It has been quite a long time since I've been able to pen (type) a new piece of my mind here.  In this time quite a bit has happened in my life.  I've formally declared my major as Microbiology, and I've begun to work as a volunteer in a university laboratory as a fish-tank-cleaner.  Riveting stuff indeed.  But what I would like to focus on is not me, or my hopes and aspirations, because I don't think that blogger would let me write that much, and it's not what's important right now actually.

What I want to talk about is the new and emerging technologies, which I'm sure a lot of you are feeling like are moving too fast.  Honestly I have to agree, they are moving too fast.  At least the unimportant ones are moving too fast.  The important ones however are moving just fast enough.  In 2003, the human genome was offically published.  It took 13 years and nearly $4 billion to complete.  Researchers around the world colaborated to get the sequencing of genes in order.  Each sequence was about 50 units long (out of nearly 3 billion total units!), and costs about $1/unit to sequnce.  That was in 1992.  The sequencing technology, much like original computers, was in its infancy at the time.  The machines used took up entire rooms, and the process itself was time consuming.  Now days the machines fit on top of a desk, and are millions of times more powerful, performing a 50 unit sequences in fractions of a second.  The majority of the human genome project was complete in the last five years of those 13.  The growth scale of this technology is not slowing. 

There have now (since 2003) been 10,000 human genomes sequenced (2012).  It took 13 years for the first one, and now in lest than a decade researchers have sequenced 9,999 more.  I'd say we're progressing.  Geneticists are begining to notice which genes are particular to olympic athletes, which genes are particular to scholars, and so on.  The cost of mapping a genome is now around $1,000 and can be done in a few months.  Next year, 2013, the cost is expected to be around $100 and take about a week to do.  It is forcasted that part of a general doctor visit in the next five years will be a mapping of your genome.  That's not a bad thing though.  Body-modification is about to take on a whole new meaning.  Evolution is taking on a whole new meaning also, as humans begin to actively change the living organisms around them.  There is no turning back from these technologies, only vigilance, and wisdom.  Luckily the tools are currently in the hands of the wise, but may not be for very much longer because of it's decreasing costs, and increasing prevalence. 

There is no turning back, the human race is evolving into something else.  We are becoming more aware of our impact on this planet, we are becoming more aware of our impact on ourselves through psychological and sociological research, and we are learning how to change both of those things.

Through genetic tracking of viruses researchers have mapped out what parts of a rodent brain are affected by certain emotional responses.  These maps were generated in two colors, parts turned "on" by the emotion, and parts turned "off" by the emotion.  These two parts are used to create a binary code, and therefore a computer program which simulates the brain's emotional responses.  Essentially the theory of the project is that we'll be able to download and upload memories!  Think about that!  Download our memories to our facebook profile for people to upload to their own consciousness.  Combine that with the genomic research, and we will be able to colonize the stars.  Say there's a planet with a different atmosphere than earth, simply design a body from the genes up that will survive on that surface, and send the body there.  Then download your consciousness onto a "server", and upload it into that body on the other planet, and vice versa.  We'll be able to wake up in Chicago, eat breakfast with our families, then transport our consciousness to the body in our office in Hong-Kong, do our work, then transport back to Chicago for dinner. 

We are progessing fast, and the future will only hold more progress as computers become more powerful, as genomics becomes more available, as psychological research gains further insights to the human mind, and as we begin to terraform our planet now, and other planets in the future.  We must be aware of what we're doing, and be sure to ask the question "Just because we can, does that mean we should?"