DEREK LOWE isn’t impressed with Craig Venter’s plans to create a new “artificial” form of life:

The whole project could be explained in terms of cars and trucks: what we have here is an attempt to disassemble a small car down to the most primitive conveyance possible, by removing parts one by one until nothing extraneous remains. This stripped-down go-cart will indeed be a new vehicle, one that’s so simple that it could be built from things lying around the house, stuff that you wouldn’t normally associate with cars at all. People that think that you need a huge factory to build a car will be amazed. But this thing won’t stand a chance on the open road, and will probably barely make it around your back yard on a warm day.

The Neal Stephenson quote is good, too.