The age of engineering life begins

erek

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"What's next: "We're still in the Apple II days of programming biology," said Pande.

  • But that is changing — both DNA sequencing and synthesis are now accelerating faster than computing power.
  • Add machine learning to the mix, and the speed will only increase. In a paper published in Nature Communications last week, researchers found algorithms were able to predict how changes in a cell's DNA would affect its behavior and make recommendations for future biological engineering cycles.
  • That could accelerate everything from the discovery of new drugs to the development of lab-grown meat, as computers help synthetic biologists truly program life like their counterparts already program computers.
The catch: What makes biology uniquely powerful — self-replication — can also make it dangerous and hard to control.

  • Synthetic biologists also have to overcome an ingrained public suspicion of modifying nature.
  • A global Pew Research survey released this week found larger shares of the public believe genetically modified foods are unsafe to eat than those who believe they are safe to eat.
The bottom line: Computer code undergirds the most profitable companies the world has ever seen, but the code of life promises to be just as influential for the future — if we can master it."

https://www.axios.com/synthetic-biology-enginereing-ef7f3ddf-f3d1-4323-8a0a-d60e02b71b70.html
 
You had me at Lab Grown Meat.....Mmmmmm.........maybe they can engineer Teriyaki Chickens....so all you need to do is cook them straight-away.......no marinate required in the fridge for 2-12 hours.......

But mostly I think this will just be super-rich assholes who try to live forever with clones, which will fail cuz "Gen 1 RTX Syndrome", so then their asshole self-absorbed kids will use the money to get endless plastic surgeries until they all wind up looking like living Muppets....
 
"What's next: "We're still in the Apple II days of programming biology," said Pande.

  • But that is changing — both DNA sequencing and synthesis are now accelerating faster than computing power.
  • Add machine learning to the mix, and the speed will only increase. In a paper published in Nature Communications last week, researchers found algorithms were able to predict how changes in a cell's DNA would affect its behavior and make recommendations for future biological engineering cycles.
  • That could accelerate everything from the discovery of new drugs to the development of lab-grown meat, as computers help synthetic biologists truly program life like their counterparts already program computers.
The catch: What makes biology uniquely powerful — self-replication — can also make it dangerous and hard to control.

  • Synthetic biologists also have to overcome an ingrained public suspicion of modifying nature.
  • A global Pew Research survey released this week found larger shares of the public believe genetically modified foods are unsafe to eat than those who believe they are safe to eat.
The bottom line: Computer code undergirds the most profitable companies the world has ever seen, but the code of life promises to be just as influential for the future — if we can master it."

https://www.axios.com/synthetic-biology-enginereing-ef7f3ddf-f3d1-4323-8a0a-d60e02b71b70.html

This is why by far my largest speculative investment is in biotech (the whole sector through ETF). Once you digitize something it grows exponentially. Biotech should do very well in the coming decades, especially once we have useful quantum computers that can simulate molecules. Should be very exciting times ahead.
 
Cool we might one day see this
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Everyone knows engineers design things better than god so i cant wait for improvements all around!
 
My first expectation is the goal of implementing planned obsolescence into products. It definitely has the impression of being malicious, but i think it would do wonders for reducing waste. No head of lettuce is going to stay fresh forever, but If we can define that period or enable direct measurement then we will throw out a lot less food. Should reduce price variance as well, or enable consistent pricing for food getting close to its retirement.
 
This is why by far my largest speculative investment is in biotech (the whole sector through ETF). Once you digitize something it grows exponentially. Biotech should do very well in the coming decades, especially once we have useful quantum computers that can simulate molecules. Should be very exciting times ahead.

all these fields have already reaped the benefits of digitizing the industry. Of course they will be able to make use of more computing power but that isnt currently growing anywhere near exponentially.

quantum computing past a proficient and accurate point would have a huge impact to almost any industry. It will be interesting to see what industries are able to make use of intermediate scale quantum computing first. Lockheed martin seams to have had interest in D-wave quantum anealers the past few generations.
 
all these fields have already reaped the benefits of digitizing the industry. Of course they will be able to make use of more computing power but that isnt currently growing anywhere near exponentially.

quantum computing past a proficient and accurate point would have a huge impact to almost any industry. It will be interesting to see what industries are able to make use of intermediate scale quantum computing first. Lockheed martin seams to have had interest in D-wave quantum anealers the past few generations.

I was referring to digitizing biology (living cells / molecules etc.) - we are not there yet nor we will be able to be there until we can simulate molecules in real time (something that quantum computers may eventually allow for). We certainly have quite a few digital tools that help us understand biology DNA / but we are not able to fully digitize the actual biology or simple living organisms yet.
 
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Once we can add in a CRC check in our dna we can start to defeat that one!
Just thinking of the law of unintended consequences. I imagine the first few live trials (most likely on animals) will have an unacceptably high rate of aggressive cancers. That may be enough to shutter the whole research field for decades, even if the researchers are close to a resolution.
 
Just thinking of the law of unintended consequences. I imagine the first few live trials (most likely on animals) will have an unacceptably high rate of aggressive cancers. That may be enough to shutter the whole research field for decades, even if the researchers are close to a resolution.
probably very right about that sadly
 
My first expectation is the goal of implementing planned obsolescence into products. It definitely has the impression of being malicious, but i think it would do wonders for reducing waste. No head of lettuce is going to stay fresh forever, but If we can define that period or enable direct measurement then we will throw out a lot less food. Should reduce price variance as well, or enable consistent pricing for food getting close to its retirement.
Most food waste has nothing to do with the shelf life of food. It is mostly related to production waste, after consumption waste, and transportation limitations. Even if you knew exactly to the second how long a strawberry would last it would have nearly zero effect on the spoilage numbers. If anything it would increase them since people would just dump them earlier.

The issue I have personally with the claims that we are "passing nature" or "engineering life" is we dont know jack about how nature really works. We think we do... then we find out 3 years later we missed a whole huge part.
"Nano" machines are subject to the same flaws as organic cell. The more we try to expand in self replication the more we see cancer analogs for a simple example. Nature is the god king of engineering... we will surpass it shortly before the end of the universe... and only because its moved on to better things.
 
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