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A billion years of evolution in a single afternoon — George Church

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A billion years of evolution in a single afternoon — George Church

Dwarkesh Podcast

Jun 26
Dwarkesh Podcast

Dwarkesh Podcast

Jun 26
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

George Church is the godfather of modern synthetic biology and has been involved with basically every major biotech breakthrough in the last few decades. Professor Church thinks that these improvements (e.g., orders of magnitude decrease in sequencing & s...

Highlights

In this wide-ranging conversation, George Church, a pioneering figure in synthetic biology, discusses the transformative potential of modern biotechnology. From extending human lifespan to engineering biological systems for practical applications, Church explores how innovations like CRISPR, AI-driven biology, and advances in gene therapy are reshaping science and society.
00:00
Estimated lifespan extension by a year annually could be achieved by 2050.
14:17
Synthetic biology may enable transforming health and intelligence universally.
19:50
Mirror life poses potential existential threats if weaponized.
34:05
Biology offers atomic precision surpassing electronics through new amino acids and the periodic table
50:32
We should seek international consensus on safe AI development.
1:03:53
Creating life in a lab under prebiotic conditions could prove life's independent origin.
1:13:58
Only 3% of children are severely affected by genetic diseases, yet not acting is still a decision.
1:22:30
Budget cuts may push research towards philanthropy and industrial sponsorship.
1:25:26
George Church notes that talent in labs often emerges through self-selection.

Chapters

Aging solved by 2050
00:00
Finding the master switch for any trait
07:37
Weaponized mirror life
19:50
Why hasn’t sequencing/synthesis led to biotech revolution?
30:40
Impact of AGI on biology research progress
50:26
Biobots that use the best of biological and human engineering
1:00:35
Odds of life in universe
1:05:09
Is DNA the ultimate data storage?
1:09:57
Curing rare diseases with genetic counseling
1:13:55
NIH & NSF budget cuts
1:22:23
How one lab spawned 100 biotech companies
1:25:26

Transcript

Dwarkesh Patel: Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing George Church. I don't know how to introduce you. It would, honestly, this is not even a exaggeration, it would honestly be easier to list out the major breakthroughs in biology over the last few d...