B. TECHNOLOGIES AND LEGALITIES
For our purposes, it
is the technologies, techniques, and legal ramifications of the
genome project and genetic engineering that must hold the center of
our attention, for these three things provide the interpretive key
by which to pry loose possible hidden meanings in some very ancient
texts. The task of sequencing the enormous amount of information
coiled up in the human double helix was the most daunting
scientific problem mankind had ever faced, for even if every gene
was “decoded,” the problem of fitting a billion pieces of data into
a coherent map would require not only massive amounts of DNA
sequencing machines, but massive amounts of computer power, plus a
computer program able to assemble the data spit out by the
sequencers into a coherent picture. The benefits, however, were
well worth the effort, for with the ability to sequence human DNA,
any other organism was, by comparison, a comparative “snap.”
Moreover, with such maps in hand, one might be able to derive
genetically-based definitions of life
itself,244 or even to figure
out the minimum amount of genes required in order for there to
be life,245 and finally,
detailed genetic knowledge of organisms would conceivably resolve
one of the thornier problems within biology itself: taxonomy, or
how to classify various species or even to determine if something
was a distinct species.246 Additionally, as
we shall see, the techniques of genetic engineering required
accurate maps of the genome. Once that map was had, the
implications — both good and ill — multiply like rabbits. So, a
closer look at the technologies, techniques, and legal implications
is in order.