[Hplusroadmap] Artificial Body

[Bryan Bishop]

On Tuesday 19 February 2008, Spilman, J. Red Paint wrote:
> the reliability of Prof. Endy's biosecurity field. How accurate is

Security and naturally far-from-equilibrium systems (biology) does not 
go hand in hand. Full security would be like a diamond, which might 
have taken tons of entropy to get to that state, but the information it 
contains is ordered and structured and repetitive (so the information 
content is technically zero). Prigogine is famous for having studied 
statistical thermodynamics (energy) and diamonds. Biology is not this 
sort of diamond, by any means. So it makes me wonder what Endy is 
talking about ... "biosecurity" might just mean taking new approaches 
to protecting ourselves (read: new immune systems and beyond). To which 
I would add -- without stiffling our creativity and possibilities. 

> biosecurity if eventually we are able to grow new fingerprints or
> corneas? We will have to rely solely on the ethics of practicing
> surgeons to prevent people from changing identifying markings at
> will. As a fiction writer, I develop characters that are ethically
> challenged, but I know people like that exist in all walks of life,
> including surgeons.

Not only the ethics of a surgeon, but the ethics of users who have 
acquired cell cultures to reprogram their own biologies. This is why we 
need to focus on cytodiagnostics, retrieving information from our 
brains and creating redundancy and building the tools and equipment 
necessary to survive the transition into the future (or singularity). 

- Bryan
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Bryan Bishop
http://heybryan.org/