this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2024
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This is so exciting. I worked in a lab where we were trying to do this, and so I was very aware what a gold rush we were in. I'm so glad to see that it's actually happening.
This is truly a watershed moment in science. This is going to mark a major turning point in cellular medicine from theory to commonplace care. Eventually, this will end the pharma industry's insulin cash cow.
But it's even bigger than that. Because once we can engineer cells that produce a natural product, the next step is to engineer cells that produce synthetic medicines. Antidepressants, birth control, hormones, weight loss drugs, boner pills... The frontier is huge, lucrative, financially disruptive for pharma companies and life changing for patients. This is a big moment in history, and we all need to be fighting harder than ever to end for-profit healthcare. Otherwise we're going to end up with subscription licenses to our own bodies.
I dream of the day I can get my own brain to actually create normal levels of dopamine that I don't get addicted, then tolerant, to.
Like the custom endocrine systems ~~of combat sleeves in Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon~~ edit: I think I was thinking of Iain M Banks' "Culture" series actually, but both are worth a read! Need to be strong or fast? Just give yourself a little squirt of adrenaline! Time for slow heart rate and low energy use? Slow-release a skoche of acetylcholine.
You make a good point about subscriptions. The repo when you stop paying would be pretty grim.
i mean you weren't actually off on the altered carbon, it just isn't described in as much detail, but is effectively the same thing ;)
Thirteen, also by richard morgan, features similar themes as well!
Expanse does too, though it isn't common in that world.
I agree this is amazing and huge, but for my own sanity, what stops someone from engineering cells that do bad?
Ethics.
Which is to say not a lot.
But it’s not really a practical attack vector, if you’re worried about weaponisation. Simpler to just dump VX into the air.
That do bad in which way? Cells tend to die pretty quickly if you don't look after them properly. Which costs a shit ton of money depending on the type of cell. So not the best weapon overall