Intel, Microsoft, Autodesk Creating Life
As long as they are able to get there before Weyland-Yutani …
Intel, Microsoft and Autodesk are quietly investing in “programming” living organisms — potentially merging biology with electronics. However, all three are playing catch-up to Microbial Robotics LLC (Cincinnati, Ohio), which has already perfected its ViruBots and BactoBots.
The ViruBots and BactoBots are based on programming living organisms (viruses and bacteria) to perform humanitarian tasks for which they were not evolved to do — such as clean toxins from waste water, hunting down and killing (only) cancer cells, produce non-polluting fuels and developing new hybrid living/electronic materials. Microbial Robotics has already spun-off a eight companies to market these solutions to particular environmental and medical tasks, but Intel, Microsoft and Autodesk are joining the fray because of the ever slimming margins in electronics and end-of-the-road for semiconductors coming into sight circa 2028, according to Jason Barkeloo, Microbial Robotics’ CEO.
“Bacteria and viruses are the hardware, DNA is the operating system and genes are the application software.”
“Manipulating nucleic base pairs (A,T,C,G) on DNA strands is comparable to binary programming,” Barkeloo, told us. “Bacteria and viruses are the hardware, DNA is the operating system and genes are the application software.”