this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2023
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DNA nanobots can exponentially self-replicate: Tiny machines made from strands of DNA can build copies of themselves, leading to exponential replication. Similar devices could one day be used to cr... (www.newscientist.com)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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DNA nanobots can exponentially self-replicate: Tiny machines made from strands of DNA can build copies of themselves, leading to exponential replication. Similar devices could one day be used to cr...::Tiny machines made from strands of DNA can build copies of themselves, leading to exponential replication. Similar devices could one day be used to create drugs inside the body

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Because of this the reaction will not work outside of carefully controlled laboratory conditions, ruling out apocalyptic scenarios where the process runs away and destroys all available DNA by building versions of itself with it.

This isn’t something that’s taking over the world just yet

So there’s always that kind of uncertainty; you think you can build safeguards in, but they’re not necessarily a guarantee that it will be safe

Very reassuring, nothing to worry about

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You could also have a copycat funded by terrorists or whatever. Just because they build safeguards doesn't mean the next person will. Fun.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

It's not that they built safeguards but probably more that replication is finicky and you need these specific conditions for it to work at all
(but I don't have access to the cited paper)