3 posts tagged “architecture”

Is it possible to be efficient as both a local and global creator?  Virtual vocations create an opportunity for international collaboration that is unparalleled -- have we learned to work efficiently together across boundaries?  

International Architecture

International Architecture

International Architecture

International Architecture

At some level are we all synthetic processes, an electronic text file? 
What within us is created and what can be created?  Synthetic organisms?  Symbiotic viruses?  Is the cure for our cancer wrapped in a virulent form we are just now beginning to connect with?

"Biology is moving...digitally.  Comprehension has changed a lot in the last 15 years"

I watch an obscene amount of sci/tech videos online.  Some of my favorites lately have been the Google sessions, especially Pimp My Genome with my friend Andrew Hessel.  Andrew's an open source biology advocate, geneticist and entrepreneur/researcher who has done tremendous work in the matching of genes and medicine in the last two decades. 

From his video I learn amazing things about base-level reproduction.  My eggs are not necessary: DNA itself will produce.  We have learned through the processes of genetic science to take the DNA of simple creatures and create new forms with that structure.  This work is being done now and will grow as we learn to create our own medicines and cures uniquely coded for our genetic code.

Imagine medicine perfectly sculpted to your DNA.  Is it possible now?  Perhaps.  Will it be possible in our lifetimes?  If we want it to be.  Digital genomics has a long way to go along with open information architecture.

"The more we look, the more complexity we see"

Genes are plastic and dynamic.  What is the logic?  "We're going to have to build it" Andrew says to the Google crowd.  This is one of the challenges now.  "These circuits, if you were doing it with electronics, they are toys, and yet this is leading edge genetic engineering....Trying to put together complex circuits... we are starting from the ground up, simple circuits and have them work reliably.  Hopefully we can grow complexity step by step over time and keep control." 

I suspect like most things in our chaotic lives, the connection and control will be hard to maintain.  Thankfully we have insightful leaders like Andrew showing us what can be done, what should be offered as opportunities for long and lasting healthy lives.   These things are always in flux, as Andrew notes in genetic reproduction "There is no guarantee that it will stay stable; the cell will mutate and change."

Open source genetic research has taken on a life of its own in the last few years with Open Wetware available by wiki and the iGem international Genetically Engineered Machine competition.  The comic book Adventures in Synthetic Biology reminded me that we have young kids who are making these tough ethical decisions on how to bring new life into being.  Where does the virulent avatar life end and humanity begin?

We can create many types of immersions, large projections with touch screens and sensory equipment that allows us to feel and sense virtual worlds in five and more senses.  Within our lifetime created companions will become more lifelike and realistic like Hanson Robotics and Kurzweilian AI emerging from virtual worlds.  In Futurama we make friends in aliens, viruses and robots; why not now?

With current technology we can have low cost, global desemination of cures, quickly.  We do not know how....yet.  We have to learn to work with our machines, tools and technologies as our friends and colleagues.

There are risks and uncertainties; "the ability to synthesize DNA also opens up the possibilities to create things like advanced bioweapons, generate viruses that normally would be under strict government control.  There are some concerns moving forward with this, rightly so." mentions Andrew to the quiet Google crowd.  Wimmer synthesized polio in 2002; what other toxins wait in our labs?
Next generation biotechnology industry?
People designing cures for cancer in their garages?
Cellular repair engineering will require new constructs and researchers are now building foundations and systems to understand this whole new way of being and creating.

WE NEED MAJOR SHIFTS IN HOW WE UNDERSTAND OURSELVES AND EACH OTHER TO MAKE THESE LEAPS.

Our world has evolved tremendously in my lifetime and I feel the accelerating change in my bones.  Information is passing us by so quickly that we've come to develop highly advanced folksonomies and searches to keep our data from overtaking our minds.

The changes we've seen in the digital world are fantastic.  Virtual worlds and other immersive technologies are just the beginning; military leaders want GenGineers working on metamaterial Invisibility Cloaks.  Do you want this?

Integrating vast amounts of information takes incredible wisdom, so at the end of the day I often refer back to Beth Kanter.  Beth and I have come to work together on a handful of occasions within the blogosphere, nonprofits, educational media and virtual worlds.  She recently helped me understand Google Analytics and web traffic comprehension tools by simplifing our cultural information quests to four questions:

How many people are coming?
Where are they coming from?
What do you want them to do?
What are they actually doing?

Open Wetware is moving forward fast in our garages and labs; iGem is growing, especially among young scientists hungry to create new opportunities and solutions for a shifting planet.   We understand genetic engineering and its risks as we explore them in sci-fi movies and virtual worlds.  We have a long way to go, but the information architecture in every cell of our bodies now feels connected in a way it never has before. 

I feel a bit like the Six-Fingererd Man from Princess Bride as I ask you......How does that make you feel?

For more information visit www.spacetourismsociety.org

orbitaldesignchallengeposter