Application of Asilomar Guidelines to Self-Replicating Machines 5th Terasem Workshop on Geoethical...

Application of Asilomar Guidelines to Self-Replicating Machines

5th Terasem Workshop

on Geoethical Nanotechnology

2009 July 20th

Terasem Island, Second Life

2009-July-20 [email protected]

Presentation Structure

• Reconciling conflicts regarding self-replicating nanotechnology

• Apprehensions about gray goo

• Scientific ambitions in remaking life

• Applying practical biotechnology guidelines to artificial self-replication


The Self-Replicating Machines Conflict

• We need self-replicating machines for enhanced survival

• We are afraid that such machines will jeopardize our survival


2009-July-20 [email protected] 4

Self-Replicating Nanotech Is Most Useful to Extended Life

Human

Body

Creates

50x106

Cells

Per

Second

Since Nature Needed It, Nanotechnologists Will Probably Need it


Of Course Nature Also Gave Us Smallpox and HIV

500 Million People Killed By Smallpox

HIV Killes 250,000 People MONTHLY



Crichton Imagined Self-Replicating Nanobots Would Swarm Against Us

Self-Replication Scares Us

“However, a determined and sophisticated group of terrorists or "non state entities" could potentially, with considerable difficulty, specifically engineer systems to become autonomous replicators able to proliferate in the natural environment, either as a nuisance, a specifically targeted weapon, or in the worst case, a weapon of mass destruction.”

foresight.org/guidelines/current.html#Replicators 2006


Uploaded Minds Will Want Nanotech Bodies

HEAVEN VIRUS MIND CHILDREN


Vitrified Bodies May Need Self-Replicating Nanotech for Revival

MOLECULAR ASSEMBLY v. BOLUS INJECTION(S)

Can Trillions of Injected Nanobots Handle It, Or Will They Need Replicate?


Space Colonists May Need Self-Replicating Nanotech for World-Building

CIVILIZATION-READY BUILD & THEY’LL COME


Humanity Needs Self-Replicating Nanotech for Galactic Surveillance

BUILD A COPY. REPEAT. FIND A GOOD PLANET



Very Similar Situation with Recombinant Biotechnology


Huge Increase in Practicality By Permitting Self-Replication


Apply ASILOMAR Rules of Recombinant DNA to Nano?


The Asilomar Guidelines

• containment essential & must match the risk

• use of biological barriers to limit the spread e.g. host-specific & nonsurvivable

• physical containment, • good microbiological

practices & training• no cloning of

recombinant DNAs derived from highly pathogenic organisms, containing toxin genes, or making biohazards that could not be contained


Matching the Risk

• Minimal and low risk– minimal if biohazards could be accurately assessed and were expected to be minimal.

– Low risk if novel biotypes but not• change ecological behavior of the recipient species,

• increase significantly its pathogenicity or

• prevent treatments of any resulting infections.

rDNA HGH


Minimal Risk Containment

• Prokaryotes, bacteriophages and other plasmids, experiments could be performed in minimal risk containment facilities when the construction of recombinant DNA molecules and their propagation involved prokaryotic agents that were known to exchange genetic information naturally

• Additionally, purified DNA from any source that performed known functions and was judged to be non-toxic could be cloned with available vectors in low risk containment facilities

Bacteriophage T4 infecting an e. coli host


Moderate and High Risk

– The moderate risk level of containment if significant potential for pathogenicity or ecological disruption.

– High-risk containment if a serious biohazard to laboratory personnel or to the public.

– DNAs of species that result in new metabolic pathways in species, use moderate or high-risk containment


Asilomar Guidance Relevant to Bio-Nano

Unless the organism made a dangerous product, recombinant DNAs from cold-blooded vertebrates and all other lower eukaryotes could be constructed and propagated with the safest vector-host system available in low risk containment facilities.

Nano-neuron


Self-Replicating Nanotech Are Like Asilomar Low-Risk Examples

• A mech analog of a rDNA• Not banned if not toxic• “Low-Risk” because novel

biotype but doesn’t change ecology or pathogenicity

• Changing the nature of an uninhabited world doesn’t count as changing ecology

• Not “Minimum Risk” because unnatural replication method

• Not “Moderate” or “High” Risk since not high potential for pathogenicity, ecological harm or biohazard


So, What Rules Needed for Self-Replicating Nanobots?

• Use of biological barriers to limit harm

• Biological nanobots should fail-safe disable in atmosphere

• Robotic nanobots should fail-safe disable in biochemistry

• Planetary nanobots should fail-safe disable by - gravitaxis

Autonomous v. Non-Autonomous Self-Replication

• Non-Autonomous Self-Replication Is Feasible When Real-Time Human Control Exists

• Autonomous Self-Replication Is Needed for Galactic Missions

• Line Between Non-Autonomous and Autonomous Very Blurry When AI Agents Assist Humans In Effecting Control


Dr. O’Neill: Less Than 500K Years to Colonize Galaxy


My concept of such a probe is that it would go to another star system, neighboring the original one. It would use the asteroidal material available there. In a period of a few years, it would replicate itself. It would then leave one of itself at that star and move off to the next star and so on. As it went, it would establish two-way communication, point-to-point, not a broadcast at all, but from one of these replicator probes to the next. You can work out the numbers, and it turns out that by any reasonable standards such a probe system could cover essentially every star in the galaxy within a time of no more than half a million years.

O’Neill Galactic Colonization

• Clearly Requires Autonomous Self-Replication of Machines

• Why Not Include Uploaded Minds In Each Probe, Including Instructions for Creating Nano or Nano-Bio Bodies?

• Ergo, Galactic HUMAN Colonization Requires Autonomous Self-Replication


Asilomar Will Need to be Segmented for Galactic Colonization

• Planetary Replicator Probes Need to be Able to Blast Off the Planet

• Robotic Nanobots Need to Co-Exist in Nano-Bio Bodies for Downloaded Minds of Colonists

• Biological Nanobots May Need to Survive ex vivo for the Ecology


Bottom Line

• Asilomar is Common Sense: – Self-Replicating

Objects Should be Contained from Causing Harm While Free to Do Good

– Each Case By Its Specific Facts



Going Forward• Self-Replicating

Nanotech Covered by Asilomar Regime– Same Issues, – New Substrate

• Asilomar Regime Must Be Segmented for Galactic Colonization

• We Can Extend Our Lives with Nanotech Bodies, Nanomedicine & World-Building

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