8.6 From Natural to Unnatural
131
Molecular computation might be efficient only if it is fed back into a biological
environment. Amir et al (2014) used folded strands of DNA to create nanorobots
which, depending on their interactions with proteins, change their conformation
to release their payload. Differently configured robots emulate various logic gates.
They don’t need to be identical to ease chemical analysis, as in Adleman’s experiment. On the contrary, their advantage is that they release different chemicals as the
outcome of computations, and communicate with each other in this way. Like bacteria, these robots are autonomous and may self-organize their actions. The robots
were injected into a live cockroach to deliver a molecule that targets its cells. The
imagined perspective is to have a company of robots carrying a suite of drugs and
deciding, on the basis of the local chemical environment, which ones to release –
they would certainly know better than a doctor standing nearby and relying, at best,
on the results of various tests averaged over the patient’s whole body. They could
even feel the patient’s mental states, as in experiments by the same group sending electromagnetic signals to origami robots tethered to metal nanoparticles while
circulating within a cockroach.
8.6 From Natural to Unnatural
Tinkering with Nature through the various modifications of the DNA code might
be the most radical, most beneficial, and most dangerous perspective of 21st century technology. It is notable that it is driven by developing molecular hardware that
at the same time carries software functions. This should be a sobering thought for
those dealing with computer codes or words who are apt to confuse them with reality. Ray Kurzweil (2005) writes that bits of information [. . . ] is what we comprise,
and cites with gusto a line by the radical poet Muriel Rukeyser: the universe is made
of stories, not of atoms. It is easy to forget that the explosive growth of computer
power was due to anonymous creators of processors and memory elements rather
than famous billionaire heads of information and software companies and nouveau
riche start-uppers. Likewise, life evolved to higher forms by developing “hardware”,
the proteins forming cell machinery, and metabolic and communication networks.
Software and finance, like the “selfish genes” promulgated by Dawkins (1976), are
mere organizing structures parasitizing on material production and unable to function without its fruits.
Nanotechnology may have an even larger impact on explosive developments in
the 21st century than artificial intelligence (AI). Everything really keeps accelerating, as if rushing into a singularity. Kurzweil, who was already predicting in 2005
that the singularity is near links it with AI, and compares it to the cosmic singularity
– a black hole. This sounds quite grim if we recall the fate of matter falling into a
black hole. Should we rejoice in the demise of our civilization at the singular point
it is rushing into?
Kurzweil writes that there will be no distinction, post-Singularity, between human and machine or between physical and virtual reality. Youths immersed in com-
131
Molecular computation might be efficient only if it is fed back into a biological
environment. Amir et al (2014) used folded strands of DNA to create nanorobots
which, depending on their interactions with proteins, change their conformation
to release their payload. Differently configured robots emulate various logic gates.
They don’t need to be identical to ease chemical analysis, as in Adleman’s experiment. On the contrary, their advantage is that they release different chemicals as the
outcome of computations, and communicate with each other in this way. Like bacteria, these robots are autonomous and may self-organize their actions. The robots
were injected into a live cockroach to deliver a molecule that targets its cells. The
imagined perspective is to have a company of robots carrying a suite of drugs and
deciding, on the basis of the local chemical environment, which ones to release –
they would certainly know better than a doctor standing nearby and relying, at best,
on the results of various tests averaged over the patient’s whole body. They could
even feel the patient’s mental states, as in experiments by the same group sending electromagnetic signals to origami robots tethered to metal nanoparticles while
circulating within a cockroach.
8.6 From Natural to Unnatural
Tinkering with Nature through the various modifications of the DNA code might
be the most radical, most beneficial, and most dangerous perspective of 21st century technology. It is notable that it is driven by developing molecular hardware that
at the same time carries software functions. This should be a sobering thought for
those dealing with computer codes or words who are apt to confuse them with reality. Ray Kurzweil (2005) writes that bits of information [. . . ] is what we comprise,
and cites with gusto a line by the radical poet Muriel Rukeyser: the universe is made
of stories, not of atoms. It is easy to forget that the explosive growth of computer
power was due to anonymous creators of processors and memory elements rather
than famous billionaire heads of information and software companies and nouveau
riche start-uppers. Likewise, life evolved to higher forms by developing “hardware”,
the proteins forming cell machinery, and metabolic and communication networks.
Software and finance, like the “selfish genes” promulgated by Dawkins (1976), are
mere organizing structures parasitizing on material production and unable to function without its fruits.
Nanotechnology may have an even larger impact on explosive developments in
the 21st century than artificial intelligence (AI). Everything really keeps accelerating, as if rushing into a singularity. Kurzweil, who was already predicting in 2005
that the singularity is near links it with AI, and compares it to the cosmic singularity
– a black hole. This sounds quite grim if we recall the fate of matter falling into a
black hole. Should we rejoice in the demise of our civilization at the singular point
it is rushing into?
Kurzweil writes that there will be no distinction, post-Singularity, between human and machine or between physical and virtual reality. Youths immersed in com-