Re: Nanotech control systems (was Re: Transhuman Beach Party)

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On Thu, 9 Sep 1999 hal@finney.org wrote:

> However it would be hard to go from this in the opposite direction
> to figure out how to change things so as to produce something very
> different. The overall system is relatively specialized to producing a
> particular organism. You could tweak chemical gradients and maybe get
> a sixth finger or something, but you'd need a complete redesign to get
> an entirely new shape.

Actually, Hal, it depends on *how* different you want it. :-)

They have engineered Drosophila with legs growing out of the head and I believe with extra sets of wings. It simply involves adding putting a gene that makes and "X" and under the regulation of the "Y" region control element, i.e.

	if (I_Am_In_Region_Y)
		Synthesize_Collection_Of_Cells_for_X();

If it looks like something you already grow, you could probably assemble them in a fairly ad hoc fasion.

Robert

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