Thread: Scientists create artificial life

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    Scientists create artificial life

    That's it - scientists have managed to create a living organism.

    Scientists Create First Self-Replicating Cell

    The ethnic debate over artificial life and artificial intelligence has been going on for a long time. And now science has proven that it's capable of creating life on its own. The first cell was not entirely synthetic, but every of its descendants is, since they are created with the help of purely synthetic genes. Has mankind effectively slipped into the role of some sort of god?

    What do you think about this? Do you think this will continue on, up to more complicated life forms?

    If it does, then humanity proves it is technologically quite advanced. But it will create new problems, since many people are mentally still not much farther than our ancestors thousands of years ago. And the possibility of creating - advanced - life forms by themselves is a big one.

    I'd really like to hear your opinion about this.

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    (?<!re)tired Mario F.'s Avatar
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    We should ask the cell first.
    Originally Posted by brewbuck:
    Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.

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    Registered User VirtualAce's Avatar
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    We have a ways to go before we can start creating more complex organisms. We'd better hurry up too b/c the world is ending in 2012.

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    And now science has proven that it's capable of creating life on its own
    No, it hasn't. People are reading this news and assuming that
    scientists created life from scratch. That's not what happened
    at all. They didn't create a living organism. The created DNA
    from nucleotides and inserted it into an already living cell.
    They altered life that already existed; or reprogrammed it.
    Staying away from General.

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    Registered User VirtualAce's Avatar
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    The created DNA
    from nucleotides and inserted it into an already living cell.
    They altered life that already existed; or reprogrammed it. They
    didn't create life.
    All kidding aside this, too, is how I understood the article.

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    We should ask the cell first.
    I'm sure it's pretty happy that it lives. I don't think cells worry that much about artificial life.

    We have a ways to go before we can start creating more complex organisms.
    I'm sure, if we survive long enough and without getting seriously brain-damaged, this will be possible. I couldn't even imagine creating such a piece of DNA was possible today. It is like an OS, it looks small, but under the hood it has to do so many basic things, for example to survive.

    The created DNA
    from nucleotides and inserted it into an already living cell.
    They altered life that already existed; or reprogrammed it. They
    didn't create life.
    I didn't mean to say "create" life. Life existed before, and the cell was also alive before it was made a mutant. Just that they were able to create a new life form. It is basically just a copy of life as stated in the article.
    Last edited by Brafil; 05-21-2010 at 12:45 PM.

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    spurious conceit MK27's Avatar
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    Right, so we are talking about genetic engineering.

    It will be interesting to see if that leads to AI, or whether it will be machine based. I think the former would make people much more uneasy -- Christian fundamentalists, I think, would attempt legislation.
    C programming resources:
    GNU C Function and Macro Index -- glibc reference manual
    The C Book -- nice online learner guide
    Current ISO draft standard
    CCAN -- new CPAN like open source library repository
    3 (different) GNU debugger tutorials: #1 -- #2 -- #3
    cpwiki -- our wiki on sourceforge

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    'course they would (nothing against "normal" Christians here). It would really screw up their ideologies if a machine or synthetic organism started quoting Descartes à la "I think, therefore I am" without being programmed to do this exact job. (and thereby deducing the presence of income tax, for those who know what I mean)

    Intelligence is yet something to research on. Life has really done an amazing job with nerves, it seems impossible to reproduce.

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    Programming Wraith GReaper's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bubba View Post
    We have a ways to go before we can start creating more complex organisms. We'd better hurry up too b/c the world is ending in 2012.
    You don't know... In 2012 the antichrist ( do i write it right? ) will rise to rule the earth's superforce, i guess America, and after a 5-year period of prosperity he will reveal his true self and that's when the end will come!!!!!! After we suffer a little...
    Devoted my life to programming...

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    Registered User lpaulgib's Avatar
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    I would think that this would raise the question as to what exactly defines life. If they come up with a synthetic host for the DNA rather than using bacteria, would you consider it artificial life or life? Does something being completely organic mean it's actually life? What would you consider living, and what would you consider artificial?

    To me, this is life. Just because it's hosted in an organic being, doesn't make it any less real. What makes that set of DNA any less real than the DNA of other Prokaryotic cells?

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    Programming Wraith GReaper's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by lpaulgib View Post
    What makes that set of DNA any less real than the DNA of other Prokaryotic cells?
    Its complexity!
    Devoted my life to programming...

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    Registered User lpaulgib's Avatar
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    Ok, but compared to a human cell, prokaryotic cells are infinitely more simple than ours. Does that mean they are not life? Complexity cannot define life.

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    Registered User VirtualAce's Avatar
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    Amazing how one group of scientists can convince the world their bacteria or whatever is life created in a lab yet an entire movement cannot convince the world that an unborn child in a mother's womb is life.

    Not to start a debate but science, or rather scientists, for the most part are full of hypocrisy and double standards.

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    Registered User lpaulgib's Avatar
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    Well it's different people saying those things. I don't really think the same guy who's saying an unborn child in a womb isn't life is saying that cell is life. Anyhow, I would think their argument would not be that it's life, but that it's not intelligent enough life to have human rights. Same as they don't care if we kill bugs.

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    spurious conceit MK27's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bubba View Post
    Not to start a debate but science for the most part is full of hypocrisy and double standards.
    I don't think the debate is whether or not it is life -- your dinner contains a lot of life -- it's whether it's ethical to kill it. Life kills life in order to live, we all must do it. Except fruitarians, who only eat things that have fallen from trees, like nuts. Since most of us are not that, we are responsible for a lot of death on a daily basis.

    And there is nothing you can get from science about ethics. It's just information.
    C programming resources:
    GNU C Function and Macro Index -- glibc reference manual
    The C Book -- nice online learner guide
    Current ISO draft standard
    CCAN -- new CPAN like open source library repository
    3 (different) GNU debugger tutorials: #1 -- #2 -- #3
    cpwiki -- our wiki on sourceforge

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