If you follow tech and science news by now you’ve seen the headline “Alien DNA” referring to the genetic breakthrough of creating life with six DNA letters or nucleotides instead of the natural four. In Biology 101 we learn that building blocks of all living things on Earth consist of the letters C, T, G and A however the seemingly impossible has been achieved by Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California by creating a life form that also includes the letters X and Y in its genetic structure. Having this extra information opens a door to a whole host of possibilities for creating proteins non-existant in the natural world that could lead to new therapies and disease prevention. At the moment, the processing of creating this new type of DNA is fairly difficult and costly with a number of complications to solve. But what are the possible downsides to this new biological leap?

Pandora’s Box

Steven Benner, a synthetic biologist at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution insists that any fears that the public may have are unfounded and makes light hearted of any seemingly alarmist scenarios of these new organisms “escaping” the lab and causing harm. However Mother Nature is not something to be toyed with and if human history has taught us anything its that she is constantly coming up with new nasty ways to curb the human population. Spanish Influenza, West Nile, HIV, Malaria, Small Pox, H1N1, the recent resurgence of Bubonic Plague in Madagascar and Ebola in West Africa. Constantly evolving, unpredictable, hard to trace and track. Viruses are the ultimate engineers and they have but one goal: death.

“Life, finds a way.”

The researchers were able to create a species of E. coli with this new 6-letter sequence, imagine, once this technology becomes easier to achieve and self-replication of these organisms is possible, if a curious scientist has the initiative to toy around with something a little more sinister or a nefarious government experimenting with biological weapons and this new organism “got loose” so to speak, there is no telling what horrors in may unleash upon the world. An ‘alien’ virus creating proteins never seen before and evolving at a rate that is impossible to tackle. It sounds like the plot to a show on SyFy but its not far fetched.

There is another implication that is far different but equally as scary for human civilization and that’s human engineering.

Forced Evolution of the 1%

Say this technology were made completely stable. New proteins discovered, new ways to enhance human life created. Couple this with other genetic engineering programs, in particular, manipulation of human conception and designer babies. As advancement of technology and spread of wealth has taught us anything its that a hypothetical technology such as this will likely be prohibitively expensive to the majority of the world’s population. So who would likely see the benefits of this tech, why the ultra rich of course. What if then we began seeing a new generation of genetically superior babies popping up around the world not only with the advantage of having the resources to succeed through life but also genetically advantageous as being part of a new race of human beings? Homo Sapiens are already likely to be responsible for the demise of a number of other human-like species many thousands of years ago, the likelihood of an evolved, genetically superior human already imposing a divide between the haves and the have nots furthering the divide between being human and neo-human is entirely possible. You would see regulation, legislation, fear, discrimination, apartheid, separation, violence and possibly genocide. It would be a future like that shown in the film Elysium but one more revolved around biology over technology.

Let’s not make this mistake.

So what is my point? Was it to rally the townspeople with torches and pitchforks in a sort of anti-geneticist witch hunt? No, my point was simply to open your mind to the bigger picture.

The Future Can Be Brighter

This is an incredible achievement and you shouldn’t let these completely hypothetical scenarios keep you for being excited about the future of genetics and biotechnology. What we need to do as a species however is proceed with caution. This technology needs to be tightly regulated to not let it get in the wrong hands but also spread to allow for it benefits to be felt worldwide and not to a select few. We need to begin the conversation about the ethical and philosophical implications of a future with new species living in parallel to the natural ones. And if such a future of bioengineered humans comes we need to be prepared to deal with the possible consequences and eventual changes it will lead to for us as a civilization and as a species.