SpeedOfSound wrote:Then there is chirality and possible new nucleic acid systems and extending, other biomolecular systems as far as the imagination will go.
I watched Transcendence last night. They did a damned good job on the tech.
I don't see chiral reversal as doing anything more interesting than producing a mirror image of normal biochemistry.
"New nucleic acid systems" have been investigated, and one new pair of bases was found, involving fluorine atoms, IIRC. The biggest problem appeared to be distortion of the DNA double-helix shape by the "novel" bases.
I haven't seen "Transcendance", but it sounds like a work of mainly imagination, designed to spur further work, but don't believe too much in imagination.
EDIT: Actually, I think they might have been a little too fussy about what to accept, because they rejected a third new base, on the grounds that it paired with itself. IMO, this would not be a problem as long as it doesn't also pair with any of the other bases.