Creating living creatures as simple as making computers

26th April 2009

According to the American physicist, mathematician and futurologist Freeman Dyson, the methods of biotechnology and genetic engineering permitting to construct new species of animals and plants will be also available in the future as personal computers in present, the children will compete, who will make dinosaur more beautiful, - RIA Novosti informs. Reporting on Monday with a public lecture in Physical Institute named by Lebedev in Moscow, Dyson, who was born in 1923, reminded that in his youth, John von Neumann was developing the first computers. However even von Neumann thought that computers will remain very big centralized systems. â€œHe didnâ€™t foresee that computers will become â€œsmallâ€, that even housewives will use them. Now, the dependence of people on computers is inconsumable, they donâ€™t part with them, nor in sorrow, or in joy. Perhaps in the future, â€œsmallâ€ and â€œmanualâ€ biotechnology will also enter every homeâ€ â€“ Dyson said.
To his opinion, the retirement from the â€œlargeâ€ modern biotechnology, when large corporations are involved in developing new breeds of plants and animals, will mean a revolution in the way of life. Farmers will be able to create any breeds of plants on-demand; housewives will be able to raise the plants of desired color in the kitchen. Dyson admits that the development of biotechnology can cause serious threats. In particular, as with computer viruses, there may appear culprits, developing real biological viruses. However, he believes, there is a possibility to prevent it by the imposition of proper restrictions. Freeman Dyson is Princeton University professor (USA), a distinguished physicist, known by his works in the field of quantum physics, nuclear engineering, solid-state physics.