Lovely essay on Viriditas. Any thing to foster the biosphere here and to spread engineered versions of it outward are deeply moral enterprises, so long as there are not non-terrene biospheres adversely effected. Why do biotechnology? I once made a proposal to the chair of a multidisciplinary Dept (math, computer science, physics) at my university. I wanted to develop a seminar on a powerful software modeling tool I was working on. The chair asked me in effect, why do this- we already have tools that can do the same job?
I didn't hesitate to answer, "Because to show we can. Because to develop a tool that we may not need now, but that we may need in the future benefits science. It broadens our repertoire." Though the conversation occurred 25 years ago or so, I can still remember my answer clearly. As it turned out the seminar never eventuated but the ideas in it were used by a doctoral student for his dissertation and he is now teaching electrical engineering back in his home country. So there was benefit in even trying!
I have definitely enjoyed this newsletter since the beginning, and I'm looking forward to absorbing the knowledge you're sharing going forward! Many thanks, Rick
Lovely essay on Viriditas. Any thing to foster the biosphere here and to spread engineered versions of it outward are deeply moral enterprises, so long as there are not non-terrene biospheres adversely effected. Why do biotechnology? I once made a proposal to the chair of a multidisciplinary Dept (math, computer science, physics) at my university. I wanted to develop a seminar on a powerful software modeling tool I was working on. The chair asked me in effect, why do this- we already have tools that can do the same job?
I didn't hesitate to answer, "Because to show we can. Because to develop a tool that we may not need now, but that we may need in the future benefits science. It broadens our repertoire." Though the conversation occurred 25 years ago or so, I can still remember my answer clearly. As it turned out the seminar never eventuated but the ideas in it were used by a doctoral student for his dissertation and he is now teaching electrical engineering back in his home country. So there was benefit in even trying!
I have definitely enjoyed this newsletter since the beginning, and I'm looking forward to absorbing the knowledge you're sharing going forward! Many thanks, Rick
https://open.substack.com/pub/valueneer/p/beyond-survival-of-the-fittest?r=28zrhq&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
nice