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Puzzled by the Genome? Fungus explains. |
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The Human Genome Map was completed on May 17th, 2006. Coming 3 years after the publishing of the sequence of Chromosome 1 it may have not caused much of a stir in circles other than the most academic. However, it caught your intrepid technology reporter's roving eye as he traipsed through the murky corridors of Science & Technology on the Internet.
Even in isolation it is, without a doubt, a fantastic achievement to put our "source code", so to speak, on paper. But combine this news with certain trends and techniques in Biology and Computing and the possibilities boggle the mind. In the limited space I get in this column I'd like to open your mind to just one of them. Consider the following words and phrases:
What are you babbling about?
If you aren't familiar with any of the above concepts check out the links for explanations and a fantastic example of Distributed Computing at the SETI home page.
Comfortable? Excellent! Here's what I see.
Genetic Engineering and Cloning, put together, give scientists the power to create specimens with altered genetic structures and, here's the kicker, actually bring them to life.
The question of viability is one to think about, of course. Not all genetic structures are capable of life. So, theoretically, and leaving aside all questions of ethics and morality, we have, in our hands, the power to create genetically altered human beings.
We do this today, mainly to cure disease but the possibilities are endless. With the human genome out on paper in all its glory scientists have the luxury of choosing which gene to modify in what way and to produce a living specimen of the resulting specification.
The question then becomes: What genes to modify?
It is not an easy question to answer. Despite the genome being listed there is very little we know about the specific functions of each gene and whether each and every one has any use at all. Our genetic code contains a vast amount of redundant information.
Whether the redundant information is a record of our evolution thus far or a precursor of the evolution to follow; whether these sleeping genes were ever awake or ever will be; we don't know. We don't know whether our genetic makeup is merely the sum of its parts or if the introduction of an additional gene completely alters the effect of the pre-existing ones.
These are questions it will take many years to answer. However, we are a forward-thinking publication. Let us jump forward 10 years - and that's a conservative estimate considering the speed with which we're unraveling the genetic code today - and assume that not just the code but the effect of that code has also been decoded. We know what the genes do and what change any alteration in one gene would introduce in the resultant organism.
How do you do this?
To answer the question of which gene to alter we need to answer one more question: What do we hope to achieve?
Assume that we want a stronger, more athletic human being (No, we're not dreaming about raising our own army - Bill Gates can rest easy. For now). We simply introduce a random change in the genes that determine strength or propensity to gain muscle mass and select the best outcome. The best method of introducing random changes in a sequence of code and evaluating the options is Genetic Programming.
Genetic programming, basically, is the automated technique of finding code that best performs a task. It is ironic that it was, itself, inspired by evolution. Considering there are about 25000 genes in the human genetic sequence and each gene could be altered in a fantastic number of ways.
Now we begin to realise the magnitude of this task.
No single computer, not even a cluster of powerful supercomputers, could hope to run the program required to manipulate the human genetic sequence, introduce random changes and evaluate the best outcome in a reasonable amount of time. This is where Distributed Computing steps in (told you we'd cover all bases).
Using techniques very similar to what the SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) project is employing the computing load of such an intensive task could be divided over the idle processing power (and there is a lot of it) of the millions of Personal Computers connected to the Internet. With computing speeds and Internet bandwidth destined to travel only in the northerly direction the idea sounds more and more plausible, does it not?
Wow! What does all this mean?
What are we doing here? We've just pushed evolution into warp-speed. If Darwin were around now he wouldn't know what hit him. Entire races could be custom-created. When the external environment changes the entire process could be repeated with a different end in mind.
Sequences for alternate specifications could be kept in reserve in case of a major catastrophe - a mutant virus, for example, that targets specific weaknesses in the genetic code in vogue at the time. Designer babies and super-men would abound. Every scientist, or every sponsor, at any rate, would be realising his vision of the perfect human being. All this merely means that there could be an army of my clones, albeit thinner, running amok in the years to come.
Amen.
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