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Pentagon to Breed 'Immortal' Army of Synthetic Organisms

by Amar Toor on February 8, 2010 at 11:05 AM

What better way to fight the dangers of biological warfare than with... biological warfare? As Wired's Danger Room reports, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is set on investing a full $6 million in a project called "BioDesign," an ambitious plan that, if successful, would spawn a whole army of genetically engineered organisms programmed to fight the good fight -- until the end of time. Researchers are reportedly intent upon creating a new breed of species implanted with death-resistant molecules and "tamper proof" cells. In the event that one of their programmed pawns decides to go rogue, however, engineers can simply activate a so-called "self-destruct" option, which would facilitate the "nefarious removal" of any treasonous organism.

There are, of course, several hurdles that DARPA has yet to clear, technical and ethical alike. Death may be not proud, but it's certainly a major obstacle for geneticists to overcome. Gene therapy techniques are about as cutting edge as life-extension science gets, but so far that's only proven to extend lab rats' lives by about 20-percent. Limitless life logistics aside, the project will still probably face major controversy from ethicists who already question whether or not humans are going a bit too far in their attempts to manipulate millions of years of evolutionary history. Hearing those naysayers, DARPA retorts, "The concern that humans might be overreaching... returns us to disagreements about what is our proper role in the natural world (a debate largely about non-physical harms or harms to well-being)."

Even if this entire debate boils down to ethereal "non-physical harms," the ethical groundwork underpinning the whole issue is pretty slippery. Admittedly, we'd probably see the story in a wholly different hue if this was, say, the NIH devoting piles of dough to helping mankind extend its lifespan to Andy Rooney-like levels of infinity. But the fact that there's some sort of militaristic motivation behind the whole thing only colors the concept with a stygian shade of dystopia that would have George Orwell running to the nearest bomb shelter. Then again, though, we'd probably be best served by keeping our mouths shut. As one (understandably) anonymous molecular geneticist said, "I would love to comment, but unfortunately DARPA has installed a kill switch in me." [From: Wired]

Tags: biology, darpa, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, DefenseAdvancedResearchProjectsAgency, genetic engineering, GeneticEngineering, genetics, organisms, orwell, pentagon, scary, top

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