Scientists have sythesised life. . . . does that mean they are now god? Or does it mean that they already had the tools created by God with which to work? In turn does that mean they are angels?
So many fundamental questions resulting from the creation of synthetic life.
Synthetic Life
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Mike
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Synthetic Life
Mike
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Re: Synthetic Life
Well, it's going to open a whole new fun world of ethics. My main practical concern would be the accidental (or deliberate) creation of some crazy super-virus that would lay waste to half the population. I guess it's mostly a trust thing, but apparently they are working in a "regulatory vacuum": it's always good to see legislation keeping up with developments in science!
I don't know about God, or angels, but it seems they're simply using what they had in front of them (possibly created by God, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster). I have occasionally wondered what gives us life, as opposed to being just lumps of carbon and water just reacting to things (there is an argument that we do just that our whole lives)... it's a pretty complex one.
I don't know about God, or angels, but it seems they're simply using what they had in front of them (possibly created by God, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster). I have occasionally wondered what gives us life, as opposed to being just lumps of carbon and water just reacting to things (there is an argument that we do just that our whole lives)... it's a pretty complex one.
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johnriley1uk
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Re: Synthetic Life
It's all incredibly unlikely, isn't it? Perhaps Carbon and Water have no business being in the Life Business and making such a mess of a perfectly happy planet....
It is potentially though a very serious ethical question and I'm sure there are SF stories somewhere that explore it. Where would it stop? Perhaps we would create human-like living things to perform various tasks for us. Then they would have to be designated as artificial. Perhaps they would have human-like emotions. Perhaps the state would want to kill them before they became old and a drain on resources.
Perhaps they would decide they had as much right to life as we do. Or more. If we became lazy and dependent we would be the drain on resources, to be removed as unnecessary.
We may think this far-fetched, but in a world where 100 years ago this message would have been a hand-written letter sent to one person and now in a few seconds it can be read by the whole world, anything that seems impossible now could be happening in 25 or 30 years.
It's not all progress though. 100 years ago this "letter" would have been taken down to the post by a servant and would have arrived at its destination later today. Today I would have to go to the post myself and the letter might arrive by Tuesday, some week or other. Oh no servants now, we're all servants of Gordon Brown....
It is potentially though a very serious ethical question and I'm sure there are SF stories somewhere that explore it. Where would it stop? Perhaps we would create human-like living things to perform various tasks for us. Then they would have to be designated as artificial. Perhaps they would have human-like emotions. Perhaps the state would want to kill them before they became old and a drain on resources.
Perhaps they would decide they had as much right to life as we do. Or more. If we became lazy and dependent we would be the drain on resources, to be removed as unnecessary.
We may think this far-fetched, but in a world where 100 years ago this message would have been a hand-written letter sent to one person and now in a few seconds it can be read by the whole world, anything that seems impossible now could be happening in 25 or 30 years.
It's not all progress though. 100 years ago this "letter" would have been taken down to the post by a servant and would have arrived at its destination later today. Today I would have to go to the post myself and the letter might arrive by Tuesday, some week or other. Oh no servants now, we're all servants of Gordon Brown....
Re: Synthetic Life
I remember a statement from Arthur C. Clarke: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". However, now that we know about electricity and the electromagnetic spectrum, I think someone of our generation would transpose pretty well into any future society. That is, compared to someone from a thousand years ago put into our world.
The synthetic genome work is interesting, because they're talking about using it to create more efficient biofuels, or bacteria that can mop up pollution. Creating any mammal-like creature seems a long way off yet, but the ethical side does need to be considered. Personally, I think that if it looks alive, acts alive, and has DNA, it is alive, regardless of origin (in relation to John's servant life-form scenario). I'll take a guess that most scientists won't move beyond synthetic bacteria, at least until the law clarifies things, for fear of having their labs closed down by lynch-mobs.
The synthetic genome work is interesting, because they're talking about using it to create more efficient biofuels, or bacteria that can mop up pollution. Creating any mammal-like creature seems a long way off yet, but the ethical side does need to be considered. Personally, I think that if it looks alive, acts alive, and has DNA, it is alive, regardless of origin (in relation to John's servant life-form scenario). I'll take a guess that most scientists won't move beyond synthetic bacteria, at least until the law clarifies things, for fear of having their labs closed down by lynch-mobs.
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Re: Synthetic Life
i wanted to echo this sentiment and say it would be inherently dangerous and unethical to create a second-class variant of humanity for the sole purpose of being slaves, it would propell civilisation back to the point of the rape of africa and how long before the civil rights movement would be fighting for these laboratory breed humans to be treated the same as the womb/test-tube based kind? it is morally abhorant to develop a living thing for the simple reason of making rich fat lazy wasters' pointless lives even easier.mr_e wrote:Personally, I think that if it looks alive, acts alive, and has DNA, it is alive, regardless of origin (in relation to John's servant life-form scenario).
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johnriley1uk
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Re: Synthetic Life
Absolutely agree.
What about the dangers of rogue states creating such quasi-humans for the sole purpose of military use? Ultimately, perhaps that would be possible too. What if they were made to want to fight, with glorious death in battle being their raison d'etre?
It could be a very dark future if these things came to be true.
What about the dangers of rogue states creating such quasi-humans for the sole purpose of military use? Ultimately, perhaps that would be possible too. What if they were made to want to fight, with glorious death in battle being their raison d'etre?
It could be a very dark future if these things came to be true.