Our Own Island of "Monsters"

We talk a lot about science and technology and where we are going with hardware and software, but we rarely discuss the future possibility of creating new life forms from existing organisms. We are quickly grasping the concepts needed to manipulate life at the genetic level and control the resultant forms that arise from our experimenting. We currently have goats that produce spider silk enzymes in their milk, glow in the dark rats, supposed tomatoes sporting crab genes and various other cross breeds. We are just starting to glimpse this brave new world of wetware hacking and genetic pollution, and like we were at the beginning of the industrial age, we don't fully know what we are getting ourselves into. There are a few people shouting foul at the sidelines, but competition and exploration are winning out over caution. The video below shows one person who visually grasps and fully comprehends emotional aspects of the direction we are moving and has taken this vision and incorporated it into her art. There's some great stuff here. Patricia Piccinini has true vision and amazing talents.

You may think that the creatures that pop out of Patricia's mind could never exist. Governments are already putting restrictions into place that bars a lot of this kind of experimentation and altering of biology; however, other governments will freely allow it. If one country does it and the other does not, then the one that does will win superiority. That in combination with monetary gains will ensure that this becomes a reality one way or another. Competition will see to that.

Patricia's Site