Kind of Scary

By | January 8, 2007
3 Comments

Check out this interesting article (via GeekPress) about the search for DNA strands that never were, and that probably ought not to be, because they wouldn’t be compatible with life. This quote caught my attention:

Further down the line there is the possibility of constructing a “suicide gene” to code for deadly amino acid primes. It could be attached to genetically modified organisms and activated to destroy them at a later date if they turned out to be dangerous, Hampikian suggests.

Speaking as an organism, I’d have to say that I’m pretty glad that no such switch has been built into me, giving someone the authority to decide that I’m dangerous and I have to go. Wow, talk about your dystopia. How about a future in which everyone has one of these built in, and the government has the switch?

  • http://www.geraldhibbs.blogspot.com Gerald Hibbs

    Having implants that enable the killing of the implantee is a staple of science fiction stories. In fact there is also often the ability to merely provide varying levels of pain as well. Such implants usually lead to people trying to find and remove the implants until some people go a bit nuts and start lopping off suspected body parts.

    That is a dystopic future to be wary of as I see no way such technologies won’t be possible in the future. Especially considering our low-tech current reality could easily jury rig such a device. No need to go to genetic engineering to give you nightmares.

    I think the more worrying possibility is that of the government fiddling with human nature in the attempt to make a more docile population.

  • D. Vision

    Well, with the left in charge, the government tinkering with and exterminating life, or funding of such practices, will accelerate. The media will look the other way or applaud the moves as “true, progessive future” or some other such bullshit. The media is already shy to criticize their “rescuers”. I fear that they’ll get a free pass to do stupid shit for a time…

  • Karl Hallowell

    My take is that you couldn’t put enough safeguards in place to keep hackers from using this for their own purposes. That’s not so bad if it’s put into a dangerous organism (er, from everyone but the dangerous organisms’ point of view) and another if it’s put into the general population.