Comment & Debate
Ken MacLeod. “Humanity will thank heaven that this creator of synthetic life is playing God.” Guardian. May 21, 2010: “Some conjure a scenario where synthetic organisms to which there’s “no natural resistance” run amok. This seems misconceived. The biosphere comes up with natural resistance to entirely new organisms every day. Unless deliberately designed for survival, synthetic organisms that are released or escape into the wild will shortly be another organism’s lunch.”
Mark Bedau, chief operating officer of ProtoLife of Venice: “When these things are created, they’re going to be so weak, it’ll be a huge achievement if you can keep them alive for an hour in the lab. But them getting out and taking over, never in our imagination could this happen.”[1]