The Exploit: A Theory of Networks - asounder

Nodes 51
be it in the living cell, in a petri dish or test tube, or, more recently, in a
computer.
The widespread use of computer databases (GenBank), Web - based
gene - finding algorithms (BLAST), and automated genome sequencing
computers demonstrates the principle of base pair complementarity
in silico, in addition to the in vitro and in vivo.
In short, the increasing integration of cybernetics and biology has resulted
in an informatic view of life that is also a view of life as a network (“biological
control”).
But it is when we see biotechnology in its instrumental, yet nonmedical,
nonbiological context, that the “protocols” of biological control
become the most evident. One such example is the nascent field
of DNA computing, or biocomputing. 20
The actual design and construction of a computer made of DNA takes
these protocols or biological control into a whole new field of concern beyond
the traditional distinctions of biology and technology.
While DNA computing is so new that it has yet to find its “killer
app,” it has been used in a range of contexts from cryptography to
network routing or navigation problems to the handheld detection of
biowarfare agents. The techniques of DNA computing were developed
in the mid - 1990s by Leonard Adleman as a proof - of - concept
experiment in computer science. 21 The concept is that the combinatorial
possibilities inherent in DNA (not one but two sets of binary
pairings in parallel, A - T, C - G) could be used to solve specific types
of calculations. One famous one is the so - called traveling salesman
problem (also more formally called a “directed Hamiltonian path”
problem): imagine a salesman who must go through five cities. The
salesman can visit each city only once and cannot retrace his steps.
What is the most efficient way to visit all five cities? In mathematical
terms, the types of calculations are called “NP complete” problems,
or “nonlinear polynomial” problems, because they involve a large