DISQUS

kevindoylejones · 1 year ago

this is some wild shit. im thinking we need a macrobial/human UN. if they communicate, then they create their own network. and we have to explain our innate viability. networks are not passive. they are vehicles for intelligence to evolve. we use the bacteria. and they get?

lablogga · 1 year ago

Hi Kevin, thanks for the comment. I like your point about inter-species UN-type diplomacy; humanity may have contemplated inter-species relations but probably not within one's own body!

Humans are just the current substrate for intelligence. Intelligence is substrate agnostic so if it finds a more viable platform, it will leap. One can envision a future with multiple platforms for intelligence, or said a different way, more mobility for intelligence. The complexity of the human brain has advantages that simple distributed networks are not likely to develop before human intelligence figures out how to become more platform-mobile.

kevindoylejones · 1 year ago

yeah we have a short term defensible complexity advantage, i agree. assuming we manage the challenges our distributed natures have presented for us in our current state of industrial collapse.

Cortana Euler · 1 year ago

hm... how are you going to deal with viruses? I think it will be such a tempting weapon for power hungry <self-moderated> , that any research or actual implementation will end up in stormy situation: I did not do it, because aliens hacked my bacterias and reprogrammed me to <insert your version of destroying the Earth>

lablogga · 1 year ago

Hi Cortana, thanks for the comment and I hope your recent move and new job are going well, btw.

To me the question of viruses is a specific case of the more general dual use technology argument - that any newtech can be used for good or evil purposes. The answer is to be smart about developing the newtech, being cognizant of the evil uses and building detection, prevention and antidote mechanisms into it. Just like biowarfare is certainly under development, biosensor development should be in lock-step.

Edgewise · 1 year ago

Didn't Bruce Sterling suggest something similar in his book "Tomorrow Now"?

Bill Hunf · 1 year ago

Interesting idea, but as the vast majority of the human flora live in the gut (and not the brain or other parts of the nervous system), I'm not so sure of the benefit of harnessing them for a BCI.

lablogga · 1 year ago

Hi Bill, thanks for the comment, I think the key point is that the bacteria are on-board. For connectivity and other purposes, it may not matter that they are in the gut.

lablogga · 1 year ago

Caltech synthetic biologist Christina Smolke notices that the human's on-board bacteria could be modified..."If you really want to apply a bacterium to a person, think about where they naturally exist and survive in a human while still trying to engineer new functions," More details are available here