Slel: To take DNA from someone against his will, to create avatars of him, or perhaps children.
Last week Hsien documented the recent efforts of UK police to make slelling a standard practice.
I’ve got two riffs on slelling for you: (1) genetic avatars and (2) DNA bubble gum.
First, genetic avatars. An individual’s genome undoubtedly contains information about facial structure and other identifying information like eye and hair color, gender, etc. The future of forensic analysis may include the ability to generate a rough picture or digital avatar of an individual just by sequencing and analyzing a DNA sample. Who knows how accurate genetic avatars could become. It seems entirely reasonable to me that genetic avatars might rival the effort of sketch artists, and will most certainly augment those efforts one day.
This leads to another riff. As the synthesis of DNA becomes easier for nearly anyone to get access to or perform on their own (ever query ebay for PCR?), and as more people get personal genome sequences, I wonder if forensic DNA databases, like the one in the UK I mentioned earlier, will lose their power as a crime fighting tool? If framing someone for a crime becomes as straightforward as, for example, planting mail order chewing gum impregnated with DNA (or a coffee cup with a DNA impregnated lipstick mark), then it seems quite likely that DNA evidence, without other corroborating evidence, may cease to be incontrovertible in court and achieve the status of “old-fashioned” rather quickly. Has DNA evidence already had its 15 minutes of fame? Oddly, having your genome sequence online for all to see might in some way actually protect you from a conviction by DNA. The irony seems too bizarre to be possible.