Oh fuck it's the future

[Professor Smarmiarty]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/may/20/craig-venter-synthetic-life-form
Making synthetic life! Oh shits! I saw this in a movie once. it didn't end well.

However, the North Koreans shall stop any new life from getting out of control.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/20/north-korea-naval-ship-report
South Korea has dropped such incidents before but with quite a few deaths there will be much more pressure on them this time to do something.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

That's incredible. Scary when you stop to think about the potential of such a break through. Still very amazing.

[Tev]

Once the synthetic war monsters are online North Korean won't be an issue.

[Wigmund]

However, the North Koreans shall stop any new life from getting out of control.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/20/north-korea-naval-ship-report
South Korea has dropped such incidents before but with quite a few deaths there will be much more pressure on them this time to do something.

I don't think this is a sign that the future is here, I think it's a sign that Peter Stormare is gonna be rampaging around North Korea making deals with the UN, South Koreans, Chinese and Russian Mafia.

[BitVyper]

Well, there's really only one way to respond to this.

IN YOUR FACE, GOD!

[Azisien]

The privatization of this technology scares me somewhat. And yet as a biologist I find it fascinating.

[Geminex]

Hey, no fair, I was gonna make an article about the North-korean attack on the south-korean ship. I had even thought of a joke involving Starcraft!

Anyway, yeah. North Korean Sub torpedoes South Korean Ship. Pretty clear evidence that this is exactly what's happened. South Korea's pissed, China's telling everyone to calm down, the US are being nice and moderate, Japan's insulting North Korea's mother, while North Korea is blaming the magical torpedo fairies and threatening war if sanctions are imposed upon them.
I like that last bit. They're officially still at war with South Korea, so aside from Nato members who could pummel them into submission, they really don't have anyone to declare war on. Unless they declare Double War on South Korea, which would be amusing.

Anyway, what do you guys think, what caused the attack? North Korea just being dicks? Or something more significant?

[bluestarultor]

The privatization of this technology scares me somewhat. And yet as a biologist I find it fascinating.

I wouldn't find it so scary if he didn't seem so smug about it. Sending an email to the bug's web site? Seriously? And the indication that people were afraid he'd copyright DNA isn't exactly comforting, either.

If he actually acted like it were for science, I'd be less concerned, but this guy seems to have a superstar image of himself and we need that kind of mentality with genetic code like we need a hole in the head.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

I wouldn't find it so scary if he didn't seem so smug about it. Sending an email to the bug's web site? Seriously? And the indication that people were afraid he'd copyright DNA isn't exactly comforting, either.

If he actually acted like it were for science, I'd be less concerned, but this guy seems to have a superstar image of himself and we need that kind of mentality with genetic code like we need a hole in the head.

He just created life from scratch. His new ego was not too surprising to me.

Let's hope he's not feeling too smug. We really don't need an incurable plague. Just the thought he and his probably could pull it off (as if we couldn't before anyway) even by accident. Kinda creeps me out a bit.

[bluestarultor]

He just created life from scratch. His new ego was not too surprising to me.

Let's hope he's not feeling too smug. We really don't need an incurable plague. Just the thought he and his probably could pull it off (as if we couldn't before anyway) even by accident. Kinda creeps me out a bit.

My concern is less that he's smug after the fact and more that there's an indication he was smug before the fact and spent the last decade making this shit work because he fancied himself a designer scientist.

This is not the kind of guy I'm comfortable having do science.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Yeah though I wonder if he and his team are going to aim for more. And really how much control would he and anyone else even have over anything they create in the near future should they decided to aim big.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Hey, no fair, I was gonna make an article about the North-korean attack on the south-korean ship. I had even thought of a joke involving Starcraft!

Anyway, yeah. North Korean Sub torpedoes South Korean Ship. Pretty clear evidence that this is exactly what's happened. South Korea's pissed, China's telling everyone to calm down, the US are being nice and moderate, Japan's insulting North Korea's mother, while North Korea is blaming the magical torpedo fairies and threatening war if sanctions are imposed upon them.
I like that last bit. They're officially still at war with South Korea, so aside from Nato members who could pummel them into submission, they really don't have anyone to declare war on. Unless they declare Double War on South Korea, which would be amusing.

Anyway, what do you guys think, what caused the attack? North Korea just being dicks? Or something more significant?

I;m chalking it up fully to North Korea being dicks. That's really how they roll. Probably just like "Fuck,we can get away with it. Why not?"

[Green Spanner]

I mean, you just know that the resulting artificial lifeforms will go berserk. That's totally what's going to happen.

[Osterbaum]

The privatization of this technology scares me somewhat a lot. And yet as a biologist I find it fascinating.
Summed up my feelings on the matter there.

As for North-Korea and this whole situation, it's getting old.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Guys we're not in the future if everything is not run by corporations. Did you not watch Robocop?
I'll be over here in my communist wonderland.

As for the NK thing getting old ,this is the biggest loss of life in regards to these two since the Korean War. So it's a bit bigger than normal incidents. It'll probably blow over without incident. I can't see anything happening.

[Premmy]

My concern is less that he's smug after the fact and more that there's an indication he was smug before the fact and spent the last decade making this shit work because he fancied himself a designer scientist.

This is not the kind of guy I'm comfortable having do science.

RICHAAARRDDDSSSSSSShttp://www.samruby.com/Villains/DoctorDoom/DrDoomChap.gif

[tacticslion]

I mean, you just know that the resulting artificial lifeforms will go berserk. That's totally what's going to happen.

Yeah, I like how the article flippantly mentions that possibility.

The single-celled organism has four "watermarks" written into its DNA to identify it as synthetic and help trace its descendants back to their creator, should they go astray (emphasis added)

"Oh, yeah, just in case it multiplies uncontrollably and we lose track of it, we can find it later! Sucks to be goats I guess."

At least they didn't use a humanocentric (word?) bacteria, I guess? I mean, I don't even know what their (current) genome does. Do we know what it eats, where it's likely to get that, how (and how rapidly) it multiplies, anything like that? I'm taking it that it's no longer the goat-infecting thing it once was.

[Bob The Mercenary]

Didn't they just transform one bacteria into another bacteria? Not create a brand new life form out of nothing?

Not that I'm trying to undermine the importance and awesomeness of the experiment. It's just that every newspaper out there is claiming they "created life from scratch" which is kinda stretching it.

[Geminex]

Well, I don't know too much about this, but the way I see it:

Scientists determine Bacteria's genome
Scientists chemically replicate Bacteria's genome without using the original DNA
Scientists remove DNA in one Bacteria's nucleus, replace it with the artificially-created DNA
The Bacterium that's had its DNA replaced changes according to the new DNA structure, as the new DNA is translated. When the bacterium replicates, its replica also have the new genome.

The red parts are the big deal. Basically, the fact that we've chemically created a DNA strand, means we can design any kind of genome, create the corresponding DNA strand(s) and from that, create any kind of organism, with any "attributes" we want. Of course, it's still easy with single-cell organisms, since their genome is fairly simple. Harder with larger organisms. We could, potentially create a genome for a dragon (provided we could determine exactly what the sequence of base pairs need to be, what proteins it'll need, exactly how it'll support homeostasis and survive), and then insert that DNA into a cell. Provided we could do that, we could just watch the dragon grow cell-by-cell. It'd be quite horribly difficult, use more processing power and research time than we could possibly muster (right now), but this is sort of a breakthrough, because now it's potentially possible at all. Before this, it really wasn't. The best we could do was cut-and-paste certain sequences into pre-existing DNA to make cells synthesise, say, insulin instead of lactose.
Now we can skip the cut-and-paste and just create whatever genome we want. We can create custom-built single cell-organisms for purposes of, say, manufacturing certain chemicals. Even with just single cells, there's a lot of potential here.

And, in a way, we are creating life, because they've chemically created RNA, and from that, DNA. And RNA is pretty much the root of life, since it can self-replicate, and synthesise its own replication.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Yeah I just read the paper- the new DNA is completely artifical which is an amazing achievement because DNA synthesis is not easy and difficult to control accurately enough.

[Geminex]

Exactly. What's important to realize is that, until now, we've always used pre-existing DNA in the replication process. Here, we use only information about the genome, as in, nothing physical. I'd be really interested in the process they used.

Edit:
And why is the thread icon Warbot, of all things?

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Yeah, the experimenta lsections says shit all about how they did it (though partyl I can'tb e assed reading the reference papers and partly synthetic chemistry is for fatties so I ignore it). Seems to be just mixtures of all the techniques we have now, which is feasiable just needs a fuckload of planning and thinking ahead.

[bluestarultor]

Exactly. What's important to realize is that, until now, we've always used pre-existing DNA in the replication process. Here, we use only information about the genome, as in, nothing physical. I'd be really interested in the process they used.

Edit:
And why is the thread icon Warbot, of all things?

Because Warbot represents a grim and depressing future, where rather than living people fighting wars they were replaced by death machines designed to kill, yet tragically intelligent. It stands for the darkness that is quickly approaching where the conflict with North Korea will be fraught with unmanned drones, and, possibly, monsters designed protein by protein to be loosed on the battlefield, who will never know love in a cruel, cruel world in which no one has considered what they will do after the battle, where they will go, or how the world will view them when they get there.

[Loyal]

So "Warbot" is now a unit of measure?

[Tev]

So "Warbot" is now a unit of measure?Just as much of one as "Skynet" or "T Virus" are.

[Geminex]

Because Warbot represents a grim and depressing future, where rather than living people fighting wars they were replaced by death machines designed to kill, yet tragically intelligent. It stands for the darkness that is quickly approaching where the conflict with North Korea will be fraught with unmanned drones, and, possibly, monsters designed protein by protein to be loosed on the battlefield, who will never know love in a cruel, cruel world in which no one has considered what they will do after the battle, where they will go, or how the world will view them when they get there.

Hahahahaha that implies that the present isn't grim and depressing.

And besides, North Korea vs. South Korea isn't going to re-erupt anytime soon. There's so many world powers interested in keeping that particular conflict stagnant, it won't flare up. Sanctions are probably going to happen, but NK won't do much, other than QQ. Because, hell, Japan could probably bomb them into oblivion, much less the US.

[Aldurin]

If we get to the point customized DNA then I want to be the first to own a Sonic the Hedgehog clone. Or be given the DNA to transform into him at will.

[Fenris]

If we get to the point customized DNA then I want to be the first to own a Sonic the Hedgehog clone. Or be given the DNA to transform into him at will.

That's a bad idea and you should feel bad.

http://www.nuklearforums.com/image.php?u=7041&dateline=1273537842

[bluestarultor]

Hahahahaha that implies that the present isn't grim and depressing.

And besides, North Korea vs. South Korea isn't going to re-erupt anytime soon. There's so many world powers interested in keeping that particular conflict stagnant, it won't flare up. Sanctions are probably going to happen, but NK won't do much, other than QQ. Because, hell, Japan could probably bomb them into oblivion, much less the US.

Well, I said the future is quickly coming upon us. Gotta have a smooth transition, after all.

[POS Industries]

And why is the thread icon Warbot, of all things?
Because that's what happens when you don't put icon tags on yourself when you start a new thread and we have to do it for you.

[Hanuman]

Ok science guy, thank you for telling us exactly how all life will be extinguished by 2012, mixing computers with bioviruses with corps with south korea.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

As long as they don't get carried way with making life forms. We should be fine.

[Wigmund]

As long as they don't get carried way with making life forms. We should be fine.

They probably will and then we'll have situations like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PWH745MMMY&feature=related).

[Kyanbu The Legend]

You know what, no lie, that thing was actually more cute then scary. XD

[Ecks]

Negarep me all you want.

I'll give 'em 20 years to make the first Pokemon.

[Aldurin]

I call Torchic. And dibbs on each of the legendaries.

And make a Master Ball so I can kidnap people by throwing it at them.

[Magus]

Why is making DNA hard artificially, don't you just chemically bond ATGC in the right order? I'm not saying that the order isn't hard to get right but if you know the right order then it seems like it'd be pretty easy to create "artificial" DNA, which is really just a fancy way of saying that you yourself put the already-existing chemicals together ahead of time. It would be the correct order that is the amazing creation, not the actual stuff. I applaud them for coming up with an order that doesn't create mutant bacteria capable of turning your brains to jelly. Obviously, they will accidentally do this soon, but until then, I applaud.

However, they were just playing around with stuff that already exists. They just observed how DNA works and made their own using already existing chemicals. Big whoop. That's why I think robots are much more interesting, because the "life" or "thought" part if they could get it down would be entirely an artificial human creation because nothing like that already exists naturally. There aren't any naturally occurring sentient robots (that we know of, luckily, as I'm sure they would destroy us all or star in really bad Michael Bay movies--oh wait).

As for the present already being grim and depressing, obviously the future will be grimmer and depressinger.

[bluestarultor]

Why is making DNA hard artificially, don't you just chemically bond ATGC in the right order? I'm not saying that the order isn't hard to get right but if you know the right order then it seems like it'd be pretty easy to create "artificial" DNA, which is really just a fancy way of saying that you yourself put the already-existing chemicals together ahead of time. It would be the correct order that is the amazing creation, not the actual stuff. I applaud them for coming up with an order that doesn't create mutant bacteria capable of turning your brains to jelly. Obviously, they will accidentally do this soon, but until then, I applaud.

However, they were just playing around with stuff that already exists. They just observed how DNA works and made their own using already existing chemicals. Big whoop. That's why I think robots are much more interesting, because the "life" or "thought" part if they could get it down would be entirely an artificial human creation because nothing like that already exists naturally. There aren't any naturally occurring sentient robots (that we know of, luckily, as I'm sure they would destroy us all or star in really bad Michael Bay movies--oh wait).

As for the present already being grim and depressing, obviously the future will be grimmer and depressinger.

Well, you also have to get the conditions right to put it all together. It's not like you can just throw a bunch of nucleic acids in a box and shake it up or poke them together with a tweezers.

Just being fair, I'm sure it's an incredibly sensitive and delicate process if it took them ten years to accomplish.

[Azisien]

Why is making DNA hard artificially, don't you just chemically bond ATGC in the right order?

The bonds involved in DNA are jerks and it's not that easy. Not to mention all the error correction and QA you would have to do. Ugh, sounds like a nightmare. Obviously it can be done, but this experiment here took like what, 15 years? And $40 million. So it's hard.

[Osterbaum]

Don't worry. It wont be long till someone develops faster and cheaper and more reliable methods. I'm sure.

[Loyal]

Don't worry. It wont be long till someone develops faster and cheaper and more reliable methods. I'm sure.And that's what worries me.

[Osterbaum]

But why? I see no problem with such scientific develpment itself. The problems I do see however, are problems to do with these things being in corporate hands.

[Aldurin]

And that's what worries me.

But why? I see no problem with such scientific develpment itself. The problems I do see however, are problems to do with these things being in corporate hands.

I know why he's worried. Prepare to shit your pants upon reading this article. (http://www.cracked.com/article_15657_10-ways-online-gaming-will-change-future.html)

That's what the future has in store for us.

[Magus]

What is 3 feet above my monitor? 300 million? A billion? The number on the graph is 10,000,000, this is not a very troubling number. It is .16% of the world population. Unless three feet above my monitor is a billion or something, in which case it is 1/6 of the population, MMORPG playing is still a minority hobby.

The amount of people playing MMORPGs doesn't have much to do with genetics, though, so I'm assuming you're saying that advances in genetics will allow us to do these things--look like elves or what have you, through some kind of mutation. I think it would be hard to do this to something that hasn't developed yet, like an embryo, and even harder to do to something that has already developed, in any way close to getting what you really want. So the advances if possible seem like they're hundreds or thousands of years in the future, in which case what we want to look like may have changed considerably.

Most of the other stuff doesn't have to do with genetics, but could be argued against fairly easily. Lots of weaknesses could be found with the premises.

Luckily it is just a humorous article and not to really be taken seriously.

[Aldurin]

What is 3 feet above my monitor? 300 million? A billion? The number on the graph is 10,000,000, this is not a very troubling number. It is .16% of the world population. Unless three feet above my monitor is a billion or something, in which case it is 1/6 of the population, MMORPG playing is still a minority hobby.

The amount of people playing MMORPGs doesn't have much to do with genetics, though, so I'm assuming you're saying that advances in genetics will allow us to do these things--look like elves or what have you, through some kind of mutation. I think it would be hard to do this to something that hasn't developed yet, like an embryo, and even harder to do to something that has already developed, in any way close to getting what you really want. So the advances if possible seem like they're hundreds or thousands of years in the future, in which case what we want to look like may have changed considerably.

Most of the other stuff doesn't have to do with genetics, but could be argued against fairly easily. Lots of weaknesses could be found with the premises.

Luckily it is just a humorous article and not to really be taken seriously.

Don't take it seriously now, but be ready to when those who already do start making steps toward those developments. Supernerd and MMO nerd is a combination that brings great change to humanity. I expect some insane advancement to come before 2030.