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Technology: will it kill before it saves?

"And I am very much a skeptic in regards to technology being able to save us from killing ourselves as a species." A recent email exchange with a new friend contained the previous quote from my friend. It inspired me to finally write out what I'd been saying in bits and pieces to people on Facebook for quite some time. As for the question, will technology be our saving grace? I am still somewhat ambivalent about it myself, the current time of rapid developments in genetics and biology have me terrified and amazed. Terrified because as a software and hardware engineer I am well aware of the history of change that attended certain technological developments in both areas in the past and how those changes revolutionized human productivity in two phases. The first was the invention of the semiconductor transistor in 1947 by Shockley and Bardeen. The second was the invention of the integrated circuit and soon after photo-lithography that led to the astounding miniaturization o...

the music of genes...

Gene Networks The article linked above provides the latest news in the search for genes related to obesity. It turns out that genes are triggered in cascades of activity (expression) dubbed as "networks" by the researchers. I have been using the metaphor that our genes play out the music of our lives in their expression patterns and here is the proof! This research should lead to insights concerning the type of obesity that particular individuals are likely to develop should they over eat. Great stuff.