A Range of Reactions to Venter’s “Breakthrough”

Last week, researchers announced that they had achieved a long-anticipated breakthrough: the creation of the first synthetic organism. So, is this a huge step forward? The biggest thing ever? Does it herald exciting possibilities—or maybe ominous dangers? Is it much ado about nothing? That all depends on who you ask.

A scientific team headed by Drs. Craig Venter, Hamilton Smith and Clyde Hutchison have achieved the final step in their quest to create the first synthetic bacterial cell. In a publication in Science magazine, Daniel Gibson, Ph.D. and a team of 23 additional researchers outline the steps to synthesize a 1.08 million base pair Mycoplasma mycoides genome, constructed from four bottles of chemicals that make up DNA. This synthetic genome has been “booted up” in a cell to create the first cell controlled completely by a synthetic genome.

Here is a sampling of the reactions…

Athena Andreadis:

The Venter work is not a discovery, let alone a paradigm shift. It’s a technological advance and even then not of technique but only of scale.

Rodney Brooks:

The press has both overplayed that what has been done is a surprise, and underplayed the interesting challenges that lie ahead, in that their biggest fears do not automatically follow from the current achievement.

Jamais Cascio:

This is a moderately big deal, but only that; it’s a stepping-stone to a real big deal down the road.

Daniel Dennett:

The achievement of Craig Venter and his team is certainly a major milestone in technology, and his forecast of the stupendous benefits that may be reaped is, if anything, understated. Now we need to ask how this new technology should be regulated.

George Dyson:

In 1953, when the structure of DNA was determined, there were 53 kilobytes of high-speed electronic storage on planet earth. Two entirely separate forms of code were set on a collision course. Primitive as it may be, we now have one of the long-awaited results.

Andrew Maynard:

Without a doubt, this week’s announcement marks the dawn of a new technology – a technology that blurs the boundaries between the digital domain and living organisms.

PZ Myers:

Venter’s technology isn’t the big worry. It’s much easier and much cheaper to take an existing, ecologically successful bug and splice in a few new genes than to create a whole new creature from scratch.

Nassim Taleb:

I have an immense respect for Craig Venter, whom I consider one of the smartest men who ever breathed, but, giving fallible humans such powers is similar to giving a small child a bunch of explosives.

So, what’s your response to all this? We’ve created a new IEET reader poll where you can weigh in.

What’s your reaction to the creation of the first synthetic organism?

• It’s a really big deal, a huge step forward toward a posthuman future.
• It’s highly significant and poses a range of ominous and maybe dangerous possibilities.
• It’s a meaningful development, but mostly overblown by the media.
• It’s only one incremental step on a very long road. Nothing special.

Or, tell us what you think in your own words. Thanks in advance for participating!