> Well, my experience with software is that most mistakes do 
> not result
> in a powerful AI computer that takes over the world.
> Usually they just sit in a corner and drool, sometimes 
> with smoke.

> So one would hope that the genetic software would be much 
> the same,
> "legend" movies notwithstanding.

Software is written from scratch with a moderately full idea 
of the capabilities of the beast.

Genetic Engineering is done by hacking into an arcane device 
with capabilities beyond our (even Craig Venters) wildest 
dreams, identifying some core functionality and then pushing 
buttons to see what happens.

Usually we will manage to make it drool, but it is already 
capable of much more than that, and one day we may 'get it 
right'.

One large danger is that there are parts of the system that 
have been ring-fenced to take them out of operation when 
they proved lethal for some reason. Those with the 
successful ring-fence survived, those without didn't. We are 
in the business of hacking through ring-fences or leaping 
over them. It's only a matter of time ... .



        Russell


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