(OPINION) In the early 2000s, scientists from the Human Genome Project announced a breakthrough: they had sequenced the complete human reference genome, including all three billion DNA letter, a scientific undertaking likened at the time to landing astronauts on the Moon.
According to Futurism, While the reference genome has come under question as of late, with scientists adding more than two million additional variants, it still doesn’t take a whole lot of space to store the entire sequence on a traditional computer.
And now, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is once again weighing in on an issue outside his expertise, arguing that one could “fit the DNA sequences of all humans alive today in a fairly small data storage system” — a vaguely terrifying thought coming from the richest man in the world, as if he didn’t already have enough fires to put out and problems to solve.
According to MIT Technology Review senior editor Antonio Regalado, who engaged with Musk over the question, the storage size of a single human genome could end up being in the neighborhood of 100 gigabytes.
In the early 2000s, the Human Genome Project scientists announced a breakthrough. They said that they specifically sequenced a complete human reference genome which includes all three billion DNA letters, a scientific project likened compared to landing astronauts on the Moon.
Whereas the reference genome has come under doubt as of late, with scientists adding two million variants more, it still does not take much space to store the whole sequence on a traditional computer.
As part of the project, researchers at HGP deciphered the human genome in three major ways, including determining the order, or sequence, of all the bases on the DNA of the genome; Making maps showing the genes’ location for major sections of all chromosomes; and generating the so-called “linkage maps,” through which inherited characteristics like those for genetic diseases, can be tracked over generations.
According to Antonio Regalado, senior editor of MIT Technology Review, who engaged with Musk over the question, the storage size of a single human genome could end up being 100 gigabytes. Billy Markin, co-creator of Degocoin and one of the so-called “closest Twitter penpals” of Musk, immediately pointed out the possibly hair-raising implications of holding all of the DNA sequences of humanity in a tiny room.
Meanwhile, in a meme Markin posted, Natali Portman’s Padme Amidala from Star Wars Episode II asked, “And it’ll be used for good, right?” Similar to the True Viral News report, it is one interpretation of their comment on Musk. The billionaire CEO could be simply pointing out how surprisingly small the cumulative data of all of the DNA of humans could turn out to be, given the extensive commonalities between them.
