Dateline: February 27 2032
Breakthroughs in programmable biology have made it possible to neutralise any pathogen, including the latest coronavirus outbreak. But there’s a risk. The cure might prove more deadly than the disease.
When scientists perfected genetic editing with CRISPR and other tools, we could cut and paste and tweak DNA and modify organisms. Using AI-powered co-scientists and nanoscale 3D printing we developed the ability to build customised DNA and RNA molecules from scratch — synthetic life. The first fully synthetic organisms were engineered microbes for industry, to make useful chemicals and fuels and break down waste.
Soon our attention turned to engineering benign viruses that could destroy harmful bacteria, including superbugs, and fragments of genetic material that could destroy viruses. All DNA has a similar helical structure, twisting in the same direction. A negative molecular structure, or mirror image, of a microbe would bind to the original, making it inert. Like two magnets snapping together.
Supercomputer simulations proved the theory and the scientists got excited about the possibilities. By 2029 there was a global research effort to synthesise DNA with a negative twist. If we could create mirror bacteria and mirror viruses, no microbial disease would ever threaten us again. Progress in the labs was painfully slow, but eventually we succeeded under carefully controlled and highly secure conditions.
Nobody has been willing to allow these experimental anti-bugs out of the lab. If they can destroy natural bacteria, what else could they do? But that was before the Covid-31 outbreak. With the world facing another pandemic that could kill millions, activists are calling for a mirror virus release.
And after the pandemic ends? How do we stop the mirror bug from evolving into something even more deadly?
• First published on Mindbullets February 27 2025.
Release the phages!
Targeting a viral outbreak with a counter-virus
Dateline: March 5 2026
The latest outbreak of a contagious coronavirus from China came as no surprise — we’ve seen this movie before, several times. But now we’re better prepared, with the sort of biotech “weapons” that just didn’t exist in 2020.
We’ve known for a long time, many decades in fact, that you can use one micro-organism to kill another. As long as the one you’re using to destroy the bad bug doesn’t also infect healthy cells, you’ve got a great solution.
Most helpful in this therapy is a bunch of virus-like things called bacteriophages, or phages for short, which “eat” specific bacteria, like the notorious “superbug” that’s resistant to antibiotics. But how do you get a phage to kill a virus?
Using advanced genetic engineering similar to CRISPR, scientists have now managed to tweak phages to go after coronavirus strains, and let the CRISPR enzymes loose on them, destroying their RNA — that’s the active part that codes for replication. Think of it like snipping a ribbon to shreds.
Developed after the Covid-19 outbreak caused such havoc six years ago, the “virophages” have to be “bred” to target a particular coronavirus, and thoroughly tested to be sure they won’t be harmful themselves, but now they’re ready to do battle with Covid-26.
So, release the phages! Just don’t tell anyone it’s actually a modified virus, but benign.
• First published on Mindbullets March 5 2020.
Despite appearances to the contrary, Futureworld cannot and does not predict the future. The Mindbullets scenarios are fictitious and designed purely to explore possible futures, and challenge and stimulate strategic thinking.
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