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Some science fiction posits a level of genetic engineering that is so advanced it's more like regular engineering. I assume they mean something like that; AI us

Some science fiction posits a level of genetic engineering that is so advanced it's more like regular engineering. I assume they mean something like that; AI using biology in general as a tool.

TeMPOraL 3y ago
Using biology as a tool is not science fiction, it's a legitimate view that already delivers effects today. Life isn't magic, it's nanotech. Engineering principles apply. See for example how insulin is made today: by E. coli bacteria genetically engineered for that purpose. And AFAIR there are talks (or maybe actual practice) of using yeast for that, and plants in general, to achieve even better production efficiency. And in some sense, using biology as a tool has always been a thing - it's only the brief period of the last ~200 years that we figured how to make a lot of things using simpler chemical processes. Before, nearly everything was repurposed biology: the clothes, the tools, the lubricants, the buildings, the ships, all made from plant and animal bodies. And now we're going back to using biology as a tool, except with much greater fidelity, allowing us to treat it as proper engineering discipline. AI doing anything with biology is just an obvious extension of that. It's not even that speculative - all the AI would have to do is to continue the development trajectory we're already on.
- ChatGTP 3y ago
  Life isn't magic, it's nanotech. If the statement was 100% true. Why isn’t nanotech magic ? If nanotech is the only thing that gives rise to the beautiful thing that’s life and experience. Why is that not magic ? How did such a thing come to be ? Do you think we’ll get to the bottom. of it a one day and say, “oh not magic”? Why is a butterfly not magic? Can you not see that ? Not sure you’ve looked at these processes under a microscope but if you can’t see some magic in there, then I’m sorry for you. For me the tragedy is we can’t see the magic in it, we go on all macho and pretend it’s not magic and continue to destroy the magic through our attitudes towards the natural world being some type of “silly machine”. Where’s the respect ?
  - TeMPOraL 3y ago
    Different meaning of the word "magic". I didn't mean that life isn't wonderful and beautiful. I meant it's not a phenomenon separate from rest of physics. I meant that it's still a physical process, following the same rules as inanimate matter does -- and than in fact, there is no fundamental distinction between "living" and "dead" matter - living things are literally machines made of tiny machines made of nanomachines made of atoms. This means it's something we can study, and eventually master. The context of the discussion is AI, and specifically a poster upthread saying, "Some science fiction posits a level of genetic engineering that is so advanced it's more like regular engineering." To which I say, d'uh, it's not science fiction, we're actually almost there; it's an obvious direction of future advancement, and the one an AI is just as likely to take as we are. Whether or not you see magic, as in wonder, in a butterfly - whether you can find joy in the mundane - is another topic entirely (though not less important).

Some science fiction posits a level of genetic engineering that is so advanced it's more like regular engineering. I assume they mean something like that; AI using biology in general as a tool.

TeMPOraL 3y ago

Using biology as a tool is not science fiction, it's a legitimate view that already delivers effects today. Life isn't magic, it's nanotech. Engineering principles apply. See for example how insulin is made today: by E. coli bacteria genetically engineered for that purpose. And AFAIR there are talks (or maybe actual practice) of using yeast for that, and plants in general, to achieve even better production efficiency. And in some sense, using biology as a tool has always been a thing - it's only the brief period of the last ~200 years that we figured how to make a lot of things using simpler chemical processes. Before, nearly everything was repurposed biology: the clothes, the tools, the lubricants, the buildings, the ships, all made from plant and animal bodies. And now we're going back to using biology as a tool, except with much greater fidelity, allowing us to treat it as proper engineering discipline. AI doing anything with biology is just an obvious extension of that. It's not even that speculative - all the AI would have to do is to continue the development trajectory we're already on.

ChatGTP 3y ago
Life isn't magic, it's nanotech. If the statement was 100% true. Why isn’t nanotech magic ? If nanotech is the only thing that gives rise to the beautiful thing that’s life and experience. Why is that not magic ? How did such a thing come to be ? Do you think we’ll get to the bottom. of it a one day and say, “oh not magic”? Why is a butterfly not magic? Can you not see that ? Not sure you’ve looked at these processes under a microscope but if you can’t see some magic in there, then I’m sorry for you. For me the tragedy is we can’t see the magic in it, we go on all macho and pretend it’s not magic and continue to destroy the magic through our attitudes towards the natural world being some type of “silly machine”. Where’s the respect ?
- TeMPOraL 3y ago
  Different meaning of the word "magic". I didn't mean that life isn't wonderful and beautiful. I meant it's not a phenomenon separate from rest of physics. I meant that it's still a physical process, following the same rules as inanimate matter does -- and than in fact, there is no fundamental distinction between "living" and "dead" matter - living things are literally machines made of tiny machines made of nanomachines made of atoms. This means it's something we can study, and eventually master. The context of the discussion is AI, and specifically a poster upthread saying, "Some science fiction posits a level of genetic engineering that is so advanced it's more like regular engineering." To which I say, d'uh, it's not science fiction, we're actually almost there; it's an obvious direction of future advancement, and the one an AI is just as likely to take as we are. Whether or not you see magic, as in wonder, in a butterfly - whether you can find joy in the mundane - is another topic entirely (though not less important).