Artificial Life

[DOXXP29 5]

Coming Soon to your city!  Comments & Thoughts? And what kind of light will this shed on the creationism/evolution debate? Add a new category or influence the existing ones?

Artificial Life Likely in 3 to 10 Years

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

3 hours ago

WASHINGTON - Around the world, a handful of scientists are trying to create life from scratch and they're getting closer.

Experts expect an announcement within three to 10 years from someone in the now little-known field of "wet artificial life."

"It's going to be a big deal and everybody's going to know about it," said Mark Bedau, chief operating officer of ProtoLife of Venice, Italy, one of those in the race. "We're talking about a technology that could change our world in pretty fundamental ways _ in fact, in ways that are impossible to predict."

That first cell of synthetic life _ made from the basic chemicals in DNA _ may not seem like much to non-scientists. For one thing, you'll have to look in a microscope to see it.

"Creating protocells has the potential to shed new light on our place in the universe," Bedau said. "This will remove one of the few fundamental mysteries about creation in the universe and our role."

And several scientists believe man-made life forms will one day offer the potential for solving a variety of problems, from fighting diseases to locking up greenhouse gases to eating toxic waste.

Bedau figures there are three major hurdles to creating synthetic life:

_ A container, or membrane, for the cell to keep bad molecules out, allow good ones, and the ability to multiply.

_ A genetic system that controls the functions of the cell, enabling it to reproduce and mutate in response to environmental changes.

_ A metabolism that extracts raw materials from the environment as food and then changes it into energy.

One of the leaders in the field, Jack Szostak at Harvard Medical School, predicts that within the next six months, scientists will report evidence that the first step _ creating a cell membrane _ is "not a big problem." Scientists are using fatty acids in that effort.

Szostak is also optimistic about the next step _ getting nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA, to form a working genetic system.

His idea is that once the container is made, if scientists add nucleotides in the right proportions, then Darwinian evolution could simply take over.

"We aren't smart enough to design things, we just let evolution do the hard work and then we figure out what happened," Szostak said.

In Gainesville, Fla., Steve Benner, a biological chemist at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution is attacking that problem by going outside of natural genetics. Normal DNA consists of four bases _ adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine (known as A,C,G,T) _ molecules that spell out the genetic code in pairs. Benner is trying to add eight new bases to the genetic alphabet.

Bedau said there are legitimate worries about creating life that could "run amok," but there are ways of addressing it, and it will be a very long time before that is a problem.

"When these things are created, they're going to be so weak, it'll be a huge achievement if you can keep them alive for an hour in the lab," he said. "But them getting out and taking over, never in our imagination could this happen."

(This version CORRECTS Bedau quote to "shed new light")

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[topcliff 1]

Sounds cool. Maybe one of the major uses for this is in the Armed Forces. Artificial soldiers ready to obey orders. Reminds me of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones.

[Mr. Glamazon 9]

I've always wondered about this. Especially for what Topcliff has said. How ethical is it to create disposable beings? Granted, we'll only start with a few cells, but the science will grow. Even more, what's the point in creating life when we already can? Finally, my question might be phrased, what is an artificial life? Does it think? Does it love? Does it have ambition and goals? Why should something created in a lab be any more false than something conceived in a womb?

[Micah 16]

...a handful of scientists are trying to create life from scratch...quote>

God says, "Oh, so you made life out of scratch, huh?"
Scientist replies, "Yup. We just used DNA and-"
God interrupts, "Wait. Wait. Wait. You used what I created? Nuh-uh. Make it out of nothing you cheater."

Anyway, this is fascinating. This could be excellent for the medical field. And, the armies of the world will be sure to use this as well. Who knows, this could even be applied to space exploration, now that I think about it.

[coolotter88 2]

in other news, the scientists use a software called spore to control the development of the artificial life form.

[Micah 16]

Originally posted by: coolotter88 in other news, the scientists use a software called spore to control the development of the artificial life form.quote>

 

Then I guess I'll be a scientist once the game comes out.

[IDS2 3,396]

Originally posted by: Micah

...a handful of scientists are trying to create life from scratch...quote>

God says, "Oh, so you made life out of scratch, huh?"

Scientist replies, "Yup. We just used DNA and-"

God interrupts, "Wait. Wait. Wait. You used what I created? Nuh-uh. Make it out of nothing you cheater."

quote>

 

Very true

[stereohype 0]

I've been creating life from scratch in the filthy mop i call my hair since puberty. Little green beings called the Numnorts. Highly intelligent things that fight off Gnats and Lice.

[Za 164]

About the soldiers, wars would never end, just keep on going as long as you could make the 'artificial people.' I agree with Mr. Glamazon, however I do see the medical benefits and the like. Just my two cents......

[Barbarossa 51]

Originally posted by: IDS2

Originally posted by: Micah

...a handful of scientists are trying to create life from scratch...quote>

God says, "Oh, so you made life out of scratch, huh?"

Scientist replies, "Yup. We just used DNA and-"

God interrupts, "Wait. Wait. Wait. You used what I created? Nuh-uh. Make it out of nothing you cheater."

quote>

 

Very true quote>

LOL... I want to see God's Patent Number...  I'll take Him to court...LOL...

Barbarossa

[Mr. Glamazon 9]

I quite agree with Za.  Wars would never end. 

I think, in fact, "artificial beings" (I SO hate the term) would undermine the point of war.  To manufacture soldiers en masse is to believe that you're doomed to failure without them in the first place.  Furthermore, the outcome of a war would be negated because the bitter-sweet victory of war comes at the high cost of the children of a nation.  Also in the same vein as my first thought (being doomed to failure), is if these soldiers ARE expendable, what happens if a great mass of them comes home after a war?  Imagine an entire group of parent-less people coming home to a country they fought for but never knew, a place both alien and cold, and a place that was never meant to handle an outside variable in the first place.  I think more than the science, it's the morality of the issue that intrigues me.  It seems so wrong, and not because I'm religious or god-fearing [for I am neither], and not because I'm especially moral [because I'm not], and not because I feel compelled to make the great choices of society [i definitely DON'T want that!]. 

Ultimately, logically, it just makes no sense. 

Let's make people with absolutely no attachment to where they came from or who they are.  Let's give them no sense of spatial awareness, love, or compassion, and then use them to wage war in the name of a place they don't understand, or be "tested" on by people with a sense of ethical ambiguity [yet these are the same people who might appeal to our compassionate, understanding side when it comes to defending their grotesqueries], or use them to keep house when Sir and Madam have gone off on holiday or are just too "busy" to do their own damn work. 

There is one logic I see that makes all of this make sense, and it's the logic of vanity.  The scientist who said that this research can shed new light on the universe was a jaded, jaded man.  This has everything to do with control and nothing to do with gaining a deeper understanding of the universe.  Slavery was outlawed when people discovered that other people felt as they felt, but what happens when we create something that does not?

[hamsterTK 93]

it seems most likely though that in our lifetimes the most probable thing to come out of it is that they will make little bacteria with useful functions like eating pollution, or maybe special cells that fight disease in your body. Anything else could be so hugely complicated it may never happen. It already takes millions of years for life to evolve naturally, imagine how long would it take people to perfect our own creations?

[noahdiehl 0]

Well it's either give it a try or keep living the way we are living... In 1492 they all said it was a bad idea to try cross the pond.... poeple thought the idea of electricity was completly mad..... boy am I glad when people don't listen to others and just go for it. Life will always find away...and why not help it out a little once in a while. The point is we don't know what we are making and need to be respectful. We can create little animals that gobble up toxic waste...but at the same time we have to give it a chance to have a natrul habitat and let nature take over a little....then we will be really playing god. Kind of like owning a pet...it's fine, just take care of it and don't let it eat the kid around the block, LOL.

[SpokaneFlyBoy 2]

This doesn't look so much like they're talking about creating things with any set purpose like soldiers or helpful bacteria that can consume toxic waste and convert it into something else. This looks to be the research of putting a bunch of things together and seeing if a living cell will spark out of it. Basically, they're trying to prove that the "primordial soup" scenario actually can happen and random molecules meeting together really can just accidentally create the living cell.

[coolotter88 2]

when they come back from the war, there will be the "soldier reduction program"

chuk-chuk

[MrCinatit 30]

I found this rather fascinating myself - instead of being afraid of the horrors, how about taking a look at the opportunities, should this be properly regulated?

Truly intelligent nanobots capable of fixing anything, and a better adaptability to do so, as well.

More intelligent and complex worlds to explore other worlds. Imagine the opportunities to be able to explore Mars for water with a being just like us - but who is able to breath on the planet's surface.

Supercomputers, controlled by "intelligent" cells could potentially work much faster than our computers (after all, the human mind alone can hold more than a computer, and bring up "files" quicker - imagine a CPU with that power).

Healthy organs could be created to replace less-healthy organs in the human body.

These might sound freaky, or something out of a mad-scientist science fiction movie - but with the right regulation and oversight, we could prevent the Dr. Frankensteins from roaming the world. We should be looking at regulating this, instead of outright banning an opportunity like this, as we have so blindly done with cloning. We are entering some new scientific frontiers which we should be embracing, instead of fearing.

[DanWalker8 3]

Still believing in gods? Sigh...

[njdevi66 12]

Do you want to go to the island... i can see something like this happening in our future.

[DOXXP29 5]

Well put, MrGlamazon!

DanWalker, are gods not also artificial life created by man? Seems to me...

[DanWalker8 3]

Gods are as real in my mind as any other idea, its just the reality in which we live that makes their existance anywhere other than my head, improbable.

Unlike some people my thoughts have to work with whats infront of me.

They're ideas, i wouldn't call an idea artificial life.

[saltandsauce 0]

i want to say they shouldn't do it not because of the benefits but because genetic pollution is the only kind that grows over time as opposed to shrinking thou shalt not maketh life to perform you problematic duties alsosome crackpot will misuse it of course

[WackoJak 0]

I reckon it'll all turn 'The Matrix', with the beings becoming smart enough to question why they are under our control.

[Za 164]

Brilliant Mr. Glamazon...... Being somewhat pessimistic about this again: the idea of supercomputers and the like is formidable, however, there is a great chance that if they were smart enough, they could betray their human 'masters' and rebel against us....sure, it sound science fiction, but it could happen...Btw: Interesting point DOXXP29.

[Shingure 56]

Za, The rebelion thing comes with the stupidity of giving such intelligence.

You would have to be somewhat dotty if you wanted to give the rebelious feature to something you program. In IRobot the movie. And Im not basing you off of this this is because computers were made too intellgent and alas the center of it all caused a bunch of things to happen. If that was the case for artificial life aka robotic lifeforms to take shape we have to look at the fact that giving too much intelligence causes that and two being stand alone is something that will be able to partly stop any kind of rebelion. Of course I would want a robot in my house doing my dishes and the sweeping but then again when they were given the intellect to say I reject , Denied , or whatever then it becomes a problem.

Plus honestly there are 6 and a half billion people. If they manifacture so many of them and waste money on these things that may be defective. Why must they we have people in the world today mind you over 1 billion dont have access to clean and healty water but yet you decide to build something that will cost as much as a water pump. Seriously priorities are needed to be straigtened out first. Then technological stuff like this.

DOXXP29-Artificial Life are Gods? Why dont you ask them that if you believe in them. If you infact have so much to say that He or She isnt real...Yet no evidence comes to mind. Even though you have records and books and they have actually found the Noah's Ark mind you how is it Artificial. We arent on the level to know that yet . Questions like this will be answered in time.

[Za 164]

Indeed, Shingure, your argument does make sense. Now, I don't really want to get dragged into a religious debate.....

[coolotter88 2]

easy, install a chip that destroys the artificial life form when they start thinking bad thoughts.

[DOXXP29 5]

Agreed, DW8. It's just that when I read your comment, I kinda smiled in agreement and the thought just popped onto my mind.