More on Venter's bid for godhood
Tuesday, June 1, 2010 at 12:04AM
Thomas P.M. Barnett in Citation Post, global trends, healthcare, technology

FT full-page "analysis," plus Economist editorial and briefing.

FT first:

The first application for synthetic genomes may be the rapid development of new flu vaccines . . . "If this technology had been available last year, we could have cut the period needed to make a vaccine for H1N1 by 99 percent," says Dr Venter.  "We could have done it in a day."

The basic reminder:  most life extension is accomplished by defeating everyday disease, not revamping the body.  So the benefits of life extension tend to be fairly democratic, meaning everybody gets them--and not just the super-rich.

Venter, as indicated before here, is focused on creating algae that can suck CO2 out of the air and produce hydrocarbons--great stuff that should be happening here in America. 

From The Economist:

Is the answer lots of new rules?  The better answer is profound openness on developments, so a vote for open-source.  

A key glimpse of the future:  the falling cost of analyzing DNA sequences and the faster and cheaper DNA synthesis.

Article originally appeared on Thomas P.M. Barnett (https://thomaspmbarnett.com/).
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