Tech | February 05, 2010 | 30 comments

Pentagon Looks to Breed Immortal ‘Synthetic Organisms,’ Molecular Kill-Switch Included

source: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/02/pentagon-looks-to-breed-immortal-synthetic-organisms...

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The Pentagon’s mad science arm may have come up with its most radical project yet. Darpa is looking to re-write the laws of evolution to the military’s advantage, creating “synthetic organisms” that can live forever — or can be killed with the flick of a molecular switch.

As part of its budget for the next year, Darpa is investing $6 million into a project called BioDesign, with the goal of eliminating “the randomness of natural evolutionary advancement.” The plan would assemble the latest bio-tech knowledge to come up with living, breathing creatures that are genetically engineered to “produce the intended biological effect.” Darpa wants the organisms to be fortified with molecules that bolster cell resistance to death, so that the lab-monsters can “ultimately be programmed to live indefinitely.”

Of course, Darpa’s got to prevent the super-species from being swayed to do enemy work — so they’ll encode loyalty right into DNA, by developing genetically programmed locks to create “tamper proof” cells. Plus, the synthetic organism will be traceable, using some kind of DNA manipulation, “similar to a serial number on a handgun.” And if that doesn’t work, don’t worry. In case Darpa’s plan somehow goes horribly awry, they’re also tossing in a last-resort, genetically-coded kill switch:

Develop strategies to create a synthetic organism “self-destruct” option to be implemented upon nefarious removal of organism.

The project comes as Darpa also plans to throw $20 million into a new synthetic biology program, and $7.5 million into “increasing by several decades the speed with which we sequence, analyze and functionally edit cellular genomes.”

Of course, Darpa’s up against some vexing, fundamental laws of nature — not to mention bioethics — as they embark on the lab beast program. First, they might want to rethink the idea of evolution as a random series of events, says NYU biology professor David Fitch. “Evolution by selection is nota random process at all, and is actually a hugely efficient design algorithm used extensively in computation and engineering,” he e-mails Danger Room.

Even if Darpa manages to overcome the inherent intelligence of evolutionary processes, overcoming inevitable death can be tricky. Just ask all the other research teams who’ve made stabs at it, trying everything from cell starvation to hormone treatments. Gene therapy, where artificial genes are inserted into an organism to boost cell life, are the latest and greatest in life-extension science, but they’ve only been proven to extend lifespan by 20 percent in rats.

But suppose gene therapy makes major strides, and Darpa does manage to get the evolutionary science right. They’ll also have a major ethical hurdle to jump. Synthetic biology researchers are already facing the same questions, as a 2009 summary from the Synthetic Biology Project reports:

The concern that humans might be overreaching when we create organisms that never before existed can be a safety concern, but it also returns us to disagreements about what is our proper role in the natural world (a debate largely about non-physical harms or harms to well-being).

Even expert molecular geneticists don’t know what to make of the project. Either that, or they’re scared Darpa might sic a bio-bot on them. “I would love to comment, but unfortunately Darpa has installed a kill switch in me,” one unnamed expert tells Danger Room.



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30 comments // Pentagon Looks to Breed Immortal ‘Synthetic Organisms,’ Molecular Kill-Switch Included

  • SalvadoreSouza
  • Candice_Marie
  • CalPal
  • jubal
    • 0
      jubal  

    • It is projects like this that makes the need for interstellar space travel a necessity. Before you know it we will have a Stephen King novel come true on our hands.

      I am ready for the Diaspora of humanity unto the heavens.

    • 2 years ago
  • kitteneater
    • 0
      kitteneater  

    • It doesn't really matter what we create here on Earth. Our species' extinction is inevitable, either by the Big Crunch, a colliding universe, or even by our own sun.

    • 2 years ago
  • xiola
  • jubal
  • thisguy8989
  • zHellas
  • Danny_Feral
    • +1
      Danny_Feral  

    • I'm learning to exist in the Ethereal. You can have your 3rd dimension and its silly war games and battles over emotional dominion. The fabric of reality is long torn evolve or get left to the demise of the Babylon.

    • 2 years ago
  • csmonut
  • LikeBandits
    • +1
      LikeBandits  

    • Wow this is very Sci-Fi .. It reminds me a lot of a Deus Ex game! I won't be long til they start developing bio-modifications for the average person! Also, If everything goes according to plan there will no doubt be tons of backlash from religious and other groups about the issue concerning bioethics.

    • 2 years ago
  • Ionstorm2040
  • CalgarC
  • ColossalView
  • Sublime_Emperor
  • Scathian
  • 02
    • 0
      02  

    • Having a mass kill or threat biological weapon w/safety turn-off supposes you can contain such technology - which is highly unlikely.

      These people are contractors who've got themselves a contract. Of course, it is an extremely dangerous and very possibly catastrophic endeavor.

    • 2 years ago
  • Incredulous
    • 0
      Incredulous  

    • The self destructive mechanism doesn't scare me as much as the proposal to create self-repairing/replicating synthetic biological organisms, ie. little robot warriors that can be dropped from a plane, can track any and every living thing, and when they are attacked, they self repair. Think it's SciFi....nope. It's DARPA, using your tax dollars to make the world a safer place. The question, of course, is safer for whom...or maybe what?

    • 2 years ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • +1
      Gravity_Man  
    • Incredulous:

      I seriously doubt they plan to grow a brain in it. It will be an advanced servo organism remotely-run by somebody wearing a suit. However, if it DID have its own brain and decided it didn't like what it was it would have a long long time to develop a proper compensation package for DARPA. It wouldn't care if they killed him, and he would take out plenty of them.

    • 2 years ago
  • Monkey_Films
  • Nephwrack
  • Nephwrack
    • 0
      Nephwrack  
    • Monkey_Films:

      i'm not saying anything about haarp. i think it is a definite possibility. but the thing is, this story is not connected to haarp. it's about genetic engineering for jeebus sake. this *really* has nothing to do with haarp.

    • 2 years ago
  • Monkey_Films
  • Monkey_Films
    • -1
      Monkey_Films  

    • Just because we can, doesn't mean we should. Oh, but we don't have weather manipulation machines or the ability to create earthquakes, no, that's too sci-fi.

    • 2 years ago
  • fun_size
    • +1
      fun_size  
    • Monkey_Films:

      If you consider firing special ammunition into the atmosphere with the intent to form rain clouds "weather control" then yeah China has a weather control device. If you think people have the capability of producing massive storms however... not so much. We still cant even accurately predict the weather how do you expect to control it?

      As for earthquakes we would need to drill a huge hole on a fault line and drop multiple nuclear devices to cause a significant effect. I guess thats doable but it would be difficult to hide such an operation.

      Thats the problem with conspiracy theories, they dont use logic so i you can say anything without any evidence. Did you know the government is hiding the fact that you can crap out of your mouth?

    • 2 years ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • meddelem
    • +1
      meddelem  

    • so that implies that the zero-point, perpetual energy device is possible.

      i understand that goes out on the limb; but it can't be too far from the truth. i mean, if a perpetual life source/force is created, then there's a perpetual energy source/force. [?am i wrong?]

      'who knows; maybe humans were designed in such the same way... designed, genetically, with the wherewithal to manifest sort of perpetual organism of their own like selves, therein manifesting a perpetual, freely distributed energy force for their-selves.. the organisms would have laws/commandments, left-right /good-bad agendas and education that would enable them to mature and ultimately enable gestation of their own perpetual life force.. and this would occur indefinitely..

      and of course with the knowledge of a grand perpetual completion; the self in it's known glory could be released from the faith based, left-right good-bad ego and all it's personal bounds, for a spirituality revelation of self in it's entirety. and there.. a completely different way of things.

      that said, what if gravity is just the affinities of un-perpetuated life force expressions.

    • 2 years ago
  • FedUpWithDC
  • Varex_Sythe
    • +1
      Varex_Sythe  

    • Watch as the synthetic organisms evolve unexpectedly on their own to be immune to the kill switch, and then they revolt against human kind! BWAH! HAHAHAHAHAH!

    • 2 years ago
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