For those of you who may not have read it, first of all, go to the store and pick up a newspaper you ignorant bastards. Second, this Wall Street Journal article details how scientists have figured out how to encode information into DNA. Is it just me, or is this some crazy stuff? Apparently, this wacky scientist decided that the binary code (all the little 1s and 0s) used to store data on a computer wasn't that different from the the chemicals (A, C, G, T) nature uses in DNA. And, evidently, DNA uses up a lot less space and a lot less energy. Furthermore, this type of technology, if funding for this research continues to flow, could be economically viable in a decade. That means that our children would be growing up in an age where we are transferring our information from switchboards to genes. I have a concern, though: where do we draw the line? What's to stop people from having their child programmed to be able to solve any math equation in human history, or from quoting scholarly articles on Kant's philosophy at the age of five. I think this is an exciting moment for the humanity, but let's make sure that we keep our human identity while racing to find out how to record as much information as possible.
The scary thing is that peoples ideas and dreams are slowly becoming reality. If we can do things like this, imagine all the negative uses that the governments who are actually funding this research will use it for.
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