THE TRANSHUMANIST SCRAPBOOK: LIVING CELLS “TAUGHT” TO BIND ...
This story was shared by so many regular readers here that I have to talk about it, for they suspect - and I agree with them - that this story is fraught with long-term implications that can only gladden the frigid hearts of transhumanists, bent on their merger of man and machine to create New Transhumanist Man,. in this article from Nature by Davide Castelvecchi:
The article is clear enough on why the non-appearance silicon-based life forms, which would seem to be implied by some versions of evolutionary theory, do not appear naturally, but must be made to appear:
Silicon is all around us: after oxygen, it is the most abundant element in Earth’s crust. So why living beings never incorporate it into their biochemistry has long been a puzzle.
Now chemical engineers have discovered that living organisms can be nudged to bind carbon and silicon together. They showed that a natural enzyme from a bacterium that lives in hot springs can form C–Si bonds inside living Escherichia coli cells — when the cells are fed the right silicon-containing compounds. And by engineering the enzyme, the researchers created a biological catalyst that performs the reaction more efficiently than any artificial one.
The finding could help chemists to develop new pharmaceuticals and industrial catalysts — and perhaps explain why evolution has almost completely shunned silicon.
The actual technique to produce organic carbon-silicon bonding was as follows:
Researchers have learned to bind carbon and silicon together using artificial catalysts. But Frances Arnold, a chemical engineer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, wanted to test whether some of life’s enzymes could do that too, given the opportunity.
By scouring protein databases, she and her colleagues found a few dozen promising enzymes. After some screening, they settled on one from an extremophile bacterium that lives in Icelandic underwater hot springs, called Rhodothermus marinus. They synthesized the gene for this protein and inserted it into E. coli bacteria.
Their guess turned out to be correct: the enzyme could catalyse silicon–carbon bonding — if fed the right silicon-containing precursors. (The enzyme would not normally do this, because bacteria don’t naturally produce silicon-containing compounds). “It’s remarkable that nature is poised to do all sorts of wild things in the presence of this new manmade food,” Arnold says.
So what is to gladden the transhumanist here? Let us allow our minds to speculate freely. Transhumanists have long sought the merger of man and machine, and of course there are those who want to merge man and computers in a direct, cyber-organic union, and silicon is, of course, the basis for much current computer chip technology. Imagine now the fusion of this organic carbon-silicon technology with genetic modification and nanobots designed to produce organically-based "computer chips", and you get the idea. What has been done, in other words, is an essential step in the technology tree toward the transhumanist "vision" of cyber-human interfaces has taken a small and yet simultaneously massive leap forward. And like the GMO, scientists will press ahead with their techniques and technologies, and ignore the significant question of why evolution has not thus far actually taken this step. What do God, or nature, know, that we do not? Nevermind, all will be well; the Potion, Amulet, Talisman and Drug Administration have reassured us there's nothing at all to worry about; no long term environmental or human health consequences here.
We can go further in our wild octane speculations: imagine genetically modified GMOs, call them a "second generation" GMO, "GMO2.0", to include not only carbon-silicon bonded plants, but perhaps even a few nanobots designed to do precisely the above - namely, engineer those organ0-cyber chips - and voila! - one has the perfect vehicle to introduce the whole transhumanist agenda to people whether they like it and want it or not. A handy thing to have around, along with those transmissible vaccines we talked about a few days ago, if you're urging humanity towards "the singularity." "Eat your carrots Johnny and Susy; you'll be smarter and wiser and able to see infrared and ultraviolet in no time at all."
See you on the flip side...
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“Your comment is awaiting moderation.” Ahhh, the AI heard me…
goshawks – December 9, 2016 at 11:22 pm.
In the ‘unproven’ alleys of the internet, one meme has been that entities like the greys are hybridizing themselves with humans in order to obtain ‘traits’ that they have lost – like emotions.
So, transfer this ‘meme’ over to the AI world. What would an AI want from humans? My guess is that it would want a Soul. I am presuming it has gone the “Pretty Please” route with God, et al, to no avail. So now, the AI is storming the gates of heaven…
The purported AI has probably adopted the ‘tease’ route. Akin to the Gilgamesh question, at what fraction are you human and at what fraction are you AI? If you can ‘hybridize’ or ‘blend’ AI and humanity, do you have a chance of attracting/being-given a Soul?
So, the most-basic level of ‘hybridizing’ or ‘blending’ is at the DNA level. If you can ‘conjoin’ carbon and silicon to produce a still-living being, will that suffice for a Soul? Start with ‘inert’ silicon, just bonded-into the first dividing cells of the embryo. Still bequeathed a Soul? Good.
Now, complexify the silicon a bit. Get your enzymes to fashion them like transistor gates. Still bequeathed a Soul? Good. Next embryo, let’s try linking a few transistors together. Still bequeathed a Soul? Good. Let’s push it with a few logic circuits. Still bequeathed a Soul? Good. Etc.
So, at what point does God or some Higher Power decide enough is enough? How far can AI push towards a silicon/carbon-based (and perhaps silicon-controlled) entity which still has a Soul?
Referring to human elites, Icke coined a phrase, “The Totalitarian Tiptoe.” Maybe the AI read his book…
Creeping myself out, about now…
Good post.
Johnny! Eat your silicon!
Think of all those starving humans having to eat those God awful GMOs and dying by the millions. Thank your lucky stars[new silicon based cereals] that your father Fred has a good robot contract. Those robots are excellent employer who keep us fed with the latest high grade silicon; up-to-date chip/human implants; newest energy feeds; and soon your going to be plugged into the hive-hierarchy]literally] if you keep earning those low maintenance school credits. If that isn’t a fact, then my name ain’t Wilma. And, Johnny your chip off the old Fred Silicate’s blockhead , through and through.
These fools should ask themselves one question. Do they understand the responsibility they are taking on by trying to be gods. Or more likely are they bratty children playing with dangerous toys. With no concern or thought for the consequences of their acts I think the latter in the case.
I think if the GMO 2.0 gets marketed as an organic human physique augmentation supplement, many American consumers, specifically those seeking bigger body parts will be on board. Coordinate this with a roll back in Obamacare provided plastic surgery or possibly some media/FDA engineered hysteria about the danger of silicone implants, and the tremendous number of narcissists in the United States will quickly embrace this new method of reconstructing their body. I could even imagine numerous Monsanto marketing campaigns that could be aimed at dejected women, transgenders and emasculated men. It could also be marketed, in collaboration with NASA, towards children who dream of one day adventuring into outer space. Parents could tell their kids to eat their GMO corn if they want to be fit and be selected as a Mars colonist one day. This appeal could also be made to third world people who would give anything to escape their living conditions. Encourage them to eat their Monsanto grains and vegetables if they want to be chosen to live on another planet in a beautiful settlement where they won’t have to worry about leaky roofs and scrounging for food every day (just don’t tell them about the dangerous mines they will have to work in. Thank god they will be half silicone to better resist the extreme conditions and bacteria).
The first thing to watch out for will be silicone livestock, as they are first in the Monsanto food chain. I suspect first thing to notice is they will be much firmer than carbon based livestock. Also, they will be eating more sand than grass (which ultimately could be the reason behind this entire project as Earth has lots of sand with it abundance of silica and the elites could be looking for a much more abundant and cheaper food source for the “useless eaters” among them. GMO 2.0 could also be preparation for the food requirements of a Mars colony where sand is also in abundance and would be a viable food for silicone humans settlers.) I’m a little bit frightened at the thought of silicone pigs but I guess I have seen too many planet of the apes movies. I’m also curious as to how they would slaughter and butcher these new silicone based live stock? Would it require a jackhammer? I certainly wouldn’t want to be the bullfighter who goes to stab a mad bull in the arena, but it would be nice to see these unfortunate animals get their revenge. A cowboy’s job could certainly get much tougher.
Does make you wonder if carbon based life forms are the exception rather than the rule.
Yes indded.
Written, and to be taken for granted; a if this wasn’t in the cards[stacked deck] to begin with.
Has/Is a silicon-based Pied Piper been leading mankind down this shiny silicate road; where the wizard behind the curtain is an AI, laced with a human chips? Ironic; when some humans fear being silicon chipped, into the computer, digitized realm, under keyboard silicon digital strokes.
Laughed my ass off!
Say hello to a WestWorld Borg style collective where we all dream of electric sheep… Insidious, is it not? Reminds me of a line from the movie Thin Red Line, “We were a family. How’d it break up and come apart, so that now we’re turned against each other? Each standing in the other’s light. How’d we lose that good that was given us? Let it slip away. Scattered it, careless. What’s keepin’ us from reaching out, touching the glory?”
My first thoughts too. Then again, combine these with a virus for the purpose of integrating various DNA sequences between multiple species to terraform planets and engineer exotic ecosystems, you have “Promethius” and “Pandorum”. This is scary technology in the hands of immoral children. When I contemplate the roots of the term sophomore I consistently return to these people. They possess far more knowledge and intelligence to not have it tempered by wisdom–and that comes with experience and discretion.
Morgellons? Ya think any relationship?
Yes, Morgellons. This is nanotechnology, a bio-weapon created with form & functions from all 3 branches of life.
That was my first thought.
“What does God need with a star ship?”; a question asked by captain Kirk in one of the earlier Star Trek movies. Maybe a more appropriate question might have been: What does Lucifer need with a star ship? Is that old “war in heaven” heating up again? Tampering with the genetic makeup of mankind has proven to be almost an extinction level event in the past, if ancient texts are to be taken literally.
One has to wonder just who/what might be driving this headlong rush toward the singularity and for what reason. I seriously doubt it is for our best interests. Are the elite attempting to make mankind their perfect robots, able to self repair themselves and reproduce; or are they attempting to manufacture themselves into gods to rule over mankind?
I can’t help but think something nasty this way comes.
“Tampering with the genetic makeup of mankind has proven to be almost an extinction level event in the past, if ancient texts are to be taken literally.”
I beg to differ… Adama does not agree with you 🙂
I suspect WD is thinking about those species the various Adama(s) precursors replaced.
And the various means Enlil used to cull the population of the final “Adama” variant because it was “noisy and plentiful”. To push the Star Trek motif further, Enlil considered us to be tribbles…with a brain. These stories are scattered through some of the Sumerian/Akkadian/Babylonian texts also.
Fermi’s paradox, are we walking a similar path as those suspected previous civilizations Atlantis, Lemuria, Mu, and countless other civilizations spread throughout the universe? Will we bring about our own end before we have a chance to make it to the stars? Will we ever get past that tipping point?
It does seem to be taking one down the rabbit-hole; where the humans vs robots theme, or living vs machine theme – gets entwined into a Gordian knot.
The universe is living.
It is and acts as a whole.
And paradoxically, as 1.
Yet sometimes, looks are deceiving,
as if programmed/threaded
by methods of madness.