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David Gerns:: Projects and Ideas |
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| Department: Physiological Science |
Projects |
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Design by Sequence "Color
Blind" |
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Genetic
Art Proposal More about this project |
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Ideas |
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Five of my favorite links on the topic of genetic arts: Preface: The web sites below provide basis to other people1s ideas and interpretations of their creations. Though some are strange and misguided, what I would like to emphasize are the creative thoughts and arguments brought out from their original concepts, and how one could view them as art. As our ability to manipulate biology and chemistry increases, we take giant leaps in making some of these futuristic ideas a reality.) In no particular order: NanoArt.
Different examples of art on the nanoscale, each produced under
different fragile environments: from an abacus using atoms as beads,to
the world's smallest guitar. Cool site. Intelligent
Evolution – World as a canvas. Argues that there is a needfor
the human race to create populations of more and more intelligent
peoplebecause civilization is only advanced through key intelligent
humans.Interesting idea, but what I think is cool is the way people
are trying toinfluence the future of human civilization. Wielding
evolution to a set ofstandards or goals is one of the most creative,
long-term forms of art I canthink of. What if you wanted to color
the planet in different shades ofplant colors to be able to look
at from the moon, for example? Extreme??? Hedonistic
Imparitive – through genetic technology and nanotechnology,we
will be able to alter our mental states just like manipulating diseasedgenes.
Imagine ending depression and predispositions in people for "mentalpain"
receptors."Over the next thousand years or so, the biological
substrates of suffering will be eradicated completely. "Physical"
and "mental" pain alikeare destined to disappear into
evolutionary history. The biochemistry ofeveryday discontents will
be genetically phased out too. Instead, matter andenergy will be
sculpted into perpetually life-loving super-beings. Their states
of mind are likely to be incomprehensibly diverse by comparison
withtoday. Yet all will share at least one common feature: a sublime
andall-pervasive happiness.""States of "dopamine-overdrive"
can actually enhance exploratory and goal-directed activity. Hyper-dopaminergic
states can also increase therange and diversity of actions an organism
finds rewarding. So our descendants may live in a civilization of
well-motivated "high-achievers", animated by gradients
of bliss. Their productivity may far eclipse our own." Make
everyone happy, all the time. Art through emotions. Genetic
Supermarkets: The theme of this website is the different ways we
make it easy to design our perfect babies. It is an excerpt from
a sperm bank's male screening process. Though our true genetic make-up
has not been completely mapped, we have developed many methods of
determining the heritability of certain diseases and illnesses.
By recording these traits and eliminating the chances of inheriting
them, we are able to design more flawless children. As easy as we
can select for eye color and height, we will be able to find and
correct the errors in each of our genome. Imagine taking one of
your germ cells, cleaning all errors, and through in vitro fertilization,
creating perfect children with your spouse. Psyche
Genes: imagine if we could map all of our emotions, and specific
mental characteristics of our beings. Everyone is a little different
in some way, and soon we might be able to explain why. Evidence
that there may be a way to map our personalities (to an extent)
are displayed through the fact that we know psychiatric disorders
are genetic; parent passes faulty genes to child. Much of the interesting
things I have been researching are related to mapping psychiatric
disorder genes. By understanding them, doors into our individual
personalities may open. The art is created when we can manipulate
the future of our children1s personalities. |
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