We know that until now programs or software have been developed for computers and phones. When these programs were run, they enabled us to perform many operations such as watching videos in the electronic environment, searching the Internet, or writing. Well, have you ever thought that the same thing can be done to a living organism? If you have watched the movie Otherlife, you will understand better what I mean. For those who haven't watched it yet, let's talk about the movie briefly.
The film deals with the experiments and the problems that came with the realization of a project called OthetLife. So, what is this OtherLife? A bio-software that enables the production of new memories... Ren Amari, the protagonist of our movie, writes various virtual reality scenarios with the codes she developed on the computer. She transfers this software she has developed to a kind of eye drops. This bio-software technology, when dripped into the eye, puts the person in a dream-like phase, allowing him to spend very realistic moments in the scenario written for him.
Several different purposes of the software in the movie are mentioned. The first is to provide people with the opportunity to do many activities that they want to do in daily life but do not have time to do.
A second use is a punishment. In other words putting a criminal in the prison of his own mind, from which there is no possibility of escape. Imagine spending 365 days counting down in an empty room. While time passes slowly for you, a few minutes pass in the real world. Thus, years are not lost in the prisoner's life, and he also experiences the feeling of being imprisoned for days that never pass.
Another mentioned area of use is waking up patients in a coma. The answer the movie seeks is, is it possible to wake the patient up if we bring back his consciousness to the moment of the accident that caused the patient to fall into a coma and let the patient experience a new scenario on how to get out of that moment? Interesting question. To answer this question, first of all, I think it is important to understand the state of a coma. Perhaps this topic can be checked over again in another article because this article will probably be long enough already.
So if you don’t mind, let's first decide whether bio-software is possible or not.
Just as computer programs are made up of codes, we biological creatures are made up of coding gene sequences. Have you heard of Steganography before? If I intimate that the method uses this feature of the codes in our genes...
Steganography, or DNA cryptography, is the technique of storing information in the DNA sequence. As you know, organic bases called Adenine (A), Cytosine (C), Guanine (G), and Thymine (T) are used in the unique coding system of DNA. In the technique we mentioned, messages are encrypted by determining a base combination to which each letter in the alphabet corresponds.
In 1999, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York used this technique to send messages encoded with DNA. They first encoded the message into the DNA and then inserted it into a small character in the letter. The receiver could detect this message by standard biochemical methods and decode the secret message.
Yaniv Erlich and Dina Zielinski from the New York Genome Center and Columbia University aimed to take Steganography to the next level and transfer computer codes to DNA. They managed to encode a movie, a photograph, a scientific paper, a computer virus, and an Amazon gift card into DNA.
If we go back to the bases we just mentioned... The letters A, C, G, and T, each combination of which corresponds to a different piece of information... Similar to DNA, the codes that make up digital information also consists of zeros and ones. If we can convert the 0s and 1s of digital data into A, C, G, and T of DNA, like translating from one language to another, we can use DNA like a hard disk.
One of the most important advantages of DNA is that it occupies a much smaller area compared to other storage areas. It can also last for about 3.7 billion years.
One of the biggest problems was the limited amount of information we can upload to DNA without corrupting it. If we want to encode larger information, we have to fragment the DNA, which increases the risk of data loss as the information cannot be fully processed.
However, this problem was solved with the 'fountain code' method. In this type of coding, the data is divided into small pieces. Even if a random code package is lost, it can be understood what the missing piece is by looking at the whole code.
Another DNA storage problem is that the more data is read, the more it is lost. However, when the data is coded by being copied ten times, the source code method can be quite resistant to such losses and the lost data can be recovered effectively.
You can watch Dina Zielinski's TED talk on storing digital data in DNA here.
In other words, as you can see, various information such as computer codes, software, movies, and academic articles can be loaded into DNA. Then what we have to do is to encode the script we want and upload it to DNA. So what happens next? We can upload information to DNA through computers and read it using computers and biochemical methods. How can we get the brain to read this information?
The biggest problem we face here is whether the DNA, on which the data is loaded, can be introduced into the brain. We know that the main flow of information in the brain is through neurons and that these structures are located in almost the entire brain. If we want to create new memories in the brain, it seems like we can do it through the neurons in the brain that provide this transmission.
So why did we load information into DNA?
Perhaps the single most important contribution that the DNA storage method will provide us is its lightness. While a terabyte external disk normally weighs about 150 grams, with Erlich and Zielinski's method, 215,000 times as much data can be packed into one gram of DNA. So you can fit as many memories as you want into these lightweight DNA storage spaces.
Now you might say, what about introducing the software or memory we want to the brain? I'm coming to that right away, don't worry. One of the most effective ways to do this may seem like microchips pre-implanted in the brain, but it goes against the way we took our inspiration from the movie. Because we want to achieve this with just one eye drop. What can we do then?
If a chip can do that, a microcomputer can do it as well, right? Today, we know how far artificial intelligence and robots have come. You may have seen in science news that small robots that can find their own way can be produced. Even if you do research in the form of a robot that solves the maze, you will come across many reports, and you can even reach the equipment you can buy to make your own robot at home. Besides, we can see that it is not that difficult to bring these huge robots to micro dimensions with advanced technologies.
So how small is it?
Small enough to be injected…
Researchers from the University of Michigan have already begun work on an injectable computer. This computer uses radio frequencies to send the information it receives inside the body to computers outside. What kind of information can these computers obtain? For example, if there is a tumor in the body, it can help us obtain information about the condition of the tumor by measuring the pressure inside the body. Or it can provide information about how effective chemotherapy is. We can talk about sending a computer to the body. Thinking about what computers can do outside the body, I'll leave it to your imagination what else the injectable versions can do.
What do we have now? A DNA loaded with software, an injectable computer, or some kind of robot… Our robot will find the area we want and transmit information to the computers outside with radio frequencies. Our DNA will also transmit the information we want to the brain. But how?
Maybe we can't inject DNA into the brain or introduce it to a certain region and wait for the brain to read it. However, we can read the information in DNA that our microcomputer or robot can use as a small-mass external disk and transmit signals to our brain, just like a computer. In theory at least...
With brain imaging methods, when we remember a certain memory or learn a piece of new information, it can be observed at what level and which regions of the brain are active. What do you think would be the effect of imitating the brain's response through electronic waves in the brain in the real experience moment we want to bring to the person? Let me tell you. Artificial memories...
According to an article published in Nature Neuroscience, we can artificially form memories, even if they are not real experiences. In laboratory tests on animals, mice were first allowed to form memories naturally. They then activated the corresponding brain regions in the brains of the mice that had not yet acquired these memories, mimicking those in the brains of those in the first group. What is the result? The mice in the second group began to react as if those memories were their own. In other words, although they did not experience it personally, they lived through artificial memories. Isn't that exactly what we're looking for?
To sum up, the information we have obtained … We attach a DNA memory suitable for its size and capable of handling a large amount of information in a microcomputer. We load the memory we want and the effects it should create in the brain to this memory. We program our computer to reach the brain like a robot and read the information in it and create electrical signals in the brain. If this computer is injectable, that means it can be made into eye drops as well.
If we can produce this whole process using only biological materials, it will certainly be marvelous. After doing this much, all that remains is to start producing with Bio 3D printers.
This is my way of making OtherLife come true. Of course, there are many more methods available. Maybe even software can be loaded directly into a biological fluid. We can only speculate on what scientific and technological developments will bring us in the future.
Let's see in which areas this technology can be used. Creating new memories or being able to manipulate existing memories seems likely to benefit psychiatrists first. First of all, of course, it would make sense for it to be in the use of the medical field. Maybe it can be used as a controlled service provided by centers established for entertainment purposes (like in the movie Total Recall). If something is easily accessible to everyone, it can lead to abuse like other drugs. It can become much riskier if it falls into the hands of malicious people.
Let's take a look at the expressions one of the partners of the OtherLife project used while promoting the movie.
What are we doing with our lives? We never have enough free time. And when we do, it feels wasted. So, imagine if we could buy more. Sail the Caribbean before work, snowboard the Alps over lunch, free dive the Barrier Reef that same night.
This is not a simulation. This isn't even the "next best thing" to being there. This is a genuine experience, delivered direct to the brain by our patented technology.
Holidays, just the beginning. Where do we go next? Long-term, interactive... Imagine the possibilities.
Training, rehabilitation, therapy,
years of experience added to your mind... Like apps to a computer. All you have to do is decide.
What will you do with your OtherLife?
It's good to dream, but there are risks.
Would you like to try such a technology? What would be the first thing you would like to experience? What would you like to do with your OtherLife?
I would be very pleased if you could share your ideas about the subject, your methods, or your ideas of usage area with me.
RESOURCES
DNA Cryptography
https://resources.infosecinstitute.com/dna-cryptography-and-information-security/#:~:text=DNA%20Cryptography%20can%20be%20defined,human%20deoxyribonucleic%20acid%20(DNA).
Message encoded in DNA
https://www.wired.com/1999/06/scientists-code-words-into-dna/
Digital information storage into DNA
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/this-speck-of-dna-contains-a-movie-a-computer-virus-and-an-amazon-gift-card/518373/
Injectable Computer
https://www.eit.edu.au/cms/news/developments/a-computer-that-can-be-injected-into-the-human-body-is-latest-in-internet-of-things-innovations
Artificial memories
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-019-0389-0
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