The Life Machine

Amazing, Crazy and Unethical

Perhaps this is the Espresso-Mars bar concoction speaking, but I am feeling really psyched about today! The sheer amount of information I got through in today’s lectures may have been overwhelming, but it was fascinating. I am worried that I will not be able to remember the fascinating science that I learned today. I learned about the fascinating world of DNA, of Epigenetics, blood clotting and its regulation, amino acid chemistry, protein function, post-translational modification and cancer proteins. To the untrained ear, some of these may sound dull, but they are key hues and ingredients in painting the grand picture of life.

For instance, Epigenetics is almost heretic in the ideas it presents. I’ll give a brief explanation with an example. It tells us that our genes aren’t entirely responsible for making us what we are. Genes aren’t entirely responsible for how we look, how we function or even how we function when we are born. It explores the effect of the environment on our genes, and it turns out that the world outside of our bodies has a profound effect on even how our genes function. You’ll find that genes can be ‘switched on’ or ‘switched off’, and different environmental stimuli will switch different genes on or off, thus controlling how our DNA works within our body. It is in this way that a pregnant mother can affect how her baby will turn out. The food she eats, or the substances that enter her body will enter her blood stream. The blood will flow through her body carrying these substances or their derivatives, eventually reaching the baby, thus being absorbed by the baby. Within the developing baby, different genetic switches will be altered, thus affecting how the baby will turn out. Basically, the idea of Epigenetics means that our genes aren’t the creation powerhouses that they once were, but are in fact just fuzzy guidelines as to how we should turn out, with a lot of room for change from the outside world.

This leads me to the amazing world of Post-translational Modification of proteins. Do not be put off by the name. The principles really are something interesting. Our proteins are massive (organised) tangles of linear chains of a type of chemical called amino acids. There are 20 (well technically 22) amino acids in nature. Different combinations of these amino acids will provide different proteins. A protein is a giant molecule, made up of a specifically tangled chain of these amino acids which have been bound together. Most of our solid build-up is protein, so proteins are basically what we are. Proteins are the product of the information stored in DNA (DNA is the biochemical hard-drive which stores all of our genetic information).

Well, I’ll keep this short so I don’t start going into too much detail, but our proteins aren’t stationary molecules with a fixed tangle shape. Other proteins can come along and change small parts of the protein to change the way the protein works. They only need to add a few tiny atoms to this giant molecule and the protein suddenly does something else. Some proteins are capable of operating with over 30 different modifications! Each different modification is achieved with the help of another different protein which is just responding to a change in the environment (Epigenetics). You must remember that there are tens and thousands of different proteins in the human body alone. This is just a single protein I’m talking about. Incidentally, this protein is a protein involved in cell suicide (apoptosis). Different stimuli will cause the protein to turn on the genetic switch for Cell Suicide.

The idea of proteins needing further modification from other proteins sent a shudder up my spine at the time. I mean, the amount of different proteins in our bodies is a large enough number, but there number of different controls for each one and the sheer diversity of functions in all of them are just staggering. Just how complex is life? Just how complex is the human body on its own? Then there are over a billion different species of organism on the planet. The range and quantity of functions and life processes out there are simply mind blowing. Absolutely crazy.

Then, while I was trying to process all of this information on my way home, I had a sudden idea. Another crazy idea. It was a ridiculous thought experiment that given the appropriate resources and time could even be possible. What if scientists built a supercomputer with information about forces and the elements of the periodic table stored within? It would have all of the elements, their properties and their structures stored in digital storage. Then a program could be designed based on these chemicals. It would have a built in planet, with gravity set by the programmer. The planet will have a predetermined chemical make up, preferably one similar to Earth. All nutrients are there. Then you would focus on a small part of this cyber-planet to an area where all of the nutrients necessary for life were present and you’d insert the chemical structure of the DNA of a few types of plants. You’d have programmed the computer to create the adult plants to begin with so as to avoid the usage of seeds and evolution and wombs and whatnot. It would provide all of the nutrients required for growth in infinite supply to begin with, just so the first plants and human would operate properly. The plants would be edible. The energy being input into the computer would only be used to maintain the cyber-sun in the corner of the screen and to maintain the operation of the system. This would be analogous of the residual energy in the universe holding everything together for our cyber-sun, our cyber planet, our cyber-plants and our cyber-human. You plant an artificially intelligent human into the program. A DNA template would be there to make it a cyber-biological organism once it had been uploaded. There would have to be a constant supply of energy to the computer as cutting this supply would dissipate the entire universe of this intelligent human.

This cyber-human would eat cyber plants to obtain cyber nutrients to maintain it. It would excrete. It would release energy for cyber-biological function. It would breathe the cyber-atmosphere. It would be artificially intelligent so it would have emotions. In all intents and purposes, this cyber-being is meeting all of the requirements for being scientifically alive. And you have complete control of its entire universe. What just seemed as an interesting experiment which was physically possible, providing the technology was developed just turned into an ethical nightmare. You have just assumed the place of God. You have control over this organism’s life, or its death. You have complete power over its entire existence and the cyber-organism can do nothing to stop it. Nobody should wield that kind of power. I just realised that this is wrong. It should never be tried. It should stay in the minds of dreamers, and avoid the minds of doers. I’ve just frightened myself once again.