Imagine if you can modify your nose and lungs to become so powerful that you can fly by breathing hard and create thrust to lift your body. Or create so much electricity inside your body to power your house. This idea seems really possible and interesting to me. I see it as a way for people to be able to express themselves and become better version of themselves on their own will.
The background of idea
Recently I came across an article, about few months ago, where an Australian company Cortical has developed a bio-computer CL1 that is commercially viable, in which neurons act as the CPU. Read more about them later. Link attached at bottom. continue reading for now.
Thought process
While thinking about CL1 last week, i came up with an idea: If neurons can be controlled by code, (to feed instructions) and then use it as CPU to control the attached I/O accessories. Can we also change the state of DNA inside a cell? I’m not much clear on how these bio-computers work. Hence I reached out to my friend Tulsi, who’s a bio-tech and cancer cell researcher, my childhood friend.
If DNA can be changed in an already live cell, imagining every cell’s DNA can be mutated somehow in a human body, in a set amount of time-frame, can a human be given super human abilities? Or at least body customization without surgeries? If this is possible humans will be able to boost any ability they want on their own will.
The discussion
I scheduled a call with Tulsi, and the next day I told her about the idea. She told me it was a great idea, but also it’s very uncertain how that can be achieved and even if it’s possible with current tech in the first place.
During discussion she told me about the structure of neurons and how neuron itself is a type of cell.
Owner of image: Pearson Prentice Hall, Inc.
She said, “If neurons can be controlled or given instructions using code, it should be technically possible to form some form of contact to other cell types. But, I’m not sure yet, if that’s even possible. I need to research more.“
She positively criticized my idea and told me, “there’s a very thin margin if DNA can be changed on the fly.” And I personally understood why, because cells whose DNA has been mutated in any form and becomes foreign, are considered bad cells by the human body and hence the body tries to clear them out. It’s a complicated process and I’m no biology expert, but I remember the basics of bio class.
I countered her and asked her, why can DNA be changed for embryos, and their properties can be changed? as one scientist attempted to change embryo using DNA editing on embryos while it was outside the woman and then it was inserted later. This resulted in birth of twins, however he was highly criticized and ethically challenged from scientists globally.
There’s are many techniques that are being researched globally to achieve DNA mutation. One of them is CRISPR. (I wrote an article about it 7 years ago, that’s how I know about it.)
What I believe in
Her reply made sense, but still wasn’t enough to let go of my belief that sometime in future real-time DNA mutation can be possible for humans. She told me “Changing DNAs in real-time is next to impossible as there are trillions of cells in human body. Changing every cell at once, is something that doesn’t make sense using any current tech.“
Well, even though the idea is not possible right now, but I believe it can be possible in future, when every human will be able to choose, which super power they need and at what intensity etc. So every human will be able to choose their own methods to use their powers and take benefits of their bodies in different ways.
Concerns
Somewhere I also fear that if a scientist gains a centralized control or hidden knowledge or backend access to such kind of DNA mutation tech in future, he might be able to control the humans that used his tech to upgrade themselves. Kind of like how backdoor access works in programming. If this becomes true, scientists and coders will have their own biologically modified super human armies, that will act on the owner’s will.
There are of course ethical concerns and fear around tech, as it should be. But also at the same time, I believe this field is very interesting to me, and considering that the idea i’m getting is really amazing. I believe in the future. I’d love to work on something like this to modify humans or to make them robot-human hybrids if it’s legally allowed of course.
This is my original thought and idea. I’m not sure how many other scientists or researchers are working on this. But if you are someone who’s interested on this idea or working on this already or know someone who’s doing it – please put me a msg on my socials @adityagauravkc available on major platforms. I wrote this article today, on 31st December 2025. Happy new year to all readers.
Read more about CL1: https://corticallabs.com/cl1
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“Article originally published by Aditya Gaurav at https://adityagaurav.com, licensed under CC BY 4.0.“
