From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!spool.mu.edu!decwrl!csus.edu!netcom.com!nagle Mon Nov  9 09:36:27 EST 1992
Article 7482 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
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>From: nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle)
Subject: Re: Brain and Mind (was: Logic and God)
Message-ID: <1992Nov2.052226.1962@netcom.com>
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
References: <1260@tdat.teradata.COM> <5w1DTB3w165w@CODEWKS.nacjack.gen.nz> <1992Oct29.180815.16901@news.media.mit.edu>
Date: Mon, 2 Nov 1992 05:22:26 GMT
Lines: 22

In article <5w1DTB3w165w@CODEWKS.nacjack.gen.nz> system@CODEWKS.nacjack.gen.nz (Wayne McDougall) writes:
>Hmmm. Just a passing comment. If life is based PURELY on chemical 
>reactions, then home come no one has created life in a test tube yet?
>I expect your answer will be a form of "have patience". Hmmm....

      Things are a bit further along than that.  Read the ads in Nature.
DNA synthesis services are commercially available.  Send in your datafile,
get DNA back.  Get suitable files of existing viruses, etc. via the Internet.
Desktop DNA synthesizers are available for under $20,000.  These interface
to PCs.  So far, you can only synthesize a few hundred base pairs before
errors creep in, but the technology is improving.

      All-new custom-designed enzymes Real Soon Now, apparently.  CAD
tools are becoming available. 

     This is true direct synthesis, not "recombinant DNA" work.  
Plants and animals have already had their genomes deliberately altered
in controlled ways, but this is modifying life, not direct synthesis.
Direct synthesis is still very limited, but it is into the range of
complexity that, just barely, can be called "life".

					John Nagle


