-- Posted Monday, 31 May 2010 | Digg This Article
| | Source: GoldSeek.com
The big news, of course, is that “Private-sector scientists led by Craig Venter have developed the first living cell controlled by synthetic DNA.” This is, I think you will agree with me and the rest of the world, completely amazing!
They have actually taken a synthetic chromosome that they cooked up and transplanted it into a recipient cell, and thus created a new, different organism! A new form of life made from materials you probably have around the house!
There is, however, no mention of whether they raised their arms in triumph and cried out excitedly, “It lives! It lives!” like in the movies, although I would, if I were them!
Well, as exciting as this is, it becomes Very, Very Interesting (VVI) in a terrifying “end of the world” kind of way when one considers that almost any creature is now possible, ranging from one-celled killer viruses up to, and including, powerful bio-weapons like demonic, robotic cyborgs that have laser beams that shoot out their eyes, they can’t be killed, they can’t be stopped from killing (“That’s all they do!”) and they will all have, ominously, badges.
And how about flying monkeys, like in the Wizard of Oz? The unintended consequence is that they will be coming after you because they have badges, too, perhaps making good on the witch’s promise of, “I’ll get you for this, my pretty! And your little dog, too!”
Naturally, in the face of such an onslaught of indefinable, screaming dread at the sheer bulk of the unintended consequences that will develop as a result of being able to make creatures on demand, I fall back to Basic Mogambo Strategy (BMS), which is to buy gold, silver and oil, although with engineered creatures, maybe not oil, as it would be possible to create some kind of living creature that would excrete oil, perhaps after eating plastics and pollutants!
And there is no reason why it can’t taste like chicken, too, whereupon everything is fine until it evolves into these creepy things that hide under the furniture and wait until you walk by, and then they jump out, grab your ankle, and suck all your blood through your skin.
So you can see how a paranoid and frightened guy like me can only see this as an historic moment of being able to create new creatures-by-design, and is truly a Whole New World (WNW) where, from now on, it will be a struggle between undreamt-of benefits versus tragic unforeseen costs.
And the future of gold and silver? Brighter than ever! Whee! This investing stuff is easy!
-- Posted Monday, 31 May 2010 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com
