If they would just walk out of the laboratory and let it alone it will happen all by itself in about 1 billion years.
I agree, it isn't even on the horizon. I think that in order for this to “remove one of the few fundamental mysteries about creation in the universe and our role” (my emphasis), as the guy in the article says, it would need to at least approach the topic. I suppose that, to me, exactly which assortment of organic chemicals came first is extremely interesting, but it isn't "a fundamental mystery". The one "fundamental mystery" that comes to mind for me when I read what Bedau says is the issue of consiousness. I wasn't saying that they won't learn a lot from this work. Again, I don't disagree that such discoveries would have huge implications. I'm just skeptical that those implications will reach into the kinds of issues that Bedau seemed to be suggesting they would. Will these discoveries answer scientific questions? Yes. Will they have philosophical (or, for some, theological) implications? I doubt it.
The fear of creating zombies or delight in creating Brittany Spears for sale is silly. Pushing the research envelope is generally a good thing. However, the fear is in creating a microbe that that escapes into the sea, earth or air and gets out of our control.
Perhaps consciousness is an illusion, and we are really just a very complicated robot - no more then a set of learned behaviors with a douse of randomness thrown in.
Of course, if consciousness is an illusion, you have to wonder- who is it that's being fooled? Or did I just blow your mind?
The illusion is that everything is an conceptual idea. Everything that has a name or term has it's root in conceptual thinking. Consciousness exists, but nothing exists apart from consciousness. More like a douse of free will.
Yes, work on the anti-life equation is progressing nicely. Don't forget the staggering potential of artificial intelligence though.
Britney Spears and Kevin Federline can create life... It's not hard... I want a car that can fly, **** man!!! In the Back to the Future sequel they were flying cars in the year 2015.
What scientists may create has nothing to do with consciousness or thought. If a virus or slightly more complex microbe is created and escapes into the environment, it could conceivably do untold damage, directly or indirectly -- to any or all current flora and fauna -- which includes us.
The question of consciousness is interesting but I think we are mistaking the creation of an artificial biological cell with creating consciousness. Its possible if AI is perfected we could create a purely artificial consciousness.
I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure.
Or have alien matter land on the planet, its organic matter enter into our environment where it can mutate rapidly, and see it evolve in front of our very eyes
To contain the newly created life for observation, and to see how it evolves, scientists intend to inject the life forms into an isolated environment. This environment is distant planet called Earth.
