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Can we encode all of human knowledge into the DNA of some organism? How can organisms access data stored in their DNA? Imagine being born with knowledge of ever
by gersh 14y ago
Can we encode all of human knowledge into the DNA of some organism? How can organisms access data stored in their DNA? Imagine being born with knowledge of every Wikipedia article, or even every website. What would that be like?
- milesokeefe 14y agoEducation would no longer be necessary or valued. Experience and creativity would be what everyone garners to get a job.
- mey 14y agoYou may be interested in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series
- nnash 14y agoI think we'd be past "jobs" if it were possible to store and read memory in DNA with the human brain.
- nico 14y agoThen who would be in charge of creating new knowledge, and who would put it into our brains or DNA? Knowing everything humans have discovered so far would only change the type of jobs we would have, we would still need to have jobs though.
- nnash 14y agoHence the quotations, we'd be past the traditional 9 to 5 and in pursuit of loftier ambitions.
- archangel_one 14y agoAt the point where we'd engaged in massive-scale genetic engineering to insert knowledge into our DNA chain, jobs may no longer be the significant driving force of our lives. Or, at least, I'd like to hope that we'd have been able to move beyond them.
- sliverstorm 14y agoYour parent asks about simply storing data in DNA-form, and splicing it into an organism. Splicing computer data into your DNA does not immediately fill your head with knowledge. If it did, why, you'd never have to study protein sequences- you'd already know how to make hemoglobin!
- ryusage 14y agoI think you're misunderstanding things a bit. In the context of DNA as a data storage medium, it no longer functions as a "building block of life". It'd be like taking some binary image data and overwriting it with binary audio data. You can still technically interpret it as image data, but it's just going to be a random jumbled mess, and will probably error out immediately.
- acomar 14y agoBut you can also embed interesting information into an image without distorting the image itself (much). Similarly, the DNA of most organisms have a ton of garbage space that could be used to encode information without hurting the organism. Not saying it's practical or desirable, just that it is possible.
- scarmig 14y agoSo, we could end up with a (drum roll please) stenographic stegosaurus? Edited to add: Ruined my own punchline. Steganographic stegosaurus, damnit!
- dontblink 14y agoLeads me to wonder if the current "garbage" sequences in our own DNA could be encoded information that we were meant to decode - and by that I mean that that information may not just be entirely genetic code.