[p2p-research] P2P pharmaceuticals and fuels?

[Ryan Lanham]

As I mentioned to Jamais Cascio, the fear about this surprises me at one
level...disappoints me at another.

It definitely suggests backyard biology and economic revolutions on the
scale of IT/Personal computers.  I'm encouraging my sons to think that way
right now.  It is amazing how wide open the field is.  It seems unappealing
at first, like coding in an assembler code, but the rewards are staggering
and I suspect it is a matter of time before there are "higher level"
languages.  Some recent evidence suggests we should not move too fast to
high level languages in biology, however as much is lost in aggregation in
terms of resilience.

My suspicion is that we have just witnessed one of the real turning points
in the history of our species, and the press barely noticed and the
blogosphere mostly whined about it.

On Mon, May 24, 2010 at 8:45 AM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>wrote:

> Dear Sam and Kevin et al,
>
> I'm publishing this on the 31st, and extra comments to add to it are very
> welcome:
>
>
>
> Craig Venter synthetic life fallout: P2P pharmaceuticals and fuels?<http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/?p=8881>
> [image: photo of Michel Bauwens]
> Michel Bauwens
> 31st May 2010
>
>  “…from the point of view of technology, a code generated within a digital
> computer is now self-replicating as the genome of a line of living cells.
> From the point of view of biology, a code generated by a living organism has
> been translated into a digital representation for replication, editing, and
> transmission to other cells.”
>
> - George Dyson in response<http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge318.html>to Craig Venter’s announcement of “synthetic” life.
>
> Commentary<http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2010/05/journal-synthbio-platforms.html>via
> *John Robb*:
>
> *“Now that we have a self-replicating biological platform (yeast — likely
> one of many different platforms that will be floated over the next couple of
> years) that can accommodate a completely synthetic genome, the race in on:
> towards an abundance in nearly every material or process that can be enabled
> via biological means. *
>
> *For resilient communities, this will likely lead to the ability to
> replicate on the micro scale, many of the difficult to produce materials
> currently available only through a global industrial system. All that needs
> to be shared is the information necessary to do it. P2P pharmaceuticals and
> fuels?*
>
> *There is a bright side to this: This technology makes resilient
> communities both more necessary and more viable at the same time. *
>
> *The localization of production and the virtualization of everything else
> precludes the chance that damage from this technology will spread to a
> global scale via network amplification. It contains any potential damage to
> a small area. On the other hand, the virtualization of production and
> portability of discovery/productivity enabled by this technology will make
> it possible for very small communities to replicate the industrial power of
> a nation-state.*
>
>
>
> --
> P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
>
> Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
> http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org
>
> Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens;
> http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens
>
> Think thank: http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
>
>
>
>
>


-- 
Ryan Lanham
rlanham1963 at gmail.com
Facebook: Ryan_Lanham
P.O. Box 633
Grand Cayman, KY1-1303
Cayman Islands
(345) 916-1712
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