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Interview with George Church: Can Neanderthals Be Brought Back from the Dead?

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Its a great topic, one thats right up my alley

Ive already had something to say about it here

to funny! what will they think of next.... | The Paracast Community Forums

There are positives and negatives in this matter. but i lean towards the "do it" camp myself

To the specific question, ethics are a construct and not really a factor
If the universe has a single prime rule, its the ability to do a thing, is all you need to do it.

If we can do it, we will. right and wrong will not be factors, they are constructs and relative to the eye of the beholder
 
How cool is this

his new book, "Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves," which he has also encoded as strands of DNA and distributed on small DNA chips
Click to expand...

Ive theorised that Humans might be DNA librarys.
Ppl ask why would aliens come here abduct ppl and extract ova and sperm ?

Well if our DNA was being used as a data repository, that might make perfect sense

Scientists have for the first time used DNA to encode the contents of a book. At 53,000 words, and including 11 images and a computer program, it is the largest amount of data yet stored artificially using the genetic material.
The researchers claim that the cost of DNA coding is dropping so quickly that within five to 10 years it could be cheaper to store information using this method than in conventional digital devices.
Click to expand...

Book written in DNA code | Science | The Guardian
 
mike said:
Its a great topic, one thats right up my alley

Ive already had something to say about it here

to funny! what will they think of next.... | The Paracast Community Forums

There are positives and negatives in this matter. but i lean towards the "do it" camp myself

To the specific question, ethics are a construct and not really a factor
If the universe has a single prime rule, its the ability to do a thing, is all you need to do it.

If we can do it, we will. right and wrong will not be factors, they are constructs and relative to the eye of the beholder
Click to expand...

That's funny, because I thought of you when I posted this. Sorry for the redundancy; I did a quick search but somehow missed the thread. I'll reply over there.
 
I hope so, I listened to a podcast on psuedopod or escape pod that told a story of this very thing. They were stronger and faster and smarter than us. It was a really cool listen.
 
Imagine the applications for DNA data encoding in the data smuggling business: The Rise of the Data Smuggler - mm

The second thing that changed my mind was a new law in the UK that makes it illegal to not hand over encryption keys if the police want to decrypt your data. The penalty is two to five years in prison for simply refusing to hand over the keys. The logical outcome is that a lot of energy will now be spent on hiding the existence of encrypted data.
Click to expand...
 
If Neanderthals can be brought back from the dead, why not bring back George Carlin instead? That way we could ask him whether or not there really is a God ;) !
 
mike said:
How cool is this



Ive theorised that Humans might be DNA librarys.
Ppl ask why would aliens come here abduct ppl and extract ova and sperm ?

Well if our DNA was being used as a data repository, that might make perfect sense



Book written in DNA code | Science | The Guardian
Click to expand...
It would an interesting way to store data by using organisms that could evolve and adapt to changing environments. All life on Earth seeks to adapt to environmental pressures in an effort to perpetuate DNA. Barring total extinction, you could ensure that the information survived forever. And since DNA can be extracted from ancient remains, even extinction wouldn't necessarily mean a complete data loss. And if the organism ever gets off planet, it can transport the data across a solar system.
 
Don't we have enough Neanderthals walking the Earth already? Do we really need to bring back some dead ones?
 
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