Do you know where your DNA is tonight?

[Loren Booda]

Where to and how far has your DNA migrated? Has it been incorporated by bacteria, transformed into viral RNA, preserved in permafrost, digested by animals, absorbed by plants, lofted miles into the atmosphere, tunnelled through subterranean aquifers, or passed on in some semblance to the next generation?

 

[Chronos]

I spit out a piece of gum at a truck stop once. This stray dog ran over to it and ate it. A week later I stepped in some dog doo-doo. When I looked at the bottom of my shoe, a microbe called me 'daddy'. The voice was faint, but unmistakeably familiar.

 

[Moonbear]

I spit out a piece of gum at a truck stop once. This stray dog ran over to it and ate it. A week later I stepped in some dog doo-doo. When I looked at the bottom of my shoe, a microbe called me 'daddy'. The voice was faint, but unmistakeably familiar.

I manage to keep most of my DNA with me at all times, but also seem to shed just enough of it to prevent me from ever being able to commit the perfect crime.

 

[Chronos]

I manage to keep most of my DNA with me at all times, but also seem to shed just enough of it to prevent me from ever being able to commit the perfect crime.

You killed me without any witnesses. It may not be the perfect crime, but even a really bad lawyer can get you acquited.

 

[Loren Booda]

I picture a "DNA registry" of the future, as much a biographical museum as forensic resource. The whole data for reproducing the human race could fit in quantum memory roughly within the "head of a pin," and for Biota overall, within a cubic centimeter. As in nature, both relatively perfect and defective would be welcome into this collective.