Scientists have created the world's first synthetic life form

Originally posted by octotom
reply to post by grantbeed

 

Now religion is out of the picture, lets move on shall we??!!

Not quite. This reminds me of an illustration that I heard in a sermon once:
A scientist went up to God one day and said, "God, we don't need you anymore; we have been able to create life on our own!"
"Is that so," said God, "Let's see you do it."
So, the scientist reached down to grab some dirt. As he was lifting it up, God said, "Na-ah! Get your own dirt."

I'm not sure how that is relevant. We are talking about sentient matter, in a universe full of the stuff, that has become aware of it's own existence, and has started working on programming the code that makes such possible. Religion doesn't have to fit anywhere into that equation. It only does when specific people want it to.

reply to post by woodwardjnr


They know people are still starving right? They know people don't even have steady food? How about one problem at a time people. First, lets gets some clean water and solid fresh crops/food for people who don't got it (including america). Then, we handle the healthcare systems and energy problems. I mean great new life-forms, but what happens if this thing evolves exponentially faster then they imagined and mutate?This leaves a lot of implications...I don't really like it, kind of a bad move with lots of military applications, imo. It's cool don't get me wrong, just I read in a book that part of Atlantis' downfall was partly from creating artificial life, so it begs the question(to me) are we headed towards the same path of destruction as Atlantis, only on the strictly hypothetical that there was in fact an Atlantis?...Even more important then that is, how long before they can right whatever they want into these things, say the specific genome for a specific race and thats what it does, goes after a specific race?

Just some food for thought. Nice find s+f from me.

They are still using existing cells and just altering the DNA. This is nothing more than the next MONSANTO type threat.

No good has came from Monsanto. No good will come from this Frankenstein scheme either. Welcome to the next crop of diseases.

Jaw dropping stuff. On one hand I'm happy to hear about the scientific progress but on the other hand I'm terrified about how this will(is being?) be abused. Also I don't think this is something we should be toying with on our one and only planet... Now if this was being done on the ISS or the moon for a little extra safety barrier between us and total annihilation then I would be all for it.

Although this feat is great i think it might lead to just more questions then answers as does almost all science.

reply to post by woodwardjnr


Ventor is a total maniac. I watched one speech of his where he was asked what he thought about trying to play god. "We're not playing... we're not playing" he said with a dead serious look in his face!

reply to post by Solomons


Ever occur that those you deride serve the function of helping avoid the excessively bad stuff? That instead
of rushing in like a fool to possible disaster it's good to.take into account the negative implications?

After all it's the fear of the implications of a nuclear war that kept us from having one.

kools.

Designer made life forms.

reply to post by Edews


God made man in his image. Man can play God. The question is if it is successful long term.

Also that's not related to religion.

A synthetic life form is unrelated to religion.

reply to post by Gorman91


Except to those that obcess about it. Obcession is greatin that in your obcession if you work at it you can tie EVERYTHING in with the object of your obcession. This includes those who obcess about it being a great evil as well as those that obcess about it being just great.

reply to post by Watcher-In-The-Shadows


I really fail to see where obsession plays in.

reply to post by Gorman91


Incorrect! It is MAN who created God.

If God is correctly identified by ANY of the the Abrahamic religions, than it would be FOOLISH for ANY intelligent man to want to wish to join one of the current religions Gods who are all petty, selfish, destructive, temper-tantrum prone, immature, violent, sexist, racist, Gods. If any of the "Gods" described by our MAN-MADE religions appeal to you, you have my sympathy.

In regards to the topic, I CANT WAIT for the day that science reveals to us that all these NONSENSE religions are garbage!!! THE DAY WILL EVENTUALLY COME!!!!



[edit on 20-5-2010 by ToToo]

NICE! This is just great! Christians believing in God because the human and plants and that stuff exists. When we are making our own human, plant, animal or something else this must mean that the power to create man isnt for gods only but merely just about knowing enough truth.


Where is your God now?

:

WOW!
This is crazy as... so,
yeah, something I feel certain has already been in the pipeline so to speak for a while now, albeit behind the scenes.
personally, I shudder to think of the moral and ethical ramifications this 'playing God' will bring up.
I mean, are we ready as a species to handle this responsibility - and where and when will it stop? How far are we prepared to go?
Something else on humanity's plate, and we have enough going on globally as it is...mentally,spiritually, physically and emotionally I think the results will have tremendous long term impact but at this stage...? Just golly gosh!
Will it be utilised to supplement current Artificial Intelligence research/development?
Does something created synthetically in a lab simulating the building blocks of biological life also carry that elusive "spark' we find within each of us - that unique defining 'spirit' founded from the primordial soup we collectively emerged from aeons ago?
Do these cells have rights?
Do they develop independantly of us?
Is there an equality issue?
How do we attempt to nurture and cherish this knowledge with respect and productivity?
So many questions, so little time...
Wag.

[edit on 20-5-2010 by wagtail]

I cant remember where I heard this but, somewhere i heard that at the end of times human knowledge will be incredible.. Is that proof of it? I really hope not, I want to have kids before the end of the world, and I want my kids to have kids and so on.. Thats not much to ask i guess..
Why not to use that 40 millions to buy food for poor people?

BTW, i can do the same with less money and in a more natural way.. alchool, sex, and irresponsibility..

There is a vine in my backyard. In a few weeks I'll have a fresh batch of TELEVISION SETS to harvest.

Engineers did not build the factory down the street... it grew there. The 30,000 pound presses are made of muscle and bone.

The pinnacle of technological advancement in terms of transportation - the horse.

The end is the beginning.

My concern regarding this is not based in religion but in my observation of human history and human (to date at least) nature. We have readily demonstrated our incredible ability to abuse our technologies for the purposes of warfare, and in ways that often bring about great suffering and devastation. The governments of the world have repeatedly attempted to create and refine biological weapons with varying degrees of success. Now that we can literally (in time) design a pathogen to exacting specifications, perhaps with specific genetic or other predispositions in mind for the intended victims, I do have very real fears that these efforts will be redoubled.

Fortunately, we have also demonstrated our ingenuity in employing our technologies to improve quality (and duration) of life. For that reason alone I hope that this breakthrough enables new ways to fight diseases, new ways to synthesize fuels, and the means to make our environment cleaner and healthier, among other improvements to our lives.

I see both pros and cons in this. I just hope we can resist the temptation to use it for ill. That troubles me greatly.

Not sure if anyone mentioned this, but didn't Andrew Crosse kind of do something similar to this back in the 1800's?

reply to post by ToToo


Well seeing as most, if not all, of those people destroyed were ravaging barbarians amidst what looks to modern day standards to be a post apocalyptic crap hole, I really fail to see how you are right.