*UPDATED*'Artificial life' breakthrough announced by scientists *VIDEO*

[slowpoke999]

"But the risks are also unparalleled," he continued. "We need new standards of safety evaluation for this kind of radical research and protections from military or terrorist misuse and abuse."

Thank god they didn't forget the most important part. Seriously inventing new technology is bad if it can do more harm then good when it falls into the wrong hands

 

[Vitor Goncalves]

Well that's pretty fucking cool. Just one more step to cloning and the inevitable future depicted in The Sixth Day.

That and I like how the professor has the same name as me

This is far beyond cloning. Even beyond mutating. This is creating new species of life forms.

 

[DarkDain]

c'mooon were GAMERS! THINK OF THE IMPLICATIONS! Think of the game A.I. we'll have! Think of the bots they'll be able to replicate! Imagine playing Call of Duty with bots that play like humans but without the attitude and talking and idiocy! This is a big step for gaming.

 

[SimuLord]

I'm not usually one for objecting on religious grounds, but man should not interfere in the affairs of gods like this. Unintended consequences...it's not just a good idea, it's the LAW.

 

[grimsprice]

To what end ?
What point is there to moving forward when you don't know what you're moving towards ?
Perverting the natural order of the world for no reason other then to perpetuate this meaningless endevour, hoping that in the end we'll have some justification for our actions ?
Blindly stumbling along without any foresight doesn't help anyone.

What.... are you talking about having a goal as a species? In a broad sense? What is the alternative? Would you have us go back to the caves? WE'VE BEEN TO THE MOON. I REFUSE TO GO BACK TO THE CAVES.

If you read my post again, you might notice the four examples that I gave for the benefits of the technology. Biofuel is a clean alternative to fossil fuels, so being able to mass produce it with synthetically developed organisms is quite clearly a good thing, as is the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. That can be done by developing organisms that absorb it. That's two excellent examples already, or are you one of these that cries "hoax" whenever someone mentions climate change? The other two examples given could advance medical science greatly. If human life isn't a good enough justification for scientific research, then you might as well start rubbing herbs on your tumours and start praying to Imhotep.

Does anyone else see my argument here? Honestly, I don't know if this guy is ignorant or if i'm not explaining it right.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? YOU IGNORANT @#$%$##@@#$$. Imhotep was an ARCHITECT. Not a GOD! How could you be so ... ... !!!!!! /sarcasm.

I think you explained it quite well. I also happen to think there is a non-zero probability that something is wrong with the other guy.

 

[Ham_authority95]

"But the risks are also unparalleled," he continued. "We need new standards of safety evaluation for this kind of radical research and protections from military or terrorist misuse and abuse."

Thank god they didn't forget the most important part. Seriously inventing new technology is bad if it can do more harm then good when it falls into the wrong hands

Lets hope that it doesn't.

Or else we might experience something like the Cold War again, only this time with synthetic lifeforms.

 

[Bocaj2000]

Sooooooo we will become Quarians and be driven out of our homeworld by the geth?

 

[mrpenguinismyhomeboy]

It's kind of awesome.

That said, we should proceed with caution, and not rent the technology out to the military just yet. We should use it only for globally beneficial purposes.

 

[Ham_authority95]

I wonder if the scientists responsible for this all gathered around, played a thunder sound and shouted 'It's ALIVE!"

Now that would be hilarious. On a more serious note, this is the beginning of the end. I'm now investing in a bunker, many tinned goods and shotguns.

Shotguns and bunkers won't stop immortal synthetic lifeforms that have the power of the internet and the ability to adapt before you could blink.

 

[HT_Black]

I'd worry about a zombie apocalypse (becuase it says right there that that's EXACTLY what is is) if I didn't already hold the belief that any species stupid to weaponize synthetic life wouldn't be missed.

But hey, if anyone ever put this together with genetic engineering, a future where the whitehouse has a dragon on the front lawn instead of a noisy turd purporting to be a dog could become very real.

And don't lie to me; I KNOW I'm not the only one who thinks having "President Obama, tamer of huge things" as a political figurehead would be cool.

 

[mrpenguinismyhomeboy]

I wonder if the scientists responsible for this all gathered around, played a thunder sound and shouted 'It's ALIVE!"

Now that would be hilarious. On a more serious note, this is the beginning of the end. I'm now investing in a bunker, many tinned goods and shotguns.

Shotguns and bunkers won't stop immortal synthetic lifeforms that have the power of the internet and the ability to adapt before you could blink.

I think it would take a bit longer then the blink of an eye. Once these things become multicellular, evolution will start slowing down alot. It will be a while before they are killing us because they developed a brain and want to. A long long long while.

But if we rent the technology to the military, they will surely use it to kill us earlier.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

we are going to create some kind of horrible creature that will doom is all arent we?

This is science, so I think that would be a statement.

 

[Georgie_Leech]

Holy #$%^. Science is awesome. One step closer to Star Trek...

 

[Mandal0re]

Saw this on the news earlier,very exciting,lots of potential.

oh ye also, in before Christian back lash....

 

[oppp7]

I don't think it's robots...

OT: This is awesome! Now we can make whatever species we want, as long as we get the DNA right!

 

[OctalLord]

Made a account to specificly post this thought:

What will this mean commercially? Meaning people wanting to create the perfect woman/man(Refrence to Stepford Wives) Or possibly even Furries, Lizard-Men, Or even beings that aren't bipedal.

I could easily see humanity ruining this discovery with it's perversion.


Another thought to go along with that is: What about organicly grown workers and what will it mean for the job market? I mean machines already started replacing jobs in this area. But most of them are to large to move around, occasionally have glitches and errors. What if they could be replaced by a being that requires no pay, accepts poor treatment. With it's only existence to do it's specific task. (Incidentally that sounds like the opening script of a movie... Hmmm.)

 

[CD-R]

Well, we've been making the steps toward initiating Skynet for ages, now it's time for Blade Runner to get a look in...

It will be a war between the Synthetics and the Organics. We'll probably win.

Actually if you wanted to speed up the process of building Skynet, some guys studying artificial intelligence have made an RTS to help speed the process along.

http://www.nerogame.org/

Heres a video of it.

http://z.cs.utexas.edu/users/nn/nero/movies/Media/nero-kxan36-2005.avi

 

[Julianking93]

Well that's pretty fucking cool. Just one more step to cloning and the inevitable future depicted in The Sixth Day.

That and I like how the professor has the same name as me

well to be fair, this isn't exactly cloning, but just a synthetic copy. and also, cloning technology is already fairly developed and available, so much so that scientists have even said really any scientist/small laboratory could effectively afford/achieve cloning (so much so that there is worry of rogue scientists trying to create their own crimes against nature)


on topic, i think the benefits of this breakthrough are astronomical, but at the same time, the dangers are just as great, if not greater

This I know, but they were never able to successfully create human DNA, but with this, it's one step closer.

Also, the part about the renegade scientists making their own creatures just reminded me of that upcoming movie Splice which I think will be fucking awesome

really? huh, i thought cloning human beings was about as simple as cloning sheep, (tho i might have just assumed that,)

and which is awesome, Splice, or creating freaky mutants? splice looks good, tho the idea of scientists creating genetically altered creatures kinda scares me, especially since it is almost certain a reality at this very moment somewhere,

Both. I like the whole creating/cloning new species concepts.

And yeah, Human DNA is far more complex than that of a sheep.

 

[Goremocker]

Hell YES! This means zombies can be real!