Pentagon Ignores the Warnings of 'Splice' and 'Jurassic Park' in Breeding Artificial Life

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Ross Stapleton-Gray <ross () stapleton-gray com>
> Date: February 28, 2010 1:28:59 PM EST
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Re: [IP] Pentagon Ignores the Warnings of 'Splice' and  
> 'Jurassic Park' in Breeding Artificial Life

> At 08:04 AM 2/28/2010, Christine Fall wrote:
> > In its 2011 budget, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency  
> > (DARPA) has allocated $6 million for BioDesign, a project to create  
> > artificial life. The unclassified document doesn't say how the new  
> > life-forms will be used, but I'm guessing they won't be making  
> > biofuels or absorbing greenhouse gases. More likely, the agency is  
> > aiming for Moreau's ungodly brand of "divine human."
> >
> > Here's what we know: they want to develop "a robust understanding  
> > of the collective mechanisms that contribute to cell death," so as  
> > to "enable a new generation of regenerative cells that could  
> > ultimately be programmed to live indefinitely." This could lead to  
> > one badass super-soldier.
>
> Christine needs to watch more documentaries, and fewer summer  
> blockbusters.  DARPA has interests across a spectrum of biological  
> and biologically-inspired areas; I suspect that bioengineered humans  
> (certainly "badass super-soldiers") don't make their highest  
> priority list, if only because of the huge lag time and unlikelihood  
> that the human embryo you tinker with today won't get sidelined off  
> to a career in theatre or hedge-fund management.  Things that do  
> would probably include artificial blood (to boost the availability  
> of blood for transfusion, since firefights produce patients at  
> bursty rates) and sensors, e.g., they've got a RealNose project to  
> replicate the capabilities of dogs' noses: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090213172533.htm
>
> Now, if DARPA funding solved questions of cell death, I'm sure  
> applications would be found everywhere... it'd be fantastic to  
> imagine human brains never suffering from age, if not "learning to  
> learn" at the rate of a child even into one's 100s... but again,  
> that's not singularly relevant to "badass super-soldiers."
>
> Actually, given the current (and likely increased future) aversion  
> to any combat deaths, I think the Pentagon's long-term betting has  
> still got to be on robots, both human-in-the-loop and autonomous.
>
> As a former intelligence officer, I also suspect that cell-death  
> interests relate to sensor longevity... just as the Pentagon is  
> funding research into power scavenging to allow sensors to be  
> powered without some combat team HALOing in to put in new Duracells  
> every few months, they'd like bio-based sensors and systems to keep  
> running indefinitely, after they're deployed.  Maybe even reproduce,  
> so that little Sensor Jr. can augment Dad in keeping an eye/ear/ 
> tentacle on Osama's hidey-hole.
>
> Ross
>
>
> ----
> Ross Stapleton-Gray, Ph.D.
> Stapleton-Gray & Associates, Inc.
> http://www.stapleton-gray.com



-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com