The corresponding 10x biologists might appear when a simple "programmable" friendly cell platform for bio invention is created.
Think of reducing an existing cell to its minimalist possible survivable form. Then painstakingly recomplicating it. By refactoring and augmenting the DNA, proteins, epigenetics, behavior, and structure, into a modular, regular as possible, optimized to be extensible, form.
A bio OS kernel.
Then go to town. Imagine cells that can self-CRISPR. Cells that can spin off differentiated cells, then trigger their death, for temporary purposes. Communication standards between cells. Standards for cells to group and ungroup.
As apposed to today. Where anything amibitous is like trying to replace a plane's liquid fuel engine with a nuclear reactor assembled from parts taken from passengers, mid-flight, in low visibility and turbulence, with the help of too many first class martinis.
Evolution is the OG of low-effort expediency-first technical debt factories. "That random edit didn't destroy one model, in one test case, in one context? Replicate it!"
Now we must clean up that wet mess, so we can 10x.
krackers•2mo ago
I think Michael Levin's work on bioelectricity fits, for basically introducing a new paradigm with which to answer the question
>why is this cell doing things that maximised the comparative fitness of its genes in a wildly different environment, features of which I am not even aware of let alone able to manipulate, and not what I want it to do
Nevermark•2mo ago
Think of reducing an existing cell to its minimalist possible survivable form. Then painstakingly recomplicating it. By refactoring and augmenting the DNA, proteins, epigenetics, behavior, and structure, into a modular, regular as possible, optimized to be extensible, form.
A bio OS kernel.
Then go to town. Imagine cells that can self-CRISPR. Cells that can spin off differentiated cells, then trigger their death, for temporary purposes. Communication standards between cells. Standards for cells to group and ungroup.
As apposed to today. Where anything amibitous is like trying to replace a plane's liquid fuel engine with a nuclear reactor assembled from parts taken from passengers, mid-flight, in low visibility and turbulence, with the help of too many first class martinis.
Evolution is the OG of low-effort expediency-first technical debt factories. "That random edit didn't destroy one model, in one test case, in one context? Replicate it!"
Now we must clean up that wet mess, so we can 10x.