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

[FolkLikePanda]

And so my prediction that computers will become so intelligent to judge good data and bad data, deleting bad data in the process is becomign complete, as soon they will create humanoid synthetic organisms with that bult into them and seeing our underdeveloped brains as obsolete and so killing us all to delete the data.

 

[sgtshock]

Well one step closer to being replaced by something better.
I don't really see what the big fuss is about the onlt difference between this cell and a "normal" one is that a computer build it's dna rather then "nature".
Just another case of science wasting money on useless shit no one needs or cares about.
Yay for playing god I guess.

We've created life that was designed by humans. With enough advancement in this field, we could theoretically make any life form we want. We could make meat grow on trees, grow bacteria that turns waste into energy, or bring extinct animals to life (pet velociraptor anyone?). I'd say it's far from useless.

 

[SextusMaximus]

This is fantastic! Can't wait til they utilise this for it's potential.

 

[Julianking93]

OT:This is a big deal.Come on people!Why aren't they responding to this news?

It may have something to do with there already being a thread about this in the Religion & Politics section

But, people seem to be posting now.

 

[spacelemon]

I have to say, i'm looking forward to seeing how this will develop, as this could be both massive and amazing

 

[PurpleSky]

OT:This is a big deal.Come on people!Why aren't they responding to this news?

It may have something to do with there already being a thread about this in the Religion & Politics section

But, people seem to be posting now.

Bleh,I never look in that section.

 

[Erja_Perttu]

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.

 

[Raregolddragon]

YES finally now all we need to do is to find a way for the cells to rewrite or override current living cells code and we can start splicing up Rapture style.

 

[Ekonk]

The beginning of the end?

Since super robots are the only conceivable outcome of this.

I think something like extreme forms of bioterrorism are more conceivable.

 

[PurpleSky]

Wait, is the host cell itself artificial or is it more like artificial DNA? If they still have to use a living cell I don't think I'd count that as synthetic.

They stuck artificial DNA into a cel,and made it replicate into whatever they wanted to.

 

[Chiefmon]

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED

 

[Julianking93]

OT:This is a big deal.Come on people!Why aren't they responding to this news?

It may have something to do with there already being a thread about this in the Religion & Politics section

But, people seem to be posting now.

Bleh,I never look in that section.

You're not the only one.

It's always the same few people posting in that section. Cuddly Tomato, Amnestic, Skeleon, and me.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

So.......Zombies?

Yep. Definitely zombies.

 

[Mr. Gency]

Zombies.

I can see no other possible outcome.

 

[Irridium]

As with all robot/synthetic news, the eventual outcome can mean only one thing:

Spoiler: Replace Solana Galaxy with Earth and you get the basic idea.

 

[Johnnyallstar]

Yay for playing God!

 

[Mr. Gency]

YES finally now all we need to do is to find a way for the cells to rewrite or override current living cells code and we can start splicing up Rapture style.

Nothing beats a fist full of lightning.

 

[Kayevcee]

The applications of this technology are boundless as the stars. We could develop custom bacteria that can turn landfills full of random crap into industrial feedstocks and then just harvest it for our own use. Oil spill? Send in the oil-shredders, closely followed by the oil-shredder-eaters that are also edible to local fish. Oh, and what can drive all this frantic repair-work on the debris from the carefree consumerism of the last century or so? Natural photosynthesis, baby! As long as you're not working on an ocean trench you can run them all off sunlight.

That is, once the technology is developed so we know what the hell we're doing and what the genomes we're slapping together are all for and we don't accidentally create mutant MRSA or teleporting ebola or the world's most potent spermicide, naturally. Just so long as nooobody goes off and does something crazy with it and there's plenty of rigorous testing done before anything is allowed out into the biosphere to mess with the local ecosystems.

-Nick

 

[Internet Kraken]

I think this is an amazing scientific accomplishment, and despite the risks associated with it I believe humans will benefit greatly from this.

As said in the article, the potential uses of synthetic cells are huge. So many things could change from the use of these cells. While there is certainly a big danger associated with them, there has been danger associated with many scientific advancements. Granted most of those haven't had the potential for an apocalyptic level of destruction like artificial cells do. I think the biggest potential drawback of this would be environmental problems. While the cells themselves can do thing like clean up pollution, they could begin to damage the environment. It would be very difficult to control the spread of said cells, potentially leading to disaster.

I doubt that these can be used as an effective weapon though. They would certainly be potent killers, but as mentioned earlier controlling them would be a huge issue. So you could easily screw yourself over by using them, leading me to doubt their use as a weapon. Though I could easily wrong. This research really could branch out to so many different things from here.

As for the ethical issues, I really don't see the problems with this. They are just cells. It's not like we are artificially constructing a sapient organism. We are using these cells as tools, just like how we use machines as tools. Just because they are biological does not mean they are somehow off-limits, at least to me.

EDIT: This thread isn't even about robots and people are still making robot apocalypse jokes. I am disappointed.