Could an endangered species spread its dna (and its records) across space?

[geordief]

Imagine (not to hard I know) that in the near  medium or farther out future that our civilisation managed to bring itself to the point where further  "civilized" life was no longer possible on this planet

 

Also the option of  continuing on planets in tha Solar system was judged unrealistic. 

 

Under those circumstances  might our descendants  who could themselves at this existential  dead end find a way to broadcast their dna across the galaxy  with the aim of  colonizing   another  planetary system even if all the members of their current  civilisation  were doomed to perish?

What methods might be employed to "seed"  another planetary system?

 

Might a virus or viruses be modified that could carry the dna of the expiring civilisation?

Could some record of that civilisation  also be embodied into the code?

 

I understand  that a lot of the human (and other?)dna is surplus to requirements.Could that be used as "storage space"?

[Genady]

DNA by itself is not useful. You need a right "machinery" (environment) to run this code to produce an organism.

[Peterkin]

45 minutes ago, geordief said:

Under those circumstances  might our descendants  who could themselves at this existential  dead end find a way to broadcast their dna across the galaxy  with the aim of  colonizing   another  planetary system even if all the members of their current  civilisation  were doomed to perish?

Yes, I think some people are seriously contemplating a project of that kind

Quote

Put simply, the Genesis Project aims at sending spacecraft with gene factories or cryogenic pods could be used to distribute microbial life to "transiently habitable exoplanets – i.e. planets capable of supporting life, but not likely to give rise to it on their own.

 

51 minutes ago, geordief said:

Could some record of that civilisation  also be embodied into the code?

No, but some code can be included in the vehicle. Of course, there is no telling how long the new life would take to develop and evolve to the point of civilizing itself - if ever. You can't just plunk down the ingredients for human babies on a sterile planet; you'd have to start with plankton and wait for the planet to terraform itself.  

55 minutes ago, geordief said:

I understand  that a lot of the human (and other?)dna is surplus to requirements.

We can't really be sure of that, but i don't see how you'd program it with racial memories more complicated than fear of falling... and even that won't kick in until you get a creature with a big enough brain. besides, even if you could imprint the concept of human civilization on plankton DNA, what is the plankton supposed to do with that information?

[Genady]

2 hours ago, Peterkin said:

Yes, I think some people are seriously contemplating a project of that kind

which brings us to the infamous thread of a year ago:

A reverse panspermia - Evolution, Morphology and Exobiology - Science Forums

 

[Peterkin]

Yep. But I'm not going another round.

[Genady]

I don't see that opponent around anyway...

[Ken Fabian]

If we had evidence of an advanced technological society out there messaging them our accumulated knowledge including descriptions and examples of the human genome might make sense, otherwise I think it would be like building pyramids - it will impress humans whilst they are still around but won't actually result in life after extinction. It may have some societal benefits so long as the effort doesn't cost too much. 

Edited December 16, 2022 by Ken Fabian

[CharonY]

7 hours ago, Genady said:

DNA by itself is not useful. You need a right "machinery" (environment) to run this code to produce an organism.

I think that is something that many folks underestimate. 

[geordief]

8 hours ago, Genady said:

DNA by itself is not useful. You need a right "machinery" (environment) to run this code to produce an organism.

Is that a software/hardware distinction or do those definitions  bleed into each other?

[mistermack]

7 hours ago, geordief said:

Imagine (not to hard I know) that in the near  medium or farther out future that our civilisation managed to bring itself to the point where further  "civilized" life was no longer possible on this planet.........         

Under those circumstances  might our descendants  who could themselves at this existential  dead end find a way to broadcast their dna across the galaxy  with the aim of  colonizing   another  planetary system even if all the members of their current  civilisation  were doomed to perish?

What methods might be employed to "seed"  another planetary system?

I don't think you would have to go down the dna route. Just because all the planets and moons of the solar system became uninhabitable, that doesn't mean that you couldn't send humans in spacecraft away from the Solar System. Given the likely time between now and the obliteration of the Solar System, it's odds-on that humans will have the capability to make a self-sustaining craft capable of travelling to another star. Or more likely, they will have done it long before things got that hot. 

They could carry frozen sperm and eggs with them, if that was desired, and by that time, it's highly likely that we will have perfected artificial wombs, capable of carrying a fertilised egg all the way from fertilisation to birth. So you wouldn't need to breed a new population from a small dna pool.

It's even feasible that unmanned probes could be despatched carrying frozen sperm and eggs, with a totally automated system that could produce babies and bring them up and educate them, all by robotic machines. That way, journeys that would take thousands of years could be undertaken, without the need for a human crew. Sounds fantastic, but given how willing kids are to watch tv, it might not be all that far-fetched. 

[Genady]

13 minutes ago, geordief said:

Is that a software/hardware distinction or do those definitions  bleed into each other?

I guess we could call a nuclear DNA, 'software', and all the rest involved in the process, 'hardware'.

(Ignoring for simplicity mitochondria and various microbes which are absolutely necessary for the organism to develop and to function and which have DNA of their own.)