http://edition.cnn.com/2003/TECH/09/19/wow.tech.life.computing/index.html
Research on using DNA as a basis of computing and calculating devices has been ongoing; this report summarizes what has been going on, and what is likely to be coming down the pike. But it ignores one question which should be strobing like the end of a James Cameron movie: at what point is a "machine", based on organic principles, and displaying what appear to be cognitive abilities, no longer merely a machine?
Philosophers have debated cogently that substrate really makes no difference in the attribution of personhood -- bu what if there really are no substrate differences?
Suddenly Golem appears a lot less implausible....
Posted by jho at September 25, 2003 11:38 AM