1 Engineered virus which hacks & controls brain: Doyou mind? Posted by flickkanhuii on March 30, 2013 at 10:49am Today, an average computer user cannot even keep themachine secured. So what will the world look like whenhacking your mind becomes as easy as infecting yourmachine with a computer virus?Human knowledge on DNA nanotechnology and bio-molecular computing increases exponentially with everypassing year. Thus, protecting your own brain fromsecurity breaches could become the highest prioritychallenge of the 21st century.Synthetic biology is becoming one of the most powerfulforms of technology in the world. But many people fearthat scientists’ games with the genetics of life formscould spin out of control and open the door to a newage of bio-hacking and bio-terrorism.Natural living viruses and bacteria are not only makingpeople sick, they also control the behavior andcondition of the hosts, though without any malice. Butthe consequences of getting exposed to an artificially-created virus could be much more serious than aheadache or a fever.“Synthetic biology will lead to new forms ofbioterrorism,” security expert Marc Goodman told theDaily Mail. “Bio-crime today is akin to computercrime in the early ’80s.”Viruses and bacteria are manipulating the chemicalsinside the human body and, by programming them tosend the right agents into the brain, the bio-programmer potentially can take control over thevictim’s behavior.We are seeing the opening stages of the syntheticbiology industry. Some basic tasks like decoding,insertion and excision of parts of the DNA, andrelatively successful attempts of cloning is pretty mucheverything that modern science can carry through.But in the ’80s, computer science technology wasactually at the same level of maturity. At that time noone could really believe that 20 years later any personwould have a greater power over the computer – andnot only the one that belongs to him – than the bestpresent-day programmers.Cells are living computers and DNA is a programminglanguage that can be used to control and influence lifeforms, believes Andrew Hessel of Singularity University,on NASA's research campus.“Synthetic biology – the writing of life,” Hesselsays. “It's growing fast. It will grow faster thancomputer technologies.”Programming the DNA, however, is more of aspeculation at this point. There is no developmentenvironment or any frameworks to manipulate the cell.Just like in computer programming, a set of basicinstructions and codes has to be developed before anaverage coder could perform some task of greatercomplexity.The industry is developing rapidly and the future ofDNA programming seems bright. But drawing parallelswith computer science, it would be better forhumankind to recognize the problem of “malicious bio-programmers” with all possible seriousness andproactively develop defensive and counter-offensivemethods. E-mail me when people leave their comments – Follow
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