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[FiRe] Some Issues re. Bioinformatics
These are notes from the Future in Review conference. More here.
Roger Brent, a fascinating scientist in the field of bioinformatics, who I also had the chance to witness in a scintillating lunch conversation, talked about his field. I only noted down a few tidbits, for the whole of the issues were a little much for me to digest and write down at the same time.
The goal of his work is to increase our ability to predict. Beyond 10 years: With drugs, you could potentially not only hit one place, but hit multiple places in lower doses: more effectively, more efficiently.
Although the potential changes and implications of biological developments are often much more profound than those in computation, most of the smartest minds do not know about these issues and do not really care. Neither journalists nor entrepreneurs. There is huge untapped potential and real need there.
Bioethics increasingly irrelevant to the issues thrown up by technology. Professional ethicists are mostly intellectually bankcrupt, because their thinking is completely out of touch with scientific reality. -> Nevertheless, the issues are important, but nobody seems to be able to tackle them appropriately.