Category: Uncategorized

THE QUESTION. “But whether it is possible to make a virus with malicious DNA sequences that could, once transcribed into bits, exploit those vulnerabilities, remains to be seen.” http://www.pcworld.com/article/252103/computer_viruses_could_cross_frontier_into_biological_realm_researchers_say.html View in LinkedIn

SLIPPERY SLOPE. “The frontier between the digital and the biological world is already blurring, the researchers said, citing cybernetic prosthesis as a good example. Some people have several electronic devices in their body, such as pacemakers, deep brain stimulators, and cochlear implants.” http://www.pcworld.com/article/252103/computer_viruses_could_cross_frontier_into_biological_realm_researchers_say.html View in LinkedIn

DIGITAL GENE POOL. “In 2002, scientists were able to synthesize the poliovirus. Since then, biotechnology has moved on, making it possible to synthesize bacteria, and organisms are genetically modified almost every day, the researchers said. In addition, all the code for synthetic DNA is stored on computers.” http://www.pcworld.com/article/252103/computer_viruses_could_cross_frontier_into_biological_realm_researchers_say.html View in LinkedIn

MORE PROVOCATIVE. “Could Human and Computer Viruses Merge, Leaving Both Realms Vulnerable? Gasson, a cybernetics scientist at the University of Reading, was walking around with an implanted microchip he had intentionally infected with a computer virus. If he got too close to a computer, he could in principle infect that machine.” http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/could-human-and-computer-viruses-merge-leaving-both-realms-vulnerable/ View in LinkedIn

THE GREY ZONE. “Computer hackers could create malicious software that crosses the line from technology to biology, crafting viruses that could spread dangerous epidemics...We are really on the border between the living and the not living." http://www.pcworld.com/article/252103/computer_viruses_could_cross_frontier_into_biological_realm_researchers_say.html View in LinkedIn

BUILDING MULTICELLULARITY. “By the year 2040, AI will appear on computer viruses that will communicate with each other using a universal Internet language and will be programmed to fuse together and mutate into Computer Organs that will later be controlled by powerful search engines (Systems) diffused through out the Internet.” http://longbets.org/69/ View in LinkedIn

SPECIES BARRIER. “Could a virus jump from silicon to carbon-based life?” https://lnkd.in/dEPU6w6 View in LinkedIn

POLICING THE WEB. “Many of the most promising visions of how to coordinate the far-flung communication and computing cycles of this emerging platform converge on a controversial solution: the use of self-replicators that roam the Net. Free-ranging, self-replicating programs, autonomous Net agents, digital organisms – whatever they are called, there's an old fashion word for them: computer viruses.” http://www.wired.com/1995/02/viruses/ View in LinkedIn

ANDREW HESSEL. "Andrew Hessel is a futurist and catalyst in biological technologies, helping industry, academics, and authorities better understand the changes happening in life science. He is a Distinguished Researcher with Autodesk in their Bio/Nano Research Group, based out of San Francisco. He is also the co-founder of the Pink Army Cooperative, the world’s first cooperative biotechnology company, which is aiming to make open source viral therapies for cancer.” http://andrewhessel.com/ View in LinkedIn

THOUGHT HACKING. “Experts claim that synthetic biology is accelerating faster than evolution and researchers like Andrew Hessel who’s lecturing at NASA’s Singularity University on the promises—and dangers—of the emerging technology warn that tomorrow’s hackers could develop insidious viruses or bacteria designed to hijack the brain and direct the thoughts of a human mind.” https://lnkd.in/dEPU6w6 View in LinkedIn