Rika picks up one of the sample slices of the Kichimi fruit, squeezes it between her fingers and selects ‘DNA barcode scan’ with her iLense before popping the slice into her mouth and slowly chewing the slice. It has a crispy tangy flavor, like a kiwi mixed with a pear. She’s still chewing the slice when the results of the DNA barcode sequencing show up in her iLense. The fruit was originally designed by Pairing Genetics, which was recently acquired by Monsanto. The fruit was picked 19 hours ago at the Kitamura Farm in Gunma, following the 2018 Japan Organic Class 3 guidelines. There is additional suggested information available regarding nutritional information and cooking recipes but she doesn’t want to access it now. She decides to buy 20, since she notices that this new 2.0 version may keep up to 30 days. She posts. #KichimiLife
Jonathon checks his online dating profile. He isn’t really sure why The Honest Distribution Company pays him. He hasn’t handled a customer inquiry or complaint for weeks. Ever since the new DNA barcode blockchain based system was integrated into the distribution chain he’s been able to catch up on the last 3 seasons of Ashleigh Unplugged, a coming of age story set two years ago when the regulations for Psychological Safe Software Design were suddenly implemented and 78% of high school students suddenly needed counseling. Good show, but he thinks they jumped the shark midway through season 3 when the counselors all started sleeping with each other.
1.7 million Halal and Kosher deliveries in the last 5 business days and zero inquires. Maybe he should write a fan episode that takes place in current day.
Lai remembers what his high school teacher said. “There is no design, only verification.” But knowing what you’re supposed to do is not enough. Never is. Maybe he wasn’t meant to be a biodesign engineer. He always wants to design first. Driven by the excitement. Desire to make a concept a physical reality as soon as possible. When an artist paints a picture do they decide how many colors to use in advance? Do they decide who will see the painting before it’s done?
♪No hocus pocus, you simple suckers been served a notice
Top of the morning, my fist to your face is fucking Folgers♪
Lai lets the notification play. He walks to his lab bench and takes the the tube out of the DNA synthesizer. He places the tube containing the three genomes into Flexi-assay 1040. Who names these things anyway? He starts his program that runs the metabolic efficiency assay with survivor analysis using DNA barcode read count. This song reminds him of detentions. Hmmm, while the assay is running he has time to run a theme enrichment analysis of all the music he listened to in high school and an analysis of theme change over time. He can add an overly of major life events like his parents divorce, that summer with Natasha, dropping out of school…etc…etc… See if there is a narrative there. Maybe he should make some more friends.
He’ll go back and write the RNA and methylation tests if any of the designs perform better than the control. Maybe the world has enough biodesign engineers. Maybe he‘s meant to be biodesign artist.
I imagine Tupac Bio <www.tupac.bio> technology being used in all the vignettes above. Some of our work in DNA barcode research has been published in Nature Scientific Reports <www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-12825-2>.
My co-founder Paul has recently submitted research in the area of theme enrichment analysis <https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.06227>.
