A new article in Science Policy Forum voices concern about a particular line of biological research which, if successful in the long term, could eventually create a grave threat to humanity and to most life on Earth.

Fortunately, the threat is distant, and avoidable—but only if we have common knowledge of it.

What follows is an explanation of the threat, what we can do about it, and my comments.

Background: chirality

Glucose, a building block of sugars and starches, looks like this:

Adapted from WikimediaBut there is also a molecule that is the exact mirror-image of glucose. It is called simply L-glucose (in contrast, the glucose in our food and bodies is sometimes called D-glucose):

L-glucose, the mirror twin of normal D-glucose. Adapted from WikimediaThis is not just the same molecule flipped around, or looked at from the other side: it's inverted, as your left hand is vs. your [...]

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Outline:

(00:29) Background: chirality

(01:41) Mirror life

(02:47) The threat

(05:06) Defense would be difficult and severely limited

(06:09) Are we sure?

(07:47) Mirror life is a long-term goal of some scientific research

(08:57) What to do?

(10:22) We have time to react

(10:54) The far future

(12:25) Optimism, pessimism, and progress

The original text contained 1 image which was described by AI.

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First published:
December 12th, 2024

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/y8ysGMphfoFTXZcYp/biological-risk-from-the-mirror-world

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

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