[extropy-chat] The Cell Hijackers

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

>From Technology Review, by Rodney Brooks: Soon, our knowledge of life processes will let us program cells as we do computers. 
The last fifty years of molecular biology have largely been devoted to understanding the incredibly complex mechanisms that govern life. Scientists have developed wonderful analytic tools to study what goes on in cells. Now, we are on the brink of an engineering revolution that will transform our ability to manipulate the biological world. The results could be everything from cell-based computers to custom-made microbes that neutralize toxic waste or manufacture chemicals. It’s a leap as large as that from ancient alchemy to today’s materials science. 
Where does this lead? Whereas now we grow a tree, cut it down, and build a table, in fifty years we might simply grow a table. As more engineers work on biological systems, our industrial infrastructure will be transformed. Fifty years ago it was based on coal and steel. Now it is based on silicon and information. Fifty years from now it will be based on living systems. Sort of like a new agricultural age, only of a radically different kind.

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