Does anyone here think that Mankind shall ever create life?

[Jet Black]

odds are that it will be pretty similar to currently available stuff, since life has had about 3 billion years to evolve! one of the biggest problems I see is figuring out what the twrtiary structure of the proteins we will make are.

 

[Gracchus]

Could you elaborate on your statement about process and substance. A living substance is usually defined by the processes occuring.

Life is not the chemicals, not the substance. Life is the process, the reaction of chemicals. What needs elaboration?

 

[Estill]

If it does happen I dont think it will be evil becuase it doesnt have a sou, however if we "create" life from a human then that is playing the role of God.

 

[Chi_Cygni]

A sou is an outdated French coin. I expect it wouldn't have a sou, or a pfennig for that matter.

 

[David Gould]

We will create life. We will create intelligent life. And neither are too far away, I suspect.

 

[revolutio]

Life? Probably.

Sentience? Only by accident most likely.

 

[joelazcr]

Yes, I think it will be possible to create life. I won't be by accident though. It will require a well designed and directed chemical process.

 

[ej]

Why is this question being asked at all?

How can mankind 'create' something which has already been created? Surely that would just be copying?

 

[Cruithne]

If one is willing to consider viruses as living, then it has already been done. I read an article recently about scientists creating a bacteria-eating virus. Unfortunately, I'm forbidden from posting a link to the story until I reach 15 posts.

 

[PhantomLlama]

I do not see viruses as living. IMO, if a normal virus is alive, so is a computer virus. The modus operandi is basically the same.

1. Invade host (cell or computer)
2. Use hosts copying facility to create many copies. (cell manufacturing capacity or computer copy function)
3. Spread (burst cell and diffuse, or send emails with attached virus)

Now if someone created a computer virus with mutable, evolving code to bypass defences we'd all be in trouble.

 

[strubenuff]

We're on our way...http://www.nature.com/nsu/031110/031110-17.html

 

[Jet Black]

Why is this question being asked at all?

How can mankind 'create' something which has already been created? Surely that would just be copying?

well if it was machine based and not organic, that would be creating rather than copying.