Scientists Want To Put Spiders In Your Blood

[Iron Mal]

I understand that it could be a good possibility,but the point is this. Any glitches in the system can essentially be harmless or extremely dangerous. I get that microspiders can be a good thing,but when say a TV has a problem,you buy a new TV,your bloodstream,healing,microspiders have an issue,you could potentially be fucked.

While it is true that there could be risks I would say that's why it's all the more important that extra time and research be spent making sure that this is done and tested properly to minimise the risks and maximise the benefits.

Again, the potential for vaccinations that use weakened viruses to have negative side effects will always be there (remember, you're essentially intentionally giving someone a virus in the name of making them better) yet we still seem to have enough trust and faith in this to develop and widely deploy them (despite the fact that when you outline what a vaccine is it could very easily be taken as sounding just downright stupid and irresponsable).

 

[ReiverCorrupter]

This is medical nanodot technology from five years ago isn't it? Doesn't sound like they progressed too far in those last five years... and it's likely still tied up nicely with all the exact same problems as before.

Nano-robotics is largely a myth. The thing nanotech is good for is creating artificial materials like carbon nanotubes, but there's never going to be molecule sized robots capable of complex action.

Micro-robotics, however, is completely possible. In fact, it already exists. They're called 'cells'. Why do people think that these things have be tiny metal things that we make from scratch? Cells are already capable of doing pretty much anything once we know how to program them. We already know the basic script (i.e. DNA), all we need to do now is get better at writing it.

Sadly there aren't going to cyborgs like in Deus Ex. The next century will be defined by genetics and biotechnology. If there is human enhancement, it will almost certainly come in organic form, not metal.

 

[Emperor Inferno]

True cyborg technology. Cool. I'm thinkin, not spiderman or borg, but more like a Jason X kind of effect. It gets injected into an evil, soulless murderer and makes him invincible.

 

[Aprilgold]

Cool. That experiment with telomerase that successfully rejuvenated those lab rats plus these things. Death by old age will eventually not be a problem.

I bet your ASS every single religious nut job *put your hand down, are you a westboro member?* will try to shut down the project, FAIL and then we can live forever.

Also.

They are working on something that does that for what I know. So, soon, we will be allowed to live a long time or FOREVER, no death from old age, MO FOS!

Don't worry, the chances of the blood spiders rising up against their human overlords from the inside is only around 17% now!

But in all seriousness, even if this cured all diseases, I would not want a bunch of spiders crawling around inside my blood, microscopic or not.

I suppose you'd be one of those people who decided to die of infection because penicillin was created from fungi and fungi is "icky".

I really hope people talking about how they fear being controlled by these things are joking, I really do. Otherwise there are some just tremendously stupid people here.

Right, what normal, smart person doesn't want million's of tiny spiders climbing through their blood stream? Honestly, I find it very... Disturbing that you think people who don't want spiders in their blood are "stupid".

I agree, I'm waiting for the version that, instead, is made of robots. Because the thing would have to be is they would DIE within a short time frame. Well, guys, we may have stimpaks coming soon. Get ready for Mrs Atom Bomb.

 

[Venats]

Nano-robotics is largely a myth. The thing nanotech is good for is creating artificial materials like carbon nanotubes, but there's never going to be molecule sized robots capable of complex action.

Micro-robotics, however, is completely possible. In fact, it already exists. They're called 'cells'. Why do people think that these things have be tiny metal things that we make from scratch? Cells are already capable of doing pretty much anything once we know how to program them. We already know the basic script (i.e. DNA), all we need to do now is get better at writing it.

Sadly there aren't going to cyborgs like in Deus Ex. The next century will be defined by genetics and biotechnology. If there is human enhancement, it will almost certainly come in organic form, not metal.

Oh don't you worry, I am quite aware of the reality of the myth behind nanomachines and, especially, the transhumanist idea seems overly misguided to me. Why integrate with metal and silicon tech, and all of its short comings which we as carbon based lifeforms do not have, when we can tinker with the very basis of our billion year old natural process that has perfected far more in its time than we could ever hope to? As for the cells, there is still one illusive thing that we cannot do and that is turning up in more and more cell processes (most recent in photsynthesis) and that is a control of the quantum world that would make any modern day quantum computer look like a toddler's pile of blocks.

 

[ReiverCorrupter]

Nano-robotics is largely a myth. The thing nanotech is good for is creating artificial materials like carbon nanotubes, but there's never going to be molecule sized robots capable of complex action.

Micro-robotics, however, is completely possible. In fact, it already exists. They're called 'cells'. Why do people think that these things have be tiny metal things that we make from scratch? Cells are already capable of doing pretty much anything once we know how to program them. We already know the basic script (i.e. DNA), all we need to do now is get better at writing it.

Sadly there aren't going to cyborgs like in Deus Ex. The next century will be defined by genetics and biotechnology. If there is human enhancement, it will almost certainly come in organic form, not metal.

Oh don't you worry, I am quite aware of the reality of the myth behind nanomachines and, especially, the transhumanist idea seems overly misguided to me. Why integrate with metal and silicon tech, and all of its short comings which we as carbon based lifeforms do not have, when we can tinker with the very basis of our billion year old natural process that has perfected far more in its time than we could ever hope to? As for the cells, there is still one illusive thing that we cannot do and that is turning up in more and more cell processes (most recent in photsynthesis) and that is a control of the quantum world that would make any modern day quantum computer look like a toddler's pile of blocks.

Well, the mysteries of quantum mechanics not withstanding, we would still need to have a holistic understanding of human physiology as it arises out of genetics and cellular mechanics. The greatest problem for us now is pleiotropy. Genes code for proteins, not traits, and the proteins they produce are used in thousands of different processes, some mundane, others not. Changing a gene could seem completely harmless in years of medical trials, but if that gene is somehow involved in producing a nutrient that we normally get from our diet, then the one day that you run out of that nutrient is the day you die. Just as a crude example. That's why most people agree that any genetic enhancement we do have is going to have to be in the form of artificial chromosomes that we can turn off easily if any problems arise. As it stands now it's just too dangerous and unpredictable to mess with such a complex and interdependent system.

 

[hooksashands]

Not to tell anyone about their newsroom responsibility, I enjoyed the joke, but this article is a bit on the bonkers side. Here is a slightly more factual one talking about, well, roughly the same thing minus the spiders:

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-09/self-directed-microbots-could-swim-through-blood-vessels-make-repairs

 

[OrenjiJusu]

And then you get hacked and eaten from the inside out by mini spiders.
I think i'll pass on this upgrade.

 

[Venats]

Well, the mysteries of quantum mechanics not withstanding, we would still need to have a holistic understanding of human physiology as it arises out of genetics and cellular mechanics. The greatest problem for us now is pleiotropy. Genes code for proteins, not traits, and the proteins they produce are used in thousands of different processes, some mundane, others not. Changing a gene could seem completely harmless in years of medical trials, but if that gene is somehow involved in producing a nutrient that we normally get from our diet, then the one day that you run out of that nutrient is the day you die. Just as a crude example. That's why most people agree that any genetic enhancement we do have is going to have to be in the form of artificial chromosomes that we can turn off easily if any problems arise. As it stands now it's just too dangerous and unpredictable to mess with such a complex and interdependent system.

Agreed, and I've been somewhat informed on the problems of genetic tinkering by my uncle as he is in the biochemistry field (I work in Physics), and his lab works with studying just simple bacteria, and he tells me how their cocktails can have such vast and varying effects with so little difference. They change one thing that causes some proteins to form differently, with even the slightest variation, and the end result often times doesn't even live to reproduce.

Not something to touch lightly, not something to touch for a long time. The worst part of it is as you said, that you could understand everything about every part, and understand everything down the line for four billion parts of the equation, and then one change all the way at the end changes something... like wooops, you're now sterile.

 

[Yelchor]

I won't be surprised if medical companies seize the patent of this as soon as possible and put further development of it on indefinite hold.

We could have obliterated most forms of disease by now I bet, but forbid that the pharmaceutical companies won't be able to make a few extra billion dollars by mass-producing useless pills and preventing any meaningful advancement in technology.

 

[Tizzmarelda]

Does anyone know how many praxis points they'll cost?

 

[Innegativeion]

Blood stream microbots repairing our body as it's damaged? About damn time! Now all we need is flying cars, teleporters, and robot dogs, then I'll be living in the environment God intended for me.

Why,why in the name of fucking everything did scientists decide this was a good idea. SPIDERS. IN. YOUR. BLOOD.

I cannot imagine this having a good future impact,but then again,I'm a pessimist.

cout<<User did not read the article.

 

[Alphakirby]

Blood stream microbots repairing our body as it's damaged? About damn time! Now all we need is flying cars, teleporters, and robot dogs, then I'll be living in the environment God intended for me.

Why,why in the name of fucking everything did scientists decide this was a good idea. SPIDERS. IN. YOUR. BLOOD.

I cannot imagine this having a good future impact,but then again,I'm a pessimist.

cout<<User did not read the article.

Feel free to flip back a few pages,I mentioned that I actually did read the article.

 

[Stealthfighterx]

I can see no other possible outcome...

 

[Stealthfighterx]

I can see no other possible outcome...

 

[haaxist]

No. Nonononononono. If you had called it something other than spiders. Maybe like, I don't know, nano-bots, maybe I might have considered this a viable idea. But you called it spiders.

WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE SPIDERS?!?!?!?

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Well I'm officially freaked out.

No way I'm letting spiders in my body. I don't like them on my body.

 

[Neferius]

LESBIANS!
...
Good, now that I have your attention, notice how the little paragraph doesn't mention anything about spiders or anything arachnid-related in any way shape or form.
What it DOES say is scientists are now working on producing molecular engines that could one day MAYBE power a complex nanomachine. The scientists themselves make no mention of the actual shape said nanomachines wold take, and seeing ah how they'll basically just be a complex chain of molecules, it could be any number of things.
The "Spiders!" bit in the original article was most likely tacked-on in an effort to capture your highly impressionable imaginations and secure your feeble attention-spans, thus ensuring newscientist.com's ad-revenue.
After-all "Scientists are working on building nanomachine engines." doesn't sound nearly as interesting as "Spiders Are Swimming In Your Blood RIGHT NOW!"

Quite frankly I don't see why everyone is freaking-out, seeing as how there are already several billion molecular spiders merrily frolicking in your bloodstream.

Sweet Dreams, Internetz >

 

[Kimarous]

We will call them... MIDICLORIANS!

Seriously though, I just raise my eyebrow at this concept.