What could possibly go wrong? * * * This is huge. As a writer and worldbuilder, I find this a fascinating prospect for more accurate (or, at least, more verisimilar) state-of-the-art fantastical things. As a nerd, I find it deeply exciting: to be able to expand our most basic biological structure... Wow! Sure, it "doesn't work" now because the pair is useless. The important thing, it seems, is that the framework has been established for making something that does work in the future.The other reason we don't need to be freaking out, says Romesberg, is that these molecules have not been designed to work at all in complex organisms, and seeing as they're like nothing found in nature, there's little chance that this could get wildly out of hand.
In all seriousness, this is some pretty cool stuff. In jest, it comes as a relief to know that we may not need to fear the impending singularity and robot takeover as AI becomes self aware. Instead humankind may be able to set back and watch the robots battle our out of control alien life forms.