Newsweek lists five possible implications of Craig Venter's feat. I think, this one is the most plausible:
"It’s one thing to read and write the code for various genes. But understanding what those genes do, and how they interact with each other, is a much more daunting task. Robert Klitzman, a bioethicist at Columbia University, says Venter is a little like Benjamin Franklin going out into a storm with a kite and a key to channel electricity from lightning. “Imagine if Franklin had made his discovery and then said, ‘As a result of this, you’ll be able to call up a person anywhere in the world from a little box in your pocket,’ ” he says. “That would have been correct. But it took several hundred years to get from the kite to the cell phone. [With Venter’s announcement], we have the kite. That’s great. But he’s saying we’ll have the cell phone any day now.”
Little do people realize life on the planet has changed (I don't know if it's for good or bad) since last week. May be it will take decades of gradual change but the seminal moment was last week.
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