the proper tools.
Click to expand...
Technically we already have a cure for cancer. It's called immunnotherapy, where we teach the immune system to attack and kill cancer. This is how they cured Jimmy Carters cancer. Though like you said, this is individual medicine as the treatment is not a pill you can take to cure it. Gotta remove the cells from the persons body and reprogram them to attack the cancer.

The bigger issue and the one that is neglected is prevention. Virtually no money goes into prevention and it is the easiest one to implement, but it involves diet and exercise.... something most people won't do.
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I agree with Skripka in that Americans have too little free time to diet and exercise. People simply don't have the time to prepare a healthy meal, and take the time to exercise. We could enforce a 6 hour work day, instead of the 8 hours we're so used to, but good luck getting that through with all the lobbying and such. As it is Governor Chris Christie vetoed $15 minimum wage in NJ... twice. So as a result some people have to work two jobs just to be able to pay bills.
 
Hello my name is Paul from Microsoft technical support and we've received alert that your PC is not fightening the cancer most best. Are you by your PC right now?
 
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