Pentagon Looks to Breed Immortal ‘Synthetic Organisms,’ Molecular Kill-Switch Included

[Dumpy Dooby]

Pentagon Looks to Breed Immortal ‘Synthetic Organisms,’ Molecular Kill-Switch Included
By Katie Drummond | February 5, 2010 @ 9:42 am



The Pentagon’s mad science arm may have come up with its most radical project yet. Darpa is looking to re-write the laws of evolution to the military’s advantage, creating “synthetic organisms” that can live forever — or can be killed with the flick of a molecular switch.

As part of its budget for the next year, Darpa is investing $6 million into a project called BioDesign, with the goal of eliminating “the randomness of natural evolutionary advancement.” The plan would assemble the latest bio-tech knowledge to come up with living, breathing creatures that are genetically engineered to “produce the intended biological effect.” Darpa wants the organisms to be fortified with molecules that bolster cell resistance to death, so that the lab-monsters can “ultimately be programmed to live indefinitely.”

Of course, Darpa’s got to prevent the super-species from being swayed to do enemy work — so they’ll encode loyalty right into DNA, by developing genetically programmed locks to create “tamper proof” cells. Plus, the synthetic organism will be traceable, using some kind of DNA manipulation, “similar to a serial number on a handgun.” And if that doesn’t work, don’t worry. In case Darpa’s plan somehow goes horribly awry, they’re also tossing in a last-resort, genetically-coded kill switch:

Develop strategies to create a synthetic organism “self-destruct” option to be implemented upon nefarious removal of organism.

The project comes as Darpa also plans to throw $20 million into a new synthetic biology program, and $7.5 million into “increasing by several decades the speed with which we sequence, analyze and functionally edit cellular genomes.”

Of course, Darpa’s up against some vexing, fundamental laws of nature — not to mention bioethics — as they embark on the lab beast program. First, they might want to rethink the idea of evolution as a random series of events, says NYU biology professor David Fitch. “Evolution by selection is nota random process at all, and is actually a hugely efficient design algorithm used extensively in computation and engineering,” he e-mails Danger Room.

Even if Darpa manages to overcome the inherent intelligence of evolutionary processes, overcoming inevitable death can be tricky. Just ask all the other research teams who’ve made stabs at it, trying everything from cell starvation to hormone treatments. Gene therapy, where artificial genes are inserted into an organism to boost cell life, are the latest and greatest in life-extension science, but they’ve only been proven to extend lifespan by 20 percent in rats.

But suppose gene therapy makes major strides, and Darpa does manage to get the evolutionary science right. They’ll also have a major ethical hurdle to jump. Synthetic biology researchers are already facing the same questions, as a 2009 summary from the Synthetic Biology Project reports:

The concern that humans might be overreaching when we create organisms that never before existed can be a safety concern, but it also returns us to disagreements about what is our proper role in the natural world (a debate largely about non-physical harms or harms to well-being).

Even expert molecular geneticists don’t know what to make of the project. Either that, or they’re scared Darpa might sic a bio-bot on them. “I would love to comment, but unfortunately Darpa has installed a kill switch in me,” one unnamed expert tells Danger Room.


Source: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/02/pentagon-looks-to-breed-immortal-synthetic-organisms-molecular-kill-switch-included/



Where do you folks stand on this? Personally, I have zero ethical problems with it. None at all.

The article also touches on the idea of tinkering with human genetics, and I'm fine with that. If that genetic engineering leads to the ability to live longer, then that's just peachy as far as I'm concerned.

[wanna be drummer]

Thats pretty badass and I'm with you. Not seeing too many ethics problems in the way as far as i can see.

[Donkey®]

Our scientists are so stupid nowadays that we won't even be able to accomplish this feat without the help of the Koreans and Japanese.

[stolz25]

This is just great until they figure out how to disable their molecular kill switches and take over the world? Haven't these guys ever seen any science fiction movie ever made?

[Dispatcher]

The idea of synthetic organisms is a bit scary to me.
And quantity of life is of little value without quality of life.

[wanna be drummer]

Originally Posted by Donkey®

Our scientists are so stupid nowadays that we won't even be able to accomplish this feat without the help of the Koreans and Japanese.

The Koreans maybe but the japanese wouldn't help. They'll wait for us to release the tech then steal it and imrpove on it and say how superior they are

[stolz25]

CIA recruited cat to bug Russians - Telegraph

Not exactly related, but another freakish experiment paid for by the government. The fact the cat got run over by a taxi after spending tons millions on it cracks me up.

[Dispatcher]

Originally Posted by stolz25

CIA recruited cat to bug Russians - Telegraph

Not exactly related, but another freakish experiment paid for by the government. The fact the cat got run over by a taxi after spending tons millions on it cracks me up.

Cat hater

[stolz25]

Originally Posted by Dispatcher

Cat hater

I have 2 cats.

At the same time the US was doing this the Russians were sewing dog heads onto.other dogs. It didn't have quite such a funny ending though.