Regenesis_HowSyntheticBiologyWillReinven.epub - (EPUB全文下载)

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EPIGENETIC EPILOGUE
+1 YR, THE END OF THEBEGINNING, TRANSHUMANISM,AND THE PANSPERMIA ERA
Societal Risks and Countermeasures
A popular theme in techno-thriller novels is the story of mutant microbes running amok and almost, but not quite, wiping out the human race. The locus classicus for this scenario is Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain (1969). Here a deadly microbe of extraterrestrial origin lands near the fictional town of Piedmont, Arizona, and the invading organisms slaughter the town’s entire population, with the exception of two residents who mysteriously survive. The microbe responsible, the Andromeda strain of the title, mutates with each cell division and acquires new and even more destructive biological properties. The fate of humanity hangs in the balance, until a government scientist working inside a secret and secure biological containment facility somewhere in Nevada heroically carries out a last-minute save. The Andromeda microbes then depart for the upper atmosphere, whose lower oxygen content better suits their growth. (This story line seems to be a Michael Crichton specialty. His 2002 novel, Prey, depicts a race of artificially alive nanorobots that escape from the lab, collect themselves into swarms, and then hunt down and kill people.)
Paranoia about exotic microbes is not confined to fiction, however. In real life it underlies the hostility toward, and temporary suppression of, the first generation of recombinant DNA experiments during the mid-1970s. It’s what motivates panic reactions to genetically modified foods. And it’s also what incites some knee-jerk criticisms of synthetic biology. “Scientists are making strands of DNA that never existed,” claims Jim Thomas, a synthetic biology critic with the ETC Group, a technology monitoring organization based in Ottawa. “So there is nothing to compare them to.”
Well, not exactly. Every two parents who conceive a child are creating “strands of DNA that never existed” Bacteria are constantly exchanging genes in a process called conjugation, thereby giving rise to yet more “strands of DNA that never existed.” In fact, the creation of DNA that never before existed is a constant and pervasive feature of life on earth.
Despite the fear evoked by the idea of genetically modified organisms, those of the natural variety are hard to beat when it comes to posing serious threats to humanity. Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of bubonic plague, is estimated to have killed as many as a third to ............

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