DARPA Wants To Override Evolution To Make Immortal Synthetic Organisms

DARPA Wants To Override Evolution To Make Immortal Synthetic Organisms

www.pop sci.com

It's been a long time since a Pentagon project from the DARPA labs truly evoked a "WTF DARPA?!" response, but our collective jaw dropped when we saw the details on a project known as BioDesign. DARPA hopes to dispense with evolutionary randomness and assemble biological creatures, genetically programmed to live indefinitely and presumably do whatever their human masters want. And, Wired's Danger Room reports, when there's the inevitable problem of said creatures going haywire or realizing that they're intelligent and have feelings, there's a planned self-destruct genetic code that could

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Now I wonder what the Pentagon has in mind for these possible future Synthetic Organisms ? Could it be as Warrior Slaves ? Duplicates created to take the place of real persons in positions of authority ? Does Ehthics even come into their thinking when considering creating such abominations ? Of course these organisms would be classified as property of the US Goverment , and as such , would not be viewed as having any "Rights" to speak of . With programed in " Shelf Life " I am sure they could be disposed of if deemed necessary . Is this just another example of Man trying to play God ? What do you think ?

www.pop sci.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Think Terminator movies. Super strong cyborg warriors that will eventually take over the human race and exterminate us like rodents.

Good times ahead....good times..

Originally posted by Erasurehead
Think Terminator movies. Super strong cyborg warriors that will eventually take over the human race and exterminate us like rodents.

Good times ahead....good times..

Looks like Skynet is getting a head start through TPTB's bid to take over the world. Gosh, I really hope this type of stuff doesn't ever come to pass. I don't want my great grandchildren to have to deal with self-aware human replicants bent on the destruction of the human race.

No , I would think more on the lines of Phillip K. Dick's Classic SciFi Novel ' Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep ? Aka Blade Runner " . Is it Human ? Alien ? Android ? or just plain Not Right ?

reply to post by truthseeker1984


Eisenhower warned us about the military industrial complex becoming out of control and too powerful back in 1961. He saw what the future would hold for us.

Originally posted by Zanti Misfit
No , I would think more on the lines of Phillip K. Dick's Classic SciFi Novel ' Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep ? Aka Blade Runner " . Is it Human ? Alien ? Android ? or just plain Not Right ?

I can definitely seeing those stories coming to a reality. My favorite movie of all time was Blade Runner, and I enjoyed "DADOES", and today is still one of my favorite novels. I guess the biggest question in all of this is the ethical one. After reading the article, it seems as if there isn't a question at all about ethics. I mean, where do we draw the line between human and automaton? Where do we draw the line between actual sentient thoughts and the pre-programmed machinations of a machine, biological or otherwise?

This reminds me of the debate about using stem cells, unformed zygotes, and the like, to grow new organs and tissues. Of course this got the whole pro-life movement up in arms, yet it's so hard to define what constitutes true sentient life. Does it just have to have biological functions? My hamster has biological functions, but can it build a skyscraper, or program a supercomputer? No. Can it think and reason with a level of true sentience? No. Is it truly self aware? I don't know, but IMO, I don't think so.

I think all of these questions should be asked time and time again whenever undertaking such an endeavor as to build a biological replicant. It scares me to think that this is the future in which our civilization may be headed.

It reminds me of Jurassic Park when Ian Malcolm says "(...)your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."

Men like this created the atomic bomb just because they could, and I have a feeling that if this project ever came to fruition, it would explode in their faces as such.

There's my two cents of serious observation.

reply to post by truthseeker1984


Yes , in a Moral Society , a Goverment and the Military would be held accountable for such aspirations of playing God by the people they supposedly represent . This story just goes to show all of us that those in positions of authority today think that they are not only above Man's Law , but Gods Law also .........Sigh .

Other sources have interesting info. There are as many d/arpa projects as there are ideas from the employees working with them, and then some.

Decades of R&D and every year, a couple more people see what has been going on. Or at least catch a glimpse. It shouldn't surprise any of you that these things are going on, because they have been for years.

I remember the research of immortality involveing studies to extend telemeres.

A current hypothesis gaining prominence proposes that activation of the enzyme telomerase is necessary for cells to become immortal, or capable of proliferating indefinitely.
Cancer research

Darpa related articles;

Darpa’s human-enhancement programs were looking promising. In February 2002, Darpa asked Congress for a new, $78 million-per-year push for research including “the development of biochemical materials for enhancement of performance.” That was on top of $90 million to explore how “biological systems … adapt to wide extremes.” The human being, a Darpa fact file proclaimed in April 2002, “is becoming the weakest link in Defense systems.” Strengthening that chain meant “sustaining and augmenting human performance,” as well as “enabling new human capabilities.” Darpa was going to figure out how to build a better soldier.

Mark Roth never expected his research to have military applications. He was a biochemist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, studying how chromosomes move during cell replication. Then, about a decade ago, his second daughter, Hannah Grace, died of heart failure at the age of 1. Her death sent him down a much stranger path. “I became interested in immortality,” he says.

2007

DARPA Bioengineering Program Seeks to
Turn Soldiers Into Cyborgs

DARPA's Creepy Bioengineering Program 25aug03

The Advanced Research Projects Agency was founded in 1958 (the D was added in 1972) as a place to noodle around on ideas too big, or too far out, for the Cold War military-industrial complex...
Be More Than You Can Be

DARPA Sponsoring Limb Regeneration Research

In 2005 DARPA held one of its famous contests that challenge scientists to achieve some set of criteria. This time, it was to keep a mouse alive for 3 hours with 60 percent of its blood lost, which simulates a lethal wound. Roth's studies took him from immortality to being able to stimulate a state of stasis in animals not known to normally hibernate. Using a combination of lowered oxygen levels and a dose of hydrogen sulfide (the latter inspired by a PBS show he saw on a caving accident), Roth was able to induce the mice into a hibernation-like state and then re-animate them after 10 hours.
human enhancement projects

A Scientist's Progress on Deanimation and Immortality/ 3rd of December 2008

It's coming. Imagine a warrior—with the
intellect of a human and the immortality of a machine—controlled by our thoughts.
DARPA has started a major program in this area. DARPA is the only place you can have such a program,
and talk about it! This is a great time to be in R&D.
DARPATech 2002 Welcoming Speech

The Pentagon’s mad science

reply to post by ADVISOR


Thank You for those Links my friend, interesting reading there especially this one............



DARPA's Creepy Bioengineering Program 25aug03

reply to post by ADVISOR


I'm still going through those links Advisor, but those are some really weird things that they are doing. I'll have to read them all through, and then I'll put together some sort of personal commentary on them. Thanks for posting them!