Synthetic life
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Synthetic life and artificial life (not to be confused with the field of Artificial Life) are terms used to refer to manufactured, synthesized or created life forms. Currently such life is not accepted to exist, and the potential for its existence is controversial. Much of the controversy stems from the fact that most current definitions for life are limited to cellular life, eliminating potential substrates from ever hosting life by definition.
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[edit] Classes
[edit] Synthetic biochemical life
The goal of wet artificial life and synthetic biology, the first artificial biochemical life would look and act like oversimplified bacteria. Researchers involved feel that the creation of true synthetic biochemical life is very close, relatively cheap, and will be easier than getting a man on the Moon was.[1]
On Oct 6, 2007, Craig Venter announced that he is "on the verge" of creating the first ever artificial life form. In an interview with UK's The Guardian newspaper, Venter reported that he has built a synthetic chromosome using chemicals made in a laboratory. The Canadian bioethics group, ETC, has already, only one day later, come out with a statement concerning the development. Their representative, Pat Mooney, in a communication with The Guardian, averred that Venter's "creation" was "a chassis on which you could build almost anything." The chromosome, a single DNA molecule reported to have 381 genes, the minimum necessary to sustain life, was injected into an already living cell. The new single-cell organism is dubbed "Synthia" by ETC. A Venter spokesperson has declined to confirm any breakthrough at the time of this writing.
On January 24, 2008, a United States team reported in Science magazine how it built the entire DNA code of a common bacterium in the laboratory using blocks of genetic material. Dr Hamilton O. Smith, who was part of the Science study, said the team regarded its lab-made genome - a laboratory copy of the DNA used by the bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium - as a step towards synthetic, rather than artificial, life. Mycoplasma genitalium is a small parasitic bacterium which lives on the ciliated epithelial cells of the primate genital and respiratory tracts. M. genitalium is the smallest known free-living bacterium. Dr. Smith told BBC News: "We like to distinguish synthetic life from artificial life. With synthetic life, we're re-designing the cell chromosomes; we're not creating a whole new artificial life system."[2]
[edit] Self replicating machines
Hypothetical mechanical entities such as nanobots or self-replicating machines might be considered alive, even though they might not necessarily be cellular.[citation needed]
[edit] Bodiless artificial intelligence
One of the goals of artificial intelligence research is to create an AI that could pass for a person in the Turing test, perhaps being sapient or even conscious. Such an AI does not necessarily need a physical manifestation, which raises numerous issues with whether or not it could be considered alive.[citation needed]
[edit] Watermarks
Watermarks are coded messages in the form of DNA base pairs which distinguish the synthetic genome from its natural counterpart. The watermarks contained in the first man-made Mycoplasma genome produced by J.Craig Venter Institute contain the following coded messages. The letter V was used since there is no aminoacid designated by letter U.[3]
VENTERINSTITVTE CRAIGVENTER HAMSMITH CINDIANDCLYDE GLASSANDCLYDE
[edit] See also
- Artificial life
- Non-cellular life
- Synthetic biology
- Simulated reality
- Chiral life concept
- Nucleic acid analogues
- Artificial brain
