Andrew Hessel - Introduction to Synthetic Biology

Andrew Hessel, pioneer in synthetic biology, discusses the similarities between computing and biology during a talk at Singularity University.

• Category

  Science & Technology

[singularityu]

Thanks for the bookmarks ccaaeeiioouuss

[gravelftw]

This lecture should be shown in high school Biology classes everywhere.

[caseorganic]

I am very pleased with this. Thank you for speaking.

[Searchforalaugh]

Wheres the rest :-/ ?

[DrGracePauling]

Very good seminar! Great Job!

[MumblingMickey]

Essentially I'm not knocking Kurzweil (although I do think he's a little flakey and on the fringe.

Since his calculations are simple and well known its possible to predict things that 'can' come about in the future. But its not possible given the incredibly complex interactions, products, fads and human activities what that will look like except in generic terms.

For example right now we know we can add 30% to the human lifespan, yet nobody seems to be bothered to implement it!

[MumblingMickey]

Yeah I read two of his books and his 'how my predictions are faring'...and indeed his LOAR is accurate... but only insofar as it calculates IF something will be possible based on future technology. It says nothing about how it would be interpreted and fielded by society. Which is a much more complex question.

For example he could have predicted in 1990 the demise of democracy and outright rule by the population using social media [or something like it], thats possible right now.

[Matthew Bendyna]

Ray Kurzweil's law of accelerating return is a rather accurate model, and after doing a bit of looking into his prediction method, there is logic to it. It's been accurate to a rather impressive degree so far as well.

[matt vt]

this guy is Daniel Tosh's intelligent twin brother.

[LeDuckDuckGoose]

omg. starcraft...maybe the human race made the protoss race and zerg race but lost control....

[Vildasnaga]

Id say the box was blown open the moment humanity made its first question...

[MumblingMickey]

As someone thinking of taking a course in bioinformatics and having read a bit of biology I realised pretty quickly there was indeed something unscientific and 'creepy' in this vid.

After a little digging it seems to be more from the mind of Ray Kurzweil et al. Singularity university & their technologist luvin ideology.

However it is interesting to note the garage tinkering of the biobricks fraternity and smells a bit like the calm before the storm of the computer revolution in the 80's.

[MumblingMickey]

?? huh?