From: Smigrodzki, Rafal (SmigrodzkiR@msx.upmc.edu)
Date: Sun Jan 27 2002 - 08:56:24 MST
Robert J. Bradbury [mailto:bradbury@aeiveos.com] wrote:
growth path. Ultimately you still face the requirement for
matter compilers. I don't think this will be feasible until
you have many high-bandwidth connections to a large fraction
of the installed computronium base -- the intelligence constraints
on low bandwidth connections between fractional human brain
equivalents seems to be a strong barrier.
### In the year 1986, when I was still young, I had the idea about how to
build a light-controlled DNA synthetase (LCDS). At that time I wasn't really
thinking about AI's, I wanted to have a fast way of building GMO prototypes.
Of course, as youthfully naive as I was, I didn't realize how many orders of
magnitude of computing capacity growth would be needed to make this dream
come true, but now it appears to me that in a few years this idea's time
will come.
I still have the manuscript, neatly typed on a mechanical typewriter.
Basically, you need four nucleotide carrier proteins, one for each
nucleotide, each carrier having one main subunit and four blocking units
light-sensitively attached to the main subunit. Shining light of one of four
frequencies will dissociate one of the blocking units, changing the shape of
the face of the carrier and allowing binding of the next carrier, containing
the nucleotide specified by the choice of light color. This would result in
the growth of a chain of carriers whose order would be determined by the
order of light flashes, allowing a (modified) DNA synthetase to polymerize
the nucleotides in the chain, resulting in the formation of new DNA, inside
the cell nucleus, at very high speeds, with only a very simple lab setup
(four laser diodes and a Petrie dish).
An AI capable of solving the protein folding problem might have the sequence
for all the units of the LCDS in a few hours. It would take only a few days
to synthesize the DNA on a standard DNA synthesizer, and transfect into
bacteria. Only computing capacity would then limit the AI's ability to
transform the bacteria into nanomachines.
Rafal
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