News — At The Edge — 4/6
Emerging technologies — Synthetic Biology and AIs — offer both utopian and dystopian potential depending on how wise civilization is managing and controlling their use and abuse, which, historically, is not encouraging.
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First bacterial genome created entirely with a computer —
“All the genome sequences of organisms known… are stored in a database…[but] today, the database has…world’s first fully computer-generated genome of a living organism… C. ethensis-2.0…considered to be a true tour de force….
[The] synthesized bacterial genome presented 11 years ago by…Craig Venter was the result of 10 years of work by 20 scientists…[that] totaled $40 million…[for] an exact copy of a natural genome….
[Today’s] radically altered their genome using a computer algorithm. Their motivation was twofold: one, to make it much easier to produce genomes, and two, to address fundamental questions of biology. ….
- To synthesize the genome segments in the simplest possible way, and then piece together…in the most streamlined manner…[to] radically simplified the genome sequence without modifying the actual genetic information (at the protein level)….[Result] a sixth of all of the 800,000 DNA letters in the artificial genome were replaced, compared to the ‘natural’ minimal genome.
- ‘Through our algorithm, we have completely rewritten our genome into a new sequence of DNA letters that no longer resembles the original sequence….[yet] the biological function at the protein level remains the same’….
- [A] litmus test to see whether we biologists have correctly understood genetics, and it allows us to highlight possible gaps in our knowledge’….[T]he researchers found…about 580 of the 680 artificial genes were functional…[and] be possible for us to improve our algorithm and develop a fully functional genome version 3.0….
[This] shows that biological systems are constructed in such a simple manner that in the future, we will be able to work out the design specifications on the computer according to our goals, and then build them… in a comparatively straightforward way….
‘What took ten years with Craig Venter…[was] achieved with our new technology within…one year with manufacturing costs of 120,000 Swiss francs’….
[Among] future applications are synthetic microorganisms that could be utilized in…the production of complex pharmaceutically active molecules or vitamins, for example…employed universally for all microorganisms…[and] the production of DNA vaccines….
[Now need] discussion in society about the purposes for which this technology can be used and…how abuses can be prevented.’” https://phys.org/news/2019-04-bacterial-genome.html
Can we stop AI outsmarting humanity? —
“[Superintelligent AIs] will combine a wide range of skills in one entity…[and might] use data generated by smartphones…to excel at social manipulation…[or] take our place on the evolutionary ladder and dominate us the way we now dominate apes…[or] exterminate us….
Existential risks — or X-risks…are threats to humanity’s survival…[like] climate change, nuclear war and bioweapons… [and] advanced AI can dispose of us as swiftly as humans chop down trees…[and]wouldn’t necessarily need to be given the goal of world domination in order to achieve it — it could just be accidental.
And the history of computer programming is rife with small errors that sparked catastrophes…[For example] a fictional agent directed to make as many paperclips as possible… might decide that the atoms in human bodies would be better put to use as raw material….
[So] any approach to AI safety will be hard to get right. If an AI is sufficiently smart, it might have a better understanding of the constraints than its creators….
[I]t could be necessary to create…a physical switch, or a mechanism programmed into an AI to automatically turn itself off in the event of a breakout. But designing such a switch is far from easy…not just that an advanced AI interested in self-preservation could prevent the button from being pressed…[but] become curious about why humans devised the button….
[Still] there are other challenges. What if the AI has copied itself several thousand times across the internet?….’We have to think a few steps ahead….The ultimate goal of AI-safety research is to create machines that are…ethically as well as cognitively superhuman’….
[But] needless anthropomorphizing…assumes that intelligence equals consciousness — a misconception….[T]he important thing is what AI does.’” https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/28/can-we-stop-robots-outsmarting-humanity-artificial-intelligence-singularity
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Doc Huston
