Musings

There is a company that plans to create living mythological creatures such as dragons. They are going to do this through computer modeling. To quote from an article by Sam Melito, that appeared in the ‘Economist’:

Their secret is a new field, which they call “virtual cell biology”.
Biology and computing have a lot in common, since both are about processing information—in one case electronic; in the other, biochemical. Virtual cell biology aspires to make a software model of a cell that is accurate in every biochemical detail. That is possible because all animal cells use the same parts list—mitochondria for energy processing, the endoplasmic reticulum for making proteins, Golgi body for protein assembly, and so on.
Armed with their virtual cell, GeneDupe's scientists can customise the result so that it belongs to a particular species, by loading it with a virtual copy of that animal's genome. Then, if the cell is also loaded with the right virtual molecules, it will behave like a fertilised egg, and start dividing and developing—first into an embryo, and ultimately into an adult. Because this “growth” is going on in a computer, it happens fast. Passing from egg to adult in one of GeneDupe's enormous Mythmaker computers takes less than a minute. And it is here that Charles Darwin gets a look in. With such a short generation time, GeneDupe's scientists can add a little evolution to their products.
Each computer starts with a search image (dragon, unicorn, gryphon, etc), and the genome of the real animal most closely resembling it (a lizard for the dragon, a horse for the unicorn and, most taxingly, the spliced genomes of a lion and an eagle for the gryphon). The virtual genomes of these real animals are then tweaked by random electronic mutations. When they have matured, the virtual adults most closely resembling the targets are picked and crossbred, while the others are culled.
Using this rapid evolutionary process, GeneDupe's scientists have arrived at genomes for a range of mythological creatures—in a computer, at least. The next stage, on which they are just embarking, is to do it for real.
This involves synthesizing, with actual DNA, the genetic material that the computer models predict will produce the mythical creatures. The synthetic DNA is then inserted into a cell that has had its natural nucleus removed. The result, Dr Fril and his commercial backers hope, will be a real live dragon, unicorn or what have you.

Now, it occurs to me that this technology can be used for a more noble enterprise: Creating ‘next year’s model of Man. This would be done by loading the simulation software with the recently decoded human genome information. Then we fire it up, and let the simulation achieve homeostasis. Once we see the model accurately reflects the cellular activity in Homo Sapiens, we start plugging in variables: Selectively turning genes on and off, and tabulating the results. In the process, we learn the mechanisms that lead to all inherited diseases, and how to control them.
Then we start with “random mutations’ and watch the results. As we know from modern genetics, a small percentage will be ‘favorable’, that is, they enhance some cellular process that leads to a better organism.
In this scheme, we do not need to know where on each chromosome each and every gene resides. It will still take years to figure them out. No, we simply fire up the simulator, blast the model with random mutations, and watch the show. Depending on the speed with which you can do all the number-crunching, you might be able to see where the purely biological aspects of natural selection take the human race over the next million years.
At the very least, you can stop at some iteration of the human genome that has many of the features we find desirable, such as perfect health, immortality, beauty, and of course, highly evolved brains that are finally capable of figuring out what the Hell we are, and what to do about it.
Then the rest is easy as pie. We take actual genetic material, with the cellular and mitochondria DNA modified per the simulation, stuff it in an egg cell, impregnate a female, and PRESTO! Nine months later we have the first member of the new and improved Homo Saps.