Scientists create computer-programmable bacteria

In research that further bridges the biological and digital world, scientists at the University of California, San Francisco have created bacteria that can be programmed like a computer.

Link to full article

Ok let me just ask the obvious question here.......WHY?

Listen to this crap:

“We want to create a programming language for bacteria,” he said. “We want to program code for bacteria just like you would for a computer. A lot of the other work my lab does has to do with coming up with algorithms – just like a programmer would do – and converting that into a DNA sequence.”

Maybe there is something that I am not understanding about how this can be good. I mean, I see how it may have some benefits to program bacteria, but the negative aspects of such a concept most definitely out-weigh the positive, at least that's my take on the whole thing.
I just do not understand why human beings feel the need to play god. What makes these handful of special interest groups so important that they feel they have the right to create more ways to kill human beings?

I just can't take any of this anymore. This is being fed to the public on major media outlets and the average brainwashed person will think nothing of it besides, "Oh wow thats cool! Hey Cletus! Come check out this new computer bug that can do stuff! Uh herrrp derrrrp!"

I have lost all faith in humanity.
Humans are disgusting creatures and I think that Armageddon will be the best thing to ever happen to this earth.

How do you know this wasn't created 50 years ago and just now being made public? it's a mad house!!

reply to post by nittin


cause 50 years ago we had no computers like that

reply to post by angrydog


Yeah I was thinking the same thing.....

Wowzuhs.

reply to post by DontProbeMeBro


It doesn't quit.

...Synchronicity. I re-watched Mimic last night. If you haven't seen it, check it out. Only has a 2 star rating but it's alright. ...about cockroaches genetically engineered to stop a plague then die, but they live, reproduce, mutate and...

reply to post by DontProbeMeBro

its just like what they are doing with food genetically altering it to protect it from aging,bugs ect. They did it with viruses to infect its dna giving it ability from other species and not just other plant dna lol animal dna as well. Now what if you did that with people? I think that is your reason why. They want to speed up evolution if there really is a thing. Creating super humans with traits of other animal species genes. Think about it a human that can see at night like a cat regrow limbs like a lizard hibernate too live longer like a bear the possibilities are endless. But to control them you would need something like that bacteria

Am I reading this correctly, or is the first step towards creating a cybernetic organism? That's right... a CYBORG, the holy grail of mechatronics.... a biological 'machine'. They're probably itching to float the new tech on the stock market already... biotronics.
I guess we should have expected this, since conventional transistor chip technology has pretty much reached it's theoretical scale limit... & we know how nature does things so much more efficiently. This branch of science is heading in only one direction & the destination is a pretty bleak place.

wtf is wrong with the moral compass of these people?

reply to post by angrydog


lol all the technology that todays computers use are from 50 year old technology concepts in theory we could of had this 50 years ago

Everyone knows technology like this is going to turn into a huge defense project with the government so they can program micro organisms to do things to us like control our brains once ingested somehow. I mean I think it is beyond impressive that we have the ideas and means to achieve such a feat, but... stuff like this always has the potential to be used in the wrong way, and usually is.

It really does make you wonder of the possibilities though... thanks for the find, S&F for you.

So we now have the roots of the technology to make Splice a reality twenty years hence. This is getting a bit scary, I must admit.

Originally posted by soficrow
reply to post by DontProbeMeBro

 

It doesn't quit.

...Synchronicity. I re-watched Mimic last night. If you haven't seen it, check it out. Only has a 2 star rating but it's alright. ...about cockroaches genetically engineered to stop a plague then die, but they live, reproduce, mutate and...

Well that is frightening. That sounds like something a human would do - alter a life form's genetic traits without using foresight.
I would not doubt it if something like this actually happened. Since this technology is now available, as time goes on it will evolve and become more simplistic for just about anyone to use - kind of like computers....

reply to post by pcrobotwolf


Well that is just fantastic. I swear this all sounds like the overall plots of a few movies that I have seen before...oh wait...

This is quite good say you have a disaster area such as Chernobyl that is hazardous to people you could dump this bacteria there and program it to eat radiation but also program it to die off once there is not enough radiation left to consume
But then again you could program it to attack people but be activated by a specific genetic marker in some people and then you have a biological weapon safe enough to use with your troops in the area provided the marker was unique to the enemy (how bad would it have been if Hitler had this stuff, it would wipe out entire races in the blink of an eye)

Great stuff yet could be used the wrong way

reply to post by HelionPrime


The more I think about this whole thing, the more I think of the movie I, Robot. This is just absolutely surreal.

Considering the huge influx of technological breakthroughs during the last decade, I think that it is more than safe to say that we could see what I am going to call, "biological artificial intelligence" taking up jobs in society such as professors, firemen, policemen, food service, and hell lets go a step further here - the armed forces, all within the NEXT decade.

It is not that far fetched if you think about it. I mean, didn't Honda and some other crazy tech firm from Japan both build an intelligent robot that can speak and interact with humans, and even feel "emotions?"

Lets just break this down so some of you do not think that I am crazy.

A B.I.A. professor would simply be a bot that would have hard drives to store information which is then conveyed to students through a sequence of commands initiated by a program.

A B.I.A. fireman would be dispatched to a fire or an emergency via a GPS alert system that directs the fire engine, and its men directly to the scene, without putting any humans in harms way. I recall that a few vehicle manufacturers designed and built vehicles that can drive themselves by using an advanced and finely tuned GPS module. This would also work the same way with law enforcement and the armed forces. Use your imagination with all of the advanced warfare technology being released just about every week.

I could go on and on. And maybe all of these things could be beneficial to society, but the real danger is if these things are able to think freely and form opinions, they could very well turn on humans. That is not science fiction.

However i hope that this can be useful in helping controling bacterials and make us healthier...

reply to post by DontProbeMeBro


Just tripped over this old post by Kenshiro from 2005, about nano-robotic technology for surgery.

Microscopic Robot Heads for Surgery

Somewhat related. At least at the nano-level.

reply to post by angrydog


Computers like everything else,where probably created 100s of years ago. And just declassified now.

reply to post by angrydog


Computers like everything else,where probably created 100s of years ago. And just declassified now.

can you program the bacteria to go after cancer cells or other diseases? Imagine combatting disease at the nanolevel like that. Now that would be wonderful