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Absolutely; Neal Stephenson's latest book ("The Rise And Fall Of D.O.D.O.") touches on this, in asking what series of "small" changes it would take to unravel t
by donw 9y ago
Absolutely; Neal Stephenson's latest book ("The Rise And Fall Of D.O.D.O.") touches on this, in asking what series of "small" changes it would take to unravel the modern world. Was a good read.
From where you sit, what is the impact of the intermix between those two technologies?
As a layperson, I can see tailor-made medications becoming cheap and common over the long run. Not only might that read "goodbye, cancer!", but also mitigate the resultant threat of biological warfare.
After all, if you can cook up tailor-made anticancer and antiviral drugs in a machine at Walgreens, then you can counter a tailor-made bioweapon pretty easily.
Food production is another obvious boost, so we might have a second Norman Borlaug that once again lifts the carrying capacity of Earth. We can probably also assume foods engineered to grow in extreme environments.
From that, you also get biological air and water recycling for spacecraft, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
- stdgy 9y agoOye, I've been putting off getting this book since it was co-written by Stephenson and I wasn't sure how that would pan out. Guess I'll have to add to the collection!
- donw 9y agoI was skeptical as well, but it turned out to be a good read. Not quite up to the standards of Anathem or Cryptonomicon, but still definitely worthwhile.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- jfarlow 9y agoArbitrary biological i/o; stimuli and responses can be designed and linked, sampling from anything the world of life can currently do. Age (see Constitutional Article 2.1, 14th US Amendment). Memorizable strings of data worth billions of dollars. Aesthetic biology around us, and within us as a form of expression. Wealth (as energy expenditure) driving speed and permanence vs quality or capability (think hill coefficients). Metal & rock as materials of speed, but also waste, whereas literal capabilities are mirrorable with biology, are much more efficient, but 'slow'. (More) Von Neumann Probes everywhere, but resembling acorns, fruit flies, and yeast. (Explicit & commercialized) synthetic symbioses for individuals and for societies, and for other life.
- worldsayshi 9y ago> tailor-made medications And at the same time we are moving towards a world of tailor-made anything. From cars and clothes to user interfaces and lifestyles. If we can handle the complexity of it all.