The quick switch to synthetic biology for producing building materials, clothes, fuels, and medicines saved our planet. Now, carbon is recycled into food, microbes clean our water, and micro-organisms produce almost anything we need.
RE: Pivot to Synthetic Biology Saves Our Planet
Michael > August 18th, 2021, 09:59 AM
Most of what I've read about synthetic biology has to do with attempts to fight global warming. But what happens if this stuff grows out of control?
Swarm theorists have posed a "grey blob" problem for years, one which was used as a threat in the recent remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. A cloud of nano-things grows out of control as they consume the world's resources.
Could synthetic life compete with natural life for control of the planet's resources?
So maybe the synthetic biologics could be controlled by encasing or supporting them with some kind of framework that doesn't grow. Once the framework is saturated the synthetic life stops growing. If a sci-fi writer is positing a story where the synthetic biology becomes the problem, then it must overcome the boundaries set upon it by the basic engineering. Maybe the synthetic biologic catalyzes the framework somehow - or maybe an outside infuence initiates a reaction that transforms the framework, or enables the synthetic biolgic to adapt to a different framework.