This is a work of art, however odd. It is not a science project. So that fact that the fruit of knowledge of good and evil wasn't literally an apple doesn't matter any more for this project than it does for any of the paintings of the Garden of Eden you might see. As with those paintings, the artist is using the fruit that is most commonly associated with the story.
I don't think anything important was left out of the article. A decade or two ago I read a science fiction story of a guy who designed a custom virus that inserted the text of the Koran into human blood cells (or really, into the stem cells that made new white cells, if I remember correctly.) The story, being science fiction, dealt with the interplay of religion and science, and some of the social consequences of technology. But the technique described was something not-quite-acheivable then that would clearly be achievable in future. And I guess that future is today. Most living creatures have large quantities of "junk" DNA that doesn't do anything. This guy just wants to add a lot more junk that can be read as a cipher to encode chunks of wikipedia. As someone who enjoys science fiction and modern art, I have to confess this project tickles my fancy. Of course, even if it works perfectly, you will have to trust the artist. There will be no way, walking among the wikipedia grove, to tell that the trees are any different than any other apple trees. Ginda Fisher apple consumer On May 14, 2014, at 2:43 PM, Steven Bibula wrote: > The fruit if the tree of the knowledge of good and evil could not have been > an apple, because there was only one such tree, and it was in the garden of > Eden (the site of which, along with its contents, having been destroyed by > the flood of Noah’s day). > > The association between ‘Malus’ and ‘evil’ seems to derive from a > misunderstanding of the Latin translation of Genesis; apart from that error, > there is no connection between apples and that Tree. > > The idea of inserting Wikipedia info into apples additionally reveals how > misguided this project really is, as well as the deep misunderstanding of the > Bible exhibited by the scientist and the writer. The Tree was associated > with the prospect of the acquisition of personal moral depravity as well as > an irresistible inclination toward evil; it had nothing to do with > quantitative accumulation of values-neutral facts. > > The Bible teaches that you shall know the tree by its fruit. The tree in > question was the ‘Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil’: to eat of it would > bring certain Spiritual death to the eater and to all his offspring, and > those offspring would evidence their Spiritually dead condition by their evil > thoughts, words and deeds. Adam ate, and now all have sinned (Romans 3:23) > and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Every natural-born human is > hence already encoded with the entire moral code of the Tree. This explains > the evil that we in fact see all around us: all Adam’s offspring > (unregenerate mankind) have become the figurative ‘trees’ bearing the fruit > of evil. > > So the men involved in this project are too late. The project has been > underway for ~6,000 years, led by natural man’s representative Head- the > project’s chief researcher and pilot subject, Adam. > > And now, back to the field. I have Malus Domestica to plant. > > Steven Bibula > Plowshares Community Farm > 236 Sebago Lake Road > Gorham ME 04038 > 207.239.0442 > www.plowsharesmaine.com > > From: apple-crop-boun...@virtualorchard.net > [mailto:apple-crop-boun...@virtualorchard.net] On Behalf Of David Doud > Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2014 10:49 PM > To: Apple-Crop > Subject: [apple-crop] apple as art > > I don't know quite what to make of this 'New Yorker' article - > http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2014/05/object-of-interest-the-twice-forbidden-fruit.html > - I think some things were lost/confused in the relating and retelling of > the story. > > "He (Joe Davis) plans to use synthetic biology to insert a DNA-encoded > version of Wikipedia into the apple and create a living, literal tree of > knowledge..." > > Anybody know what the "four thousand year old strain of apple" might be? > Nice picture of Cox Orange Pippin at the top... > > David Doud > grower, IN - petal fall - > > > _______________________________________________ > apple-crop mailing list > apple-crop@virtualorchard.net > http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop
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