> My other first impression is the potential similarities to alien contact. What if these cells, once given the ability to reproduce autonomously, become widespread around the globe, with no way for our, and other species', immune systems to prevent their consumption of biomatter, or whatever is made to be their "food".

According to this (https://biotic.org/research/spudcell/): it's "food" is: "small 'feeder liposomes' that deliver lipids for membrane growth plus nutrients including ribosomes, enzymes, and small molecules [emphasis mine]".

So it can't make everything a cell actually needs.

Anyway, still kinda scary, since you know it won't stop here.

This synthetic cell is based entirely on common Earth biology, just stripped down to a semi-functional "MVP". So there's no reason to expect it to do anything other than "what existing bacteria can already do but worse".

There is some pressure for genome compactness, especially in prokaryotes. But, like with most pressures, there are tradeoffs to shrinking the genome. The extra DNA isn't "waste" - it's often buying something somewhere.

I wonder if genetic engineering will ever have its RISC moment