Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity
by Paul Kingsnorth · 23 Sep 2025 · 388pp · 110,920 words
by their attitude to new technologies, which they almost uniformly see as positive. Civilisation, nature and people can be ‘saved’ only by enthusiastically embracing biotechnology, synthetic biology, nuclear power, geoengineering and anything else with the prefix ‘new’ that annoys Greenpeace. The traditional green focus on ‘limits’ is dismissed as naive. We are
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now increasingly sold to us as a means of ‘saving the planet’. The Fourth Industrial Revolution explores everything from the creation of artificial life through synthetic biology (spoiler: it’s already happened), digital finance, gene editing, the morality of robotics, the ‘new world order’ of the ‘second machine age’, and the future
As Gods: A Moral History of the Genetic Age
by Matthew Cobb · 15 Nov 2022 · 772pp · 150,109 words
is clearly the case with ‘gene editing’ which seems simple and rather domestic). Some terms refer to a much broader field – for example, ‘biotechnology’ or ‘synthetic biology’, both of which incorporate genetic engineering as a base technology but tend to have different ambitions and outlooks. What all these approaches have in common
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, or coincided with, the appearance of genetic engineering are deliberately not covered in any detail here – IVF, stem cell biology, embryo research, biotechnology, mammalian cloning, synthetic biology, genomics, DNA sequencing, transhumanism and many others. Some experts will undoubtedly find that their favourite technique, their favourite experiment or their favourite researcher has been
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and the National Academy of Sciences’ own internal processes, the article was published.69 The final element of this febrile mix was the advent of synthetic biology, a kind of souped-up genetic engineering, which often involves manipulating many genes and biochemical steps to achieve the desired end.70
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Synthetic biology views biological processes as circuits, which can be created at will in microbes and refined by successive cycles of design → build → test → design → build → test
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another team created an even more complex biochemical oscillator.72 By synthesising and distributing modular biological components such as genes for enzymes and so on, synthetic biology initially promised to democratise the scientific process by enabling hackers and hobbyists to join the game, contributing to and refining those circuits. This vision was
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virtually anybody could genetically engineer microbes using this modular approach, highlighting the advantages of ‘open-source biology’ to go along with open-source computing, the synthetic biology advocates attracted the attention of the security services. Democratising the genetic manipulation of organisms inevitably raised the spectre of terrorists creating bioweapons in a basement
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sequences – would put them into the hands of hobbyists, who might accidentally misuse them, or terrorists, for whom misuse would be the sole intention.75 Synthetic biology advocates such as George Church took the potential dangers of the new approach very seriously and there were calls for DNA synthesisers to be internationally
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NSABB, the Australian mousepox experiment, the polio virus study and others would all have escaped regulation.78 Although in 2012 the World Economic Forum declared synthetic biology as a key twenty-first-century technology, second only to informatics, the hype eventually subsided. This was partly because it was replaced by a new
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much of the biology turned out to be far more complicated than suggested by some of the more enthusiastic evangelists. The science fiction promises that synthetic biology would lead to the development of smart therapies ‘where the therapeutic agent can perform computational and logic operations and make complex decisions’ turned out to
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be just that – science fiction.79 Leading researchers in the field gradually became more measured in their claims about synthetic biology’s supposed revolutionary potential and ease of application, although these are still regularly repeated.80 Many scientists – me included – are not entirely convinced that
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synthetic biology even exists as a specific discipline, beyond a modularly minded version of genetic engineering. However, when I stated this on Twitter at the beginning of
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2022, Fyodor Urnov replied that ‘in my field, genomic therapies, synthetic biology is very much a thing. It refers to design and deployment in the clinic of entirely engineered molecular circuits. This requires a distinct mindset and
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. Researchers have also been altering the very structure of the DNA molecule. As long ago as 1990, Steven Benner – one of the founding figures of synthetic biology – created two new complementary bases that could slot into the double helix, extending the genetic code from sixty-four possible combinations to 216.86 Since
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both medicine and material science.89 Our imaginations may soon become the limiting factor. As these extraordinary developments demonstrate, despite suggestions that the democratisation of synthetic biology would lead to a start-up revolution, a great deal of skill, knowledge, equipment and teamwork is required to do anything really interesting. After an
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initial period of enthusiasm, the hacker side of synthetic biology faded and their online communities dwindled.90 Similarly, security fears about terrorists acquiring biological weapons declined as tragic events around the world demonstrated that the
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terrorists’ murderous purpose could be served quite simply by vehicles, kitchen knives and home-made explosives. Although synthetic biology is still often used as a catch-all term to describe dual-use research of concern, far more tangible threats to international biosecurity emerged exactly
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(ELSI – in Europe the final noun was ‘aspects’, so ‘ELSA’), including how genomic data might affect racial, ethnic and socioeconomic questions.13 The excitement around synthetic biology in the first decade of the new century led to a new framework for exploring the implications of science, known as responsible research and innovation
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tumours in mammalian cells, so once the focus of interest for cancer researchers. Subsequently used as a vector to introduce recombinant DNA into mammalian cells. Synthetic biology. A form of genetic engineering that involves redesigning organisms (usually microbes) according to engineering principles, in order to meet human needs. Views organisms as devices
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The Guardian, 4 December 2017. DARPA’s budget allocations are opaque; a year earlier the $100 million figure was quoted as covering DARPA’s whole synthetic biology budget – see Garthwaite (2016). 60 Common Call for a Global Moratorium on Genetically-Engineered Gene Drives. https://www.synbiowatch.org/gene-drives/gene-drives-moratorium
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Health 2:74. 69 Wein, L. and Liu, Y. (2005), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 102:9984–9. 70 Davies, J. (2018), Synthetic Biology: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, Oxford University Press). 71 Drexler, K. (1981), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 78:5275–8. 72 Gardner
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403:335–8. 73 Carlson, R. (2010), Biology is Technology: The Promise, Peril, and New Business of Engineering Life (London, Harvard University Press). 74 Davies, Synthetic Biology, p. 118. 75 Carlson, R. (2003), Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefence Strategy, Practice, and Science 1:203–14. 76 Tucker, J. (2010), Issues in Science and
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, E., et al. (2006), Molecular Systems Biology 2006:0028. 80 Marris, C., et al. (2014), BioSocieties 9:393–420. For recent revivals of enthusiasm for synthetic biology, see for example: New York Times, 23 November 2021; New Yorker, 7 March 2022; Webb, A. and Hessel, A. (2022), The Genesis Machine: Our Quest
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to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology (New York, Public Affairs). 81 For measured explorations of synthetic biology’s promises and significance (or not), see these two excellent collections: Boldt, J. (ed.) (2016), Synthetic Biology: Metaphors, Worldviews, Ethics, and Law (Wiesbaden, Springer); Schmidt, M., et al. (eds) (2010
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), Synthetic Biology: The Technoscience and its Societal Consequences (London, Springer). 82 Acevedo-Rocha, C. (2016), in K. Hagen, et al. (eds) Ambivalences of Creating Life
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: Societal and Philosophical Dimensions of Synthetic Biology (Cham, Springer), pp. 9–44, p. 24. 83 Gibson, D., et al. (2010), Science 329:52–6. 84 Hutchison, C., et al. (2016), Science 351
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hacker communities, had not been updated since 2018. 91 See, for example, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2018), Biodefense in the Age of Synthetic Biology (Washington, DC, The National Academies Press). 92 Garrett, L. (2013), Foreign Affairs 92:28–46. 93 Imai, M., et al. (2012), Nature 486:420–8
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(London, MIT Press). 4 One of the first popular expositions of this idea can be found in Church, G. and Regis, E. (2012), Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves (New York, Basic Books). 5 Zimov, S. (2005), Science 308:796–8. 6 Lynch, V., et al. (2015), Cell Reports
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9:548. 15 Redford, K., et al. (eds) (2019), Genetic Frontiers for Conservation: An Assessment of Synthetic Biology and Biodiversity Conservation (Gland, Switzerland, IUCN); Redford, K. and Adams, W. (2021), Strange Natures: Conservation in the Era of Synthetic Biology (Yale, Yale University Press), pp. 172–4. 16 McCauley, D., et al. (2017), Functional Ecology
Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto
by Stewart Brand · 15 Mar 2009 · 422pp · 113,525 words
year, and agricultural biotech by 10 percent a year. Out of nowhere has come a whole new field called synthetic biology. Wikipedia describes it in application terms:Engineers view biology as a technology. Synthetic Biology includes the broad redefinition and expansion of biotechnology, with the ultimate goals of being able to design and build
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to join the “synbio” party, ban it, or keep ignoring it. In 2007 Jim Thomas, from the anti-GE group ETC, wrote a survey of synthetic biology titled “Extreme Genetic Engineering.” It is well researched, fair, inclusive, and only moderately alarmist. It does conclude: “In keeping with the Precautionary Principle, ETC Group
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they meet up with the homies who’ve been keeping it real for a billion years or so. One benefit of the anticipated importance of synthetic biology is a growing profusion of eclectic organizations and meetings designed to include all potential stakeholders and players right from the start—bioethicists, environmental activists, biosecurity
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, and investors, along with the bioscientists and bioengineers. Great names the organizations have, too—SYNBIOSAFE (in Europe), SynBERC (Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center), International Consortium for Polynucleotide Synthesis, and the Industry Association of Synthetic Biology. The extensive public discussion called for by the ETC group is in fact happening. In 2008, for example, Drew
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Endy invited ETC’s Jim Thomas to publicly debate with him about synthetic biology, and I got to stage the event in San Francisco. “I want to develop tools that make biology easy to engineer,” said Endy. “Powerful technology
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in an unjust world is likely to exacerbate the injustice,” said Thomas. At about the same time, a New York Times reporter visiting the Synthetic Biology Working Group at MIT noticed on their to-do list: “Grow a house.” Now is the time to ask: What are the most environmentally useful
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things that synthetic biology could do for human food production? Do we make ever finer adjustments to existing agriculture, create new crop plants, start over with algal vats, reinvent
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Long-term Thinking I run for Long Now in San Francisco. We had one such debate on the Greening of nuclear power and another on synthetic biology. Whichever debater goes first holds forth for fifteen minutes and then is interviewed for ten minutes by the second debater, who has to conclude by
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the methods described here can be generalized, design, synthesis, assembly, and transplantation of synthetic chromosomes will no longer be a barrier to the progress of synthetic biology.” Decades ago I suspect that environmentalists would have risen up in outrage and alarm against technology like Venter’s, but I have found them surprisingly
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noncommittal about synthetic biology, even while they continue to complain about transgenic crops. While the uproar about nuclear power persists (though it is fading into a more primary focus
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farming and pest control and plant toxicity and precautionary principle and precision of recombinant DNA research and religion and second generation of stories related to synthetic biology and violence and Genetic Glass Ceilings (Gressel) genetic inertia genetic use restriction technology (GURT) gene transfer genome, human geoengineering asteroid deflection and biochar and carbon
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Content of the Atmosphere” (Conservation Foundation) Inconvenient Truth, An Independent India genetic engineering and Green Revolution and nuclear power and slums and Industry Association of Synthetic Biology informal economy infrastructure insect resistance insulin integral fast reactors integrated pest management intelligent design Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA
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subaks submergence tolerance subscription farms subsistence farming sugar beets Sullivan, Nicholas Sunstein, Cass SunUp papayas Swaminathan, Monkombu Sambasivan Sweden sweet potatoes Switzerland SynBERC SYNBIOSAFE Syngenta synthetic biology Synthetic Biology Working Group Synthetic Genomics Taverne, Dick taxonomy Tending the Wild (Anderson) “Ten Ways We Get the Odds Wrong,” “terminator” gene terraces terra preta soil Tetlock
The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-First Century's Greatest Dilemma
by Mustafa Suleyman · 4 Sep 2023 · 444pp · 117,770 words
of high tech’s true insiders, addresses the most important paradox of our time: we have to contain uncontainable technologies. As he explains, generative AI, synthetic biology, robotics, and other innovations are improving and spreading quickly. They bring great benefits, but also real and growing risks. Suleyman is wise enough to know
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author “The Coming Wave offers a much-needed dose of specificity, realism, and clarity about the potential unanticipated and yet disastrous consequences of artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, and other advanced technologies. This important book is a vivid and persuasive road map for how human beings might guide technological innovations rather than be
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“The Coming Wave is a realistic, deeply informed, and highly accessible map of the unprecedented governance and national security challenges posed by artificial intelligence and synthetic biology. Suleyman’s remarkable and in some senses frightening book shows what must be done to contain these seemingly uncontainable technologies.” —Jack Goldsmith, Learned Hand Professor
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simple answers: technology has gifted us with exponential improvements in well-being, but it’s accelerating faster than institutions can adapt. Advances in AI and synthetic biology have unlocked capabilities undreamed of by science fiction, and the resulting proliferation of power threatens everything we’ve built. To stay afloat, we must steer
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complex tasks but is still a long way from being fully general. THE COMING WAVE: An emerging cluster of related technologies centered on AI and synthetic biology whose transformative applications will both empower humankind and present unprecedented risks. CONTAINMENT: The ability to monitor, curtail, control, and potentially even close down technologies.
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reject narratives they see as overly negative. A variant of optimism bias, it colors much of the debate around the future, especially in technology circles. SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY: The ability to design and engineer new organisms or redesign existing biological systems. TECHNOLOGY: The application of scientific knowledge (in the broadest possible sense) to
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two universal foundations: a wave of nothing less than intelligence and life. The coming wave is defined by two core technologies: artificial intelligence (AI) and synthetic biology. Together they will usher in a new dawn for humanity, creating wealth and surplus unlike anything ever seen. And yet their rapid proliferation also threatens
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breakthroughs, creating not just new businesses but new industries and quality of life improvements in almost every imaginable area. And yet alongside these benefits, AI, synthetic biology, and other advanced forms of technology produce tail risks on a deeply concerning scale. They could present an existential threat to nation-states—risks so
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wave of technology is built primarily on two general-purpose technologies capable of operating at the grandest and most granular levels alike: artificial intelligence and synthetic biology. For the first time core components of our technological ecosystem directly address two foundational properties of our world: intelligence and life. In other words,
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our own intelligence. Realms previously closed to technology are opening. AI is enabling us to replicate speech and language, vision and reasoning. Foundational breakthroughs in synthetic biology have enabled us to sequence, modify, and now print DNA. Our new powers to control bits and genes feed back into the material, allowing extraordinary
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wafers, which enabled the computation of trillions of operations per second, which in turn enabled us to decipher the code of life. While AI and synthetic biology are the coming wave’s central general-purpose technologies, a bundle of technologies with unusually powerful ramifications surrounds them, encompassing quantum computing, robotics, nanotechnology,
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the pattern of history, of technology, of an endless process of productive recombination and proliferation, will continue, but also radically deepen. BEYOND THE BUZZWORDS AI, synthetic biology, robotics, and quantum computing can sound like a parade of overhyped buzzwords. Skeptics abound. All of these terms have been batted around popular tech discourse
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and you have a platform of profoundly transformational scope. In the words of the Stanford bioengineer Drew Endy, “Biology is the ultimate distributed manufacturing platform.” Synthetic biology’s true promise, then, is that it will “enable people to more directly and freely make whatever they need wherever they are.” In the 1960s
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down “1,000-fold within ten years.” Biology, meet exponential improvements. BIOLOGICAL CREATIVITY UNLEASHED Countless experiments are underway in the strange and emerging landscape of synthetic biology: viruses that produce batteries, proteins that purify dirty water, organs grown in vats, algae that draw down carbon from the atmosphere, plants that consume toxic
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and biotech. Another company, LanzaTech, harnesses genetically modified bacteria to convert waste CO2 from steel mill production into widely used industrial chemicals. This kind of synthetic biology is helping to build a more sustainable “circular” economy. Next-generation DNA printers will produce DNA with an increasing degree of precision. If improvements can
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on AI for their realization. Think, then, of two waves crashing together, not a wave but a superwave. Indeed, from one vantage artificial intelligence and synthetic biology are almost interchangeable. All intelligence to date has come from life. Call them synthetic intelligence and artificial life and they still mean the same thing
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imagine, but researchers are already in the early days of making it happen. As the central general-purpose technologies of the coming wave, AI and synthetic biology are already entangled, a spiraling feedback loop boosting each other. While the pandemic gave biotech a massive awareness boost, the full impact—possibilities and risks
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alike—of synthetic biology has barely begun to sink into the popular imagination. Welcome to the age of biomachines and biocomputers, where strands of DNA perform calculations and artificial
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complex functions into cells like bacteria that can produce a certain protein. Software frameworks, like one called Cello, are almost like open-source languages for synthetic biology design. This could mesh with fast-moving improvements in laboratory robotics and automation and faster biological techniques like the enzymatic synthesis we saw in chapter
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5, expanding synthetic biology’s range and making it more accessible. Biological evolution is becoming subject to the same cycles as software. Just as today’s models produce detailed
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early days, and truly general systems are still some way off, but at some point these capabilities will expand to many thousands of activities. Consider synthetic biology, too, through the omni-use prism. Engineering life is a completely general technique whose potential uses are near limitless; it might create material for construction
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source software. Some of the world’s biggest companies—Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft—regularly contribute huge amounts of IP for free. In areas like AI and synthetic biology, where the lines between scientific research and technological development are especially blurred, all of this makes the culture default to open. At DeepMind we learned
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model of containment, strategically critical, relied upon by billions, modern technology itself is a prime actor, a monumental force nation-states struggle to manage. AI, synthetic biology, and the rest are being introduced to dysfunctional societies already rocked back and forth on technological waves of immense power. This is not a world
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or engineering constraints on its invention, development, and deployment? Silicon chips require specialized and highly concentrated materials, machines, and knowledge. The talent available for a synthetic biology start-up is, in global terms, still quite small. Both help containment in the near term. Where additional friction keeps things in the tangible world
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chapter I discussed the frictions between the United States and China. Despite their differences there are still obvious places for collaboration between these vying powers. Synthetic biology is a better starting point than AI here, thanks to lower existing competition and the obvious mutually assured destruction of novel biothreats. The SecureDNA project
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is a good example, laying out a path for governing synthetic biology similarly to how chemical weapons have been curtailed. If China and the United States could create, say, a shared bio-risk observatory, encompassing everything
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Bringing Silicon to Life,” Science, Nov. 25, 2016, www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aah6219. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT This kind of synthetic biology is helping James Urquhart, “Reprogrammed Bacterium Turns Carbon Dioxide into Chemicals on Industrial Scale,” Chemistry World, March 2, 2022, www.chemistryworld.com/news/reprogrammed-bacterium
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.com/articles/d41586-022-00924-8. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT Computational tools help automate Anna Nowogrodzki, “The Automatic-Design Tools That Are Changing Synthetic Biology,” Nature, Dec. 10, 2018, www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07662-w. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT Quantum technologies, many millions Vidar, “Google’
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44 scaling hypothesis, 67–68, 74 self-critical culture and, 270 sentience claims, 72, 75 skepticism about, 72, 179 surveillance and, 193–94, 195, 196 synthetic biology and, 89–90, 109 technological unemployment and, 177–81 Turing test, 75 See also coming wave; deep learning; machine learning arXiv, 129 Asilomar principles, 269
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Benz, Carl, 24, 285 Berg, Paul, 269–70 BGI Group, 122 bias, 69–70, 239–40 Bioforge, 86 Biological Weapons Convention, 241, 263 biotech. See synthetic biology Black Death, 205 Bletchley Park, 32 books, 30 Boyer, Herbert W., 80 Breakout, 51–52, 113 Brin, Sergey, 53 British East India Company, 186,
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War containment and, 37 international cooperation and, 263, 264 nuclear weapons and, 42 Sputnik and, 119–20, 126 coming wave AI on, 3–4 AI-synthetic biology interactivity and, 88–91 autonomy and, 105, 113–15 avoidance of, 12–14 benefits of, 10, 11, 16, 283 defined, vii, 7 ego as driver
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, 172 deep learning autonomy and, 113 computer vision and, 58–60 limitations of, 73 potential of, 61–62 protein structure and, 89–90 supervised, 65 synthetic biology and, 90–91 See also machine learning DeepMind AGI as goal of, 8, 51 arms race rhetoric and, 124 choke points and, 251 containment and
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, 82–83 autonomy and, 114 containment and, 46, 265, 269–70 genome sequencing, 80–81, 114 origins of, 80 See also gene editing; synthetic biology genetics, 55 See also synthetic biology Genghis Khan, 205 genome sequencing, 80–81 geopolitics AlphaGo and, 117–19, 120 arms race rhetoric and, 124–25, 126–27 China and
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65 bias in, 69–70, 239–40 capabilities of, 64–65 deepfakes and, 170 efficiency of, 68 open source and, 69 scale of, 65–66 synthetic biology and, 91 laser weapons, 263 law enforcement, 97–98 Lebanon, 196–97 LeCun, Yann, 130 Lee Sedol, 53–54, 117 Legg, Shane, 8 legislation, 260
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, 73 medical applications, 110 military applications and, 103–5 potential of, 61–62 protein structure and, 89–90 robotics and, 95 supervised deep learning, 65 synthetic biology and, 90–91 See also deep learning Macron, Emmanuel, 125 Malthus, Thomas, 136 Manhattan Project, 41, 124, 126, 141, 270 Maoism, 192 Mao Zedong, 194
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Ring, 227 RNA editing, 82 Robinson, James, 276, 278 robotics, 93–97 Chinese development of, 122 military applications, 165–66 profit motive and, 134–35 synthetic biology and, 109 Rogers, Everett, 56–57 Rotblat, Joseph, 270 Russell, Stuart, 115, 244 Russian flu epidemic, 173–74 Russian invasion of Ukraine, 44, 103–4
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-sovereign world and, 193–96, 206 regulation and, 228 resistance to, 277–78 Sutskever, Ilya, 59 swarming robots, 95–96 Switch Transformer, 68 Sycamore, 122 synthetic biology AI and, 89–90, 109 audits and, 247–48 catastrophe scenarios and, 208–9 computers and, 87–88 current applications, 84–85 decentralization and, 200
The Transhumanist Reader
by Max More and Natasha Vita-More · 4 Mar 2013 · 798pp · 240,182 words
Avatar Censuses Secondary and Posthumous Avatars Conclusion 10 Alternative Biologies Biology as Technology The Rise of Machines Complexity The Science of Complexity Synthetic Biology – Complex Embodied Technology Top-Down Synthetic Biology Bottom-Up Synthetic Biology Protocells Artificial Biology From Proposition to Reality Future Venice Artificial Biology and Human Enhancement Part III Human Enhancement: The Cognitive Sphere
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that govern biological and cellular functions, from principles that are already well characterized in large and well-mapped non-biological systems such as the Internet. Synthetic Biology – Complex Embodied Technology Living systems are complex and operate according to the world of systems thinking as opposed to Cartesian reality. They possess fundamental properties
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in their environment. They are also able to deal with unpredictability, the converse of this being that living technologies may also behave in unpredictable ways. Synthetic biology embodies the principles of complex systems using real-world technologies that can connect with ecology as flexible chemical networks. It is a new kind of
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advantage of developing complex systems is that they participate in a problem-solving process to meet ongoing challenges rather than searching for a preconceived outcome. Synthetic biology can be created using direct top-down interventions where existing systems are modified through instrumentation or using bottom-up approaches that engage with chemical self
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-assembly. Top-Down Synthetic Biology Synthetic biology is often equated with the genetic modification of biological systems as a top-down design practice. Genes are found in a membrane-bound region in
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gene sequences can be mixed and matched to suit the intended application. Venter’s remarkable achievements have heralded a new era in the potential of synthetic biology to rewrite the code of nature and ultimately create new genetic species. In practice, genetic engineering is not as precise as the theory suggests, as
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genetically modified organisms are also heavily regulated owing to concerns about their unknown impact on natural systems, should they contaminate a local environment. Bottom-Up Synthetic Biology The astonishing feats of molecular biology in the second half of the twentieth century have downstaged scientific advances in a broader field of investigation that
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appearance. Just like the Traube Cell, Leduc’s system also seemed to be governed by the movement of water molecules. Leduc also coined the term “synthetic biology” in 1911 and proposed that this field of study would provide insights into the origins of life and cell organization. Over the twentieth century, research
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environmental waste toxins like cyanide and converting them into harmless thiocyanide that can be absorbed into the natural ecological system. Protocell technologies may also support synthetic biology in achieving some of its environmental goals, such as assisting extremophile bacteria to perform under extreme conditions by providing a slow-release system of inorganic
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carbon dioxide from the water into an insoluble form using local minerals. Drawing by GMJ. Protocell technology working in combination with top-down forms of synthetic biology could offer a new kind of approach to shape these natural processes to improve environmental conditions (Hanczyc and Ikegami 2009) and positively impact on human
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health. So a project to sustainably reclaim the city of Venice was proposed by using protocell technology and synthetic biology to grow an artificial limestone reef underneath it and stop the city sinking into the soft mud on which its foundations are built, in a
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Using Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology, and Cognitive Science with Living Technology.” Artificial Life (MIT Press) 16, pp. 1–15. Armstrong, Rachel and Spiller, Neill (2011) “Synthetic Biology: Living Quarters.” Nature 467 (October 21, 2010), pp. 916–918. Hanczyc Martin and Ikegami, Takashi (2009) “Protocells as Smart Agents for Architectural Design.” Technoetic Arts
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/30, pp. 9386–9391. Leduc, Stéphane (1907) Les Bases physiques de la vie. Paris. Schmidt, Marcus, Mahmutoglu, Ismail, Porcar, Manuel, Armstrong, Rachel, et al. (2010) Synthetic Biology Applications in Environmental Biotechnology: Assessing Potential Economic, Environmental and Ethical Ramifications. TARPOL Project Report. Traube, Moritz (1867) Archiv für Anatomie Physiologie und wissenschaftliche Medicin, pp
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, Michael Schilling, Alfons self-organization Sententia, Wrye Shapiro, Michael Silver, Lee simulation singularity Stelarc Sterling, Bruce Stock, Gregory substrate independent minds superhuman superintelligence superlongevity symbiogenesis synthetic biology techno-organic Technological Singularity, see singularity technoprogressive Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre telematic therapeutic, see therapy therapy Tipler, Frank tradeoffs transcend transcendence transcendent transgender transgenderism, see
Life at the Speed of Light: From the Double Helix to the Dawn of Digital Life
by J. Craig Venter · 16 Oct 2013 · 285pp · 78,180 words
-century, made by a range of extraordinarily gifted individuals in laboratories throughout the world. I will provide an overview of these developments in molecular and synthetic biology, in part to pay tribute to this epic enterprise, in part to acknowledge the contributions made by key leading scientists. My aim is not to
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offer a comprehensive history of synthetic biology but to shed a little light on the power of that extraordinarily cooperative venture we call science. DNA, as digitized information, is not only accumulating
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dawn of an era of biological design. Humankind is about to enter a new phase of evolution. 2 Chemical Synthesis as Proof This type of synthetic biology, a grand challenge to create artificial life, also challenges our definition-theory of life. If life is nothing more than a self-sustaining chemical system
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the inherited blood condition beta-thalassemia. Genetic engineering has today evolved to be more commonly known as synthetic biology. The distinction between molecular biology and synthetic biology is blurred, and in most uses there is no actual distinction. “Synthetic biology” just sounds sexier, and in the same way, “systems biology” has replaced physiology, and some good
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of code,6 and over the decades engineers have developed smart debugging programs to aid in finding faults. Vladimir Noskov, a staff scientist in the Synthetic Biology & Bioenergy Group at the JCVI, Maryland, was our resident yeast guru. Noskov had graduated from St. Petersburg State University, Russia, and then went on to
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suggested that the synthesis of living cells become a national goal for America.15 Over the past few years we have seen the rise of synthetic biology, an emerging phase of research in molecular biology. The field represents a marked shift away from the reductionist experimentation that, over the decades, has been
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life, learning which components are crucial, which are not, and teasing apart how they work together. This will be a boon for the field of synthetic biology by expanding the range of biological constituents, software subroutines, and circuits that we can develop. 10 Life by Design A new variety raised by man
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ability to grow and reproduce.11 The future of biological research will be based to a great extent on the combination of computer science and synthetic biology. We can get a fascinating view of this future from a series of contests that culminate in a remarkable event that takes place each year
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with a delay, or counters, where an event triggers the production of a protein, which in turn activates another protein generator. In this way, the synthetic-biology student can construct a hierarchy, starting with parts and moving to devices and then systems. As a result of their work, we now have cellular
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resveratrol, a chemical found in wine that is thought by some to have health benefits. The competition is very aware of the societal aspects of synthetic biology and the need to have non-scientists understand and accept their attempts to tinker with the machinery of life. The competitors are deeply involved, as
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can recognize a particular sequence. With just six fingers, you can target any particular gene. This important piece of biological machinery has been adapted for synthetic biology by Boston University biomedical engineers Ahmad S. Khalil and James J. Collins. They have created novel zinc-finger designs that are intended to bind with
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addition of new functions to proteins and making cells resistant to viral infections. But most important of all, a systematic exploration of the potential of synthetic biology will deepen our understanding of fundamental biology. With such capabilities, we can expand our knowledge of biology thousands of times faster than is possible today
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, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, and the Department of Homeland Security. Reports on synthetic biology have been issued by many bodies, such as the U.S. Department of Energy and the NSABB. Public consultations have been sponsored, as well, not
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together at the OECD/U.S. National Academies/UK Royal Society Symposium, in July 2009, and considered the opportunities, threats, and wider questions posed by synthetic biology, such as what it means to be human. From any perspective, the discussions concerning precisely what it means to create synthetic life have been long
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equally to our efforts to alter the basic machinery of life by substituting “synthetic life form” for “robot.” Emerging technologies, whether in robotics or in synthetic biology, can be a double-edged sword. Today there is much debate about “dual-use” technologies—as, for instance, in a study published in 2012 by
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to discuss the conundrum that powerful technology cuts both ways. But it is important not to lose sight of the opportunities that this research presents. Synthetic biology can help address key challenges facing the planet and its population, such as food security, sustainable energy, and health. Over time, research in
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synthetic biology may lead to new products that will produce clean energy and help quell pollution; help us grow crops on more marginal land; and provide more
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programmed cells to self-assemble at the sites of disease to repair damage. Clearly, this apparently limitless potential raises many unsettling questions, not least because synthetic biology frees the design of life from the shackles of evolution and opens up new vistas for life. It is crucial that we invest in underpinning
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technologies, science, education, and policy in order to ensure the safe and efficient development of synthetic biology. Opportunities for public debate and discussion on this topic must be sponsored, and the lay public must engage with the relevant issues. I hope that
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nothing we have encountered before. The political, societal, and scientific backdrop is continually evolving and has shifted a great deal since the days of Asilomar. Synthetic biology also relies on the skills of scientists who have little experience in biology, such as mathematicians and electrical engineers. As shown by the efforts of
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working synthetic genome, when the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues released a report in December 201040 entitled New Directions: The Ethics of Synthetic Biology and Emerging Technologies. This document opened with a letter from President Barack Obama that emphasized how vital it was that, as a society, we consider
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and responsibility, democratic deliberation, and justice and fairness. If those principles were diligently used to illuminate and guide public-policy choices as we advanced with synthetic biology, the commission concluded, we could be confident that the technology could be developed in a responsible and ethical manner. Among its recommendations to the president
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, the commission said that the government should undertake a coordinated evaluation of public funding for synthetic-biology research, including studies on techniques for risk assessment and risk reduction and on ethical and social issues, so as to reveal noticeable gaps, if one
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self-regulation, it also urged it to be vigilant about the possibilities of do-it-yourself synthetic biology being carried out in what it called “noninstitutional settings.” One problem facing anyone who casts a critical eye over synthetic biology is that the field is evolving so quickly. For that reason, assessments of the technology
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reference virus, co-infection in eggs with standard backbone viruses, and isolation and purification of the vaccine seeds. By taking advantage of major advancements in synthetic biology and cell-based manufacturing, and by introducing the exciting concept of digital-to-biological conversion, we and Novartis have produced better quality vaccines in fewer
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more rapid future pandemic responses but a more reliable supply of pandemic influenza vaccines. While vaccines are the best means of prevention against pandemics, and synthetic biology has helped us to make them more effective, we are now facing another major threat from infection, as one of humankind’s most important weapons
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. “Ethical considerations in synthesizing a minimal genome.” Science 286, no. 5447 (December 10, 1999): pp. 2087–90. 20. George Church and Ed Regis. Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves (New York: Basic Books, 2012), p. 9. 21. Cho, et. al, “Ethical Considerations in Synthesizing a Minimal Genome.” 22. Kenneth
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Mail, June 3, 2010. www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1279988/Artificial-life-created-Craig-Venter—wipe-humanity.html. 8. New Directions: The Ethics of Synthetic Biology and Emerging Technologies. Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, Washington D.C., December 2010. www.bioethics.gov. 9. “Vatican greets development of first
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(2001): pp. 751–55. 31. Geoff Baldwin, Travis Bayer, Robert Dickinson, Tom Ellis, Paul S. Freemont, Richard I. Kitney, Karen Polizzi, and Guy-Bart Stan. Synthetic Biology: A Primer (London: Imperial College Press, 2012), p. 142. 32. Mansi Srivastava, Oleg Simakov, Jarrod Chapman, Bryony Fahey, Marie E. A. Gauthier, Therese Mitros, Gemma
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. Fero, Harley H. McAdams, and Lucy Shapiro. “The essential genome of a bacterium.” Molecular Systems Biology 7 (2011): article number 528. 12. Baldwin, et. al, Synthetic Biology. 13. T. S. Gardner, C. R. Cantor, and J. J. Collins. “Construction of a genetic toggle switch in Escherichia coli.” Nature 403, no. 6767 (January
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Jeff Hasty. “A synchronized quorum of genetic clocks.” Nature 463 (January 21, 2010): pp. 326–30. 16. See www.clothocad.org. 17. Baldwin, et. al, Synthetic Biology, p. 121. 18. Karmella A. Haynes, Marian L. Broderick, Adam D. Brown, Trevor L. Butner, James O. Dickson, W. Lance Harden, Lane H. Heard, Eric
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(2008). doi:10.1186/1754-1611-2-8. 19. Parasight, Imperial College London. http://2010.igem.org/Team:Imperial_College_London. 20. Baldwin, et. al, Synthetic Biology, p. 121. 21. Laura Adam, Michael Kozar, Gaelle Letort, Olivier Mirat, Arunima Srivastava, Tyler Stewart, Mandy L Wilson, and Jean Peccoud. “Strengths and limitations of
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–14. 27. Ahmad S. Khalil, Timothy K. Lu, Caleb J. Bashor, Cherie L. Ramirez, Nora C. Pyenson, J. Keith Joung, and James J. Collins. “A synthetic biology framework for programming eukaryotic transcription functions.” Cell 150, no. 3 (August 3, 2012): pp. 647–58. 28. Ibid. 29. Synthetic Genomics: Options for Governance accessible
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online at www.synbiosafe.eu/uploads///pdf/Synthetic%20Genomics%20Options%20for%20Governance.pdf. 30. See “Playing democs games to explore synthetic biology,” Edinethics, at www.edinethics.co.uk/synbio/synbio%20democs%20report.pdf; and Nuffield Council on Bioethics at www.nuffieldbioethics.org/emerging-biotechnologies. 31. “Bridging science
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Research in an Age of Terrorism: Confronting the ‘Dual Use’ Dilemma (Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2004). 37. Wohlsen, Biopunk. 38. Baldwin, et. al, Synthetic Biology, p. 139. 39. There are many formulations. See Kenneth R. Foster, Paolo Vecchia, and Michael H. Repacholi. “Science and the precautionary principle.” Science 288, no
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. 5468 (2000): pp. 979–81. 40. www.bioethics.gov/sites/default/files/news/PCSBI-Synthetic-Biology-Report-12.16.10.pdf. 41. Isaac Asimov. “Introduction.” In The Rest of the Robots (New York: Doubleday, 1964). Chapter 11 1. Arthur Conan Doyle
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, 157–9 natural, 155 See also climate change; temperature environmentalists, 128 epigenetics, 18 ethics, 151–9 five guiding principles, 156 New Directions: The Ethics of Synthetic Biology and Emerging Technologies, 156 Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, 156 review board for synthetic life, 79, 151 and science, 80–2 Evans
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: In the Light of New Knowledge (Le Dantec), 11 Nature’s Robots, 37 Neanderthal genome, 87 New Atlantis (Bacon), 10 New Directions: The Ethics of Synthetic Biology and Emerging Technologies, 156–8 The New York Times, 128 Newton, Isaac, epigraph, 179 Nirenberg, Marshall Warren, 30–1, 49, 61, 135, 165 nitrogen as
The End of Doom: Environmental Renewal in the Twenty-First Century
by Ronald Bailey · 20 Jul 2015 · 417pp · 109,367 words
2012, a coalition of 111 environmental and social activist groups called for a moratorium on the development of synthetic biology. The activists are worried about researchers into synthetic biology who aim to create a toolbox of standardized intracellular parts that can be used to create novel organisms that do things like clean up toxic
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specifically cites the Wingspread Consensus Statement as its authoritative version of the precautionary principle. The declarants state, “Applying the Precautionary Principle to the field of synthetic biology first necessitates a moratorium on the release and commercial use of synthetic organisms, cells, or genomes.” Once the moratorium is in place, the groups want
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the implications of this technology, including but not limited to devising a comprehensive means of assessing the human health, environmental, and socio-economic impacts of synthetic biology.” It’s not just risks to health and environment that are to be weighed, but also social and economic risks that are to be assessed
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’s Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues issued a comprehensive report in 2010, noting that “synthetic biology does not necessarily raise radically new concerns or risks.” The commission explicitly rejected applying the precautionary principle to synthetic biology and instead recommended “an ongoing system of prudent vigilance that carefully monitors, identifies, and mitigates potential
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and realized harms over time.” The commission concluded that with respect to the benefits and harms of synthetic biology, the current regulatory system is robust enough to protect people and the environment. Nanotechnology is also being targeted by proponents of the precautionary principle. Nanotechnology
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Science to Break Yield Barriers.” Background paper to the CGIAR 2009 Science Forum workshop: “Beyond the Yield Curve: Exerting the Power of Genetics, Genomics and Synthetic Biology,” “2009, 17. www.scienceforum2009.nl/Portals/11/BGWS4.pdf. that past population growth: Julio A. Gonzalo, Félix-Fernando Muñoz, David J. Santos, “Using a Rate
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inclusive assessments”: Eric Hoffman et al. The Principles for the Oversight of Synthetic Biology. Friends of the Earth, March 2012. “rooted in the precautionary principle”: Eric Hoffman, “Global Coalition Calls for Oversight of Synthetic Biology.” Friends of the Earth, March 13, 2012. “synthetic biology does not”: Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, New Directions
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: The Ethics of Synthetic Biology and Emerging Technologies. December 1, 2010, 124. “a more comprehensive application”: Georgia Miller, “Who
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. rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/369/1639/20130087.full.html. algae that can suck carbon dioxide: D. Ryan Georgianna and Stephen P. Mayfield, “Exploiting Diversity and Synthetic Biology for the Production of Algal Biofuels.” Nature 488 (August 16, 2012): 329–335. labs.biology.ucsd.edu/schroeder/bggn227/2014%20Lectures/Mayfield/Algae%20biofuels%20review
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male nanotechnology for obesity and pathological science and penile deformation pesticides and pharmaceuticals and politicization of precautionary principle positioned for reproductive problems saccharin and sperm synthetic biology for Heinberg, Richard herbicides Heritage Foundation Hickey, Joseph HIV/AIDS Holdren, John homeopathy Hooker, Joseph Hopfenberg, Russell hormones, in meat and dairy. See also endocrine
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cutting energy food production Sugiyama, Taishi sulfur dioxide Sunstein, Cass superpests superweeds sustainable development. See also climate change mitigation Swanson, Richard Sweeney, Edmund Synfuels Corporation synthetic biology synthetic chemicals. See also DDT; endocrine disrupting chemicals Tahil, William Tainter, Joseph technology. See biotech crops; biotechnology; innovation temperature increase climate sensitivity and projections trends
Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives
by Michael Specter · 14 Apr 2009 · 281pp · 79,958 words
so faithfully. “Of course this is all possible,” Drew Endy said when I asked him whether the theoretical threats posed by the new science of synthetic biology were real. “If we don’t want to exist, we can stop existing now.” Endy is a biological engineer at Stanford University who is essentially
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’s most important malaria medicine, Keasling wasn’t up on infectious diseases. But he happened to be in the process of creating a new discipline, synthetic biology, which, by combining elements of engineering, chemistry, computer science, and molecular biology, seeks nothing less than to assemble the biological tools necessary to redesign the
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—has promised so much, and none has come with greater risks or clearer possibilities for deliberate abuse. If they fulfill their promise, the tools of synthetic biology could transform microbes into tiny, self-contained factories—creating cheap drugs, clean fuels, and entirely new organisms to siphon carbon dioxide from the atmosphere we
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will require immense commitment and technical skill. It will also demand something more basic: as we watch the seas rise and snow-covered mountaintops melt, synthetic biology provides what may be our last chance to embrace science and reject denialism. For nearly fifty years Americans have challenged the very idea of progress
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, why not try to build the drug out of genetic parts? How many millions of lives would be saved if, by using the tools of synthetic biology, he could construct a cell to manufacture that particular chemical, amorphadiene? It would require Keasling and his team to dismantle several different organisms, then use
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have on the market by the end of 2011. Scientific response has been largely reverential—it is, after all, the first bona fide product of synthetic biology, proof of a principle that we need not rely on the unpredictable whims of nature to address the world’s most pressing crises. But there
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and East Africa?” asked Jim Thomas, an activist with ETC Group, a technology watchdog based in Canada. Thomas has argued that while the science of synthetic biology has advanced rapidly, there has been little discussion of the ethical and cultural implications involved in altering nature so fundamentally, and he is right. “Scientists
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project of biology has been to break that code and learn to read it—to understand how DNA creates and perpetuates life. As an idea, synthetic biology has been around for many years. It took most of the past century to acquire the knowledge, develop the computing power, and figure out how
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sure that our kids do not endanger themselves and others. The dangers of biotechnology are real and serious.” I have never met anyone engaged in synthetic biology who would disagree. Venter in particular has always stressed the field’s ethical and physical risks. His current company, Synthetic Genomics, commissioned a lengthy review
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a Luddite or Prince Charles—who famously has foreseen a world reduced to “grey goo” by avaricious and out-of-control technology—to recognize that synthetic biology, if it truly succeeds, will make it possible to supplant the world created by Darwinian evolution with a world created by us. “Many a technology
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has at some time or another been deemed an affront to God, but perhaps none invites the accusation as directly as synthetic biology,” the editors of Nature—who nonetheless support the technology—wrote in 2007. “Only a deity predisposed to cut-and-paste would suffer any serious challenge
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design our own offspring?” Drew Endy asked the first time we met. It was a startling question—and it was meant to startle. Endy is synthetic biology’s most compelling evangelist. He is also perhaps its most disturbing, because, while he displays a childlike eagerness to start building new creatures, he insists
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to ask two critical questions: what sorts of risks does that bring into play, and what sorts of opportunities?” The deeply unpleasant risks associated with synthetic biology are not hard to contemplate: who would control this technology, who would pay for it, and how much would it cost? Would we all have
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that between fifteen and eighteen terawatts of energy are required to power our planet. How much of that could we manufacture with the tools of synthetic biology? “The estimates run between five and ninety terawatts,” Endy said. “And you can figure out the significance of that right away. If it turns out
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next time I saw Endy, a few months later, was in his new office at Stanford. The Bay Area is rapidly becoming as central to synthetic biology as it has always been to the computer industry. Endy looked rattled. “I just drove across the Golden Gate Bridge,” he said. “The whole way
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times, it’s obviously lost control of itself and become cancer. Kill it.’ That lets us think about new therapies for all kinds of diseases.” Synthetic biology is changing so rapidly that predictions seem pointless. Even that fact presents people like Endy with a new kind of problem. “Wayne Gretzky once famously
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to help us prevent it or respond. We need to be talking.” It didn’t take long for me to realize that he was right. Synthetic biology will never fulfill its promise unless it is discussed and understood by the society it is designed to serve. If not, the cycle of opposition
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the research to make vaccines. “But our approach was to remodel the virus,” he went on. “I have said before—and this is true of synthetic biology in general—we have to understand that it provides wonderful solutions to terrible problems. And it can also lead to the synthesis of smallpox and
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poliovirus genome, elucidating genetic functions in poliovirus replication and pathogenesis, and synthesizing poliovirus de novo.” Wimmer’s polio research did spark a discussion about whether synthetic biology could be used for bioterrorism; the answer, of course, is yes. If a group of well-trained scientists want to manufacture polio—or even the
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memory can be purchased for less than a hundred dollars. In 2001, Rob Carlson, then a researcher at the University of Washington and one of synthetic biology’s most consistently provocative voices, decided to examine a similar phenomenon: the speed at which the capacity to synthesize DNA was growing. What he produced
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specialized site for scientific equipment). “All you need is an Internet connection and a credit card,” he said. While nobody suggests that the field of synthetic biology should proceed without regulations, history has shown that they can produce consequences nobody really wants. “Strict regulation doesn’t accomplish its goals,” Carlson told me
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,” Carlson said. “Crystal meth use is still rising, and all this despite restrictions.” That doesn’t mean strict control would ensure the same fate for synthetic biology. But it would be hard to see why it wouldn’t. The most promising technologies always present the biggest dangers. That’s scary, but turning
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the people least likely to use it wisely, because fear and denialism are capable of producing no other result. This is a chance to embrace synthetic biology, and to end denialism. To succeed we will have to stop conflating ideas and actions. There is no government conspiracy to kill American children with
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citizens of countries that spend a fraction as much on health care. That can only change if alternatives are based on scientifically verifiable fact. For synthetic biology to succeed we will also need an education system that encourages skepticism (and once again encourages the study of science). In 2008, students in Singapore
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, as Drew Endy put it, is surfing the exponential. It is not enough simply to tell people to go back to school and learn about synthetic biology, or for that matter, about how vaccines or vitamins or genomics work. Optimism only prevails when people are engaged and excited. Why should we bother
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the exponential” comes from Drew Endy of Stanford University. The best study on the topic is New Life, Old Bottles: Regulating First-Generation Products of Synthetic Biology by Michael Rodemeyer, a former director of the Pew Charitable Trust’s Initiative on Food and Biotechnology. This report, issued in March 2009 under the
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auspices of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, can be obtained from the Synthetic Biology Project (http://www.synbioproject.org/library/publications/archive/synbio2/). The ETC Group (Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration) has taken the lead in calling
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of which can be found on the group’s homepage (http://www.etcgroup.org/en/issues/synthetic_biology.html). The most important and comprehensive of them, Extreme Genetic Engineering, is here (http://www.etcgroup.org/en/issues/synthetic_biology.html). Scientists are often accused of ignoring the ethical implications of their work. It is
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worth nothing, then, that Craig Venter—the genomic world’s brashest brand name—embarked on a yearlong study of the ethical and scientific issues in synthetic biology before stepping into the lab. Synthetic Genomics: Options of Governance, by Michele S. Garfinkel, Drew Endy, Gerald L. Epstein, and Robert M. Friedman, is available
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the technical reports that were commissioned for the study can be found at http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/39658. The scientific roots of synthetic biology are explored in Philip J. Pauly’s book Controlling Life: Jacques Loeb and the Engineering Ideal in Biology (Oxford University Press, 1987). It’s expensive
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: Will Civilisation Survive the Twenty-first Century? London: Arrow Books, 2004. Regis, Ed. What Is Life? Investigating the Nature of Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008. Ronald, Pamela C., and Raoul W. Adamchak. Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food
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, Kari stem cell research sterilization, forced stinging nettle root Straus, Stephen streptokinase Sun Microsystems Super Bowl (TV) sustainability Svendsen, Lars, A Philosophy of Fear Syngenta synthetic biology creating new life forms in difficulty of regulation of and DNA, see DNA, synthetic and ethics fears of manipulating genes in medical application of new
The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty
by Benjamin H. Bratton · 19 Feb 2016 · 903pp · 235,753 words
as self-evident when revealed but that today we can scarcely anticipate.28 In parallel, the various technologies and concepts gathered under the rubric of synthetic biology can engage this absolutized commons as an open-ended toolkit for biological refashioning (if it is actually held in common) and in doing so bring
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, geophysics, oceanography, glaciology), earth sciences (e.g., focusing on the atmosphere, lithospere, biosphere, hydrosphere), as well as the various programs of biotechnology (e.g., bioinformatics, synthetic biology, cell therapy), of nanotechnology (e.g., materials, machines, medicines), of economics (e.g., modeling price, output cycles, disincentivized externalities), of neuroscience (e.g., behavioral, cognitive
An Optimist's Tour of the Future
by Mark Stevenson · 4 Dec 2010 · 379pp · 108,129 words
seem to say, ‘Well, isn’t this world interesting?’ He works for the enjoyment of discovering new things. ‘I have very expensive hobbies,’ he confesses. ‘Synthetic biology and personal genomics.’ I can tell you a lot more about George you probably don’t want to know. He has high cholesterol as a
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these cookbooks that we’re now learning how to edit: the ‘genetic modification’ that occupies so many headlines. The twin sibling of personal genomics is ‘synthetic biology’ – the tools, techniques and knowledge that today allow us to recode cells and, in the future, will enable us to fabricate entirely new ones to
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. As the CEO and chairman of Synthetic Genomics he has stated (with only a smidgen of irony) that he has the ‘modest goal’ of using synthetic biology to create new fuels and ‘replace the whole petrochemical industry.’ In May 2010, the newspapers announced he had ‘created artificial life.’ Venter himself was more
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, each daughter cell inheriting the synthetic DNA sequence. The newspaper flurry of ‘Dr God’ headlines both overstated and overshadowed an important and symbolic milestone in synthetic biology. George Church told me, ‘I’m a big believer in lots of milestones and celebrations along the way. I think we should celebrate it as
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some good stuff too?’ George laughs. ‘Yeah. Irradiating your body is not good for it. But you can imagine that with a little bit more synthetic biology, you could get these new cells to home in on where they’re needed, and first kill whoever is there, but only kill them on
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coming to Harvard I’d squeezed in a short trip to the University of Southern Denmark to meet Mark Bedau, not only a founder of synthetic biology pioneers ProtoLife*, but also a philosopher and an advocate for ‘scientific social responsibility.’ ‘There are dangers, there are risks and you have to face them
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a joint study between the J. Craig Venter Institute, MIT and The Centre for Strategic and International Studies along with a ‘Who’s Who’ of synthetic biology. The study outlined seventeen options for governance. ‘Can it be done?’ I ask. ‘Sure. Right now, there are bottlenecks which would be easy to license
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Health Organisation and the UN (the latter considering how the existing Biological Weapons Convention can be enhanced to encompass synthetic biology). The commercial syn-bio industry too has several overlapping initiatives – the International Association Synthetic Biology, the International Gene Synthesis Consortium and the Consortium for Polynucleotide Synthesis. In particular, members of these consortia are
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four billion biosecurity frameworks to choose from by tomorrow. As ever, the science is moving faster than we are. So, we’ll have an accident. Synthetic biology will have its Three Mile Island, its Windscale, its Chernobyl. And somewhere, some ideology-driven buffoon will succeed in a deadly bio-attack giving us
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synthetic biology’s 9/11. I suspect we’ll have done most of the things we can think of to prevent it, but it’ll happen anyway.
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, or putting extreme weapon-making power into the hands of idiots – I’m transported back to Harvard with George Church talking about the power of synthetic biology and the need for a scientist-led movement for oversight and licensing. Nanotechnology is a younger science and is only just waking up to the
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the benefits, but avoids the pitfalls. Regulation tends to get off the ground after we’ve had a few accidents and outrages; and nanotechnology, like synthetic biology, will have its fair share. The ‘good’ news is that those first accidents will be as much a reflection of the technology’s advancement as
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(either by homing in on its signal or using LEDs to reveal the glint of hidden camera lenses). I suspect therefore that nanotechnology will follow synthetic biology’s example. As the science becomes more ‘real,’ regulation will evolve, and some people will die because we didn’t work out all the risks
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. Not because of his winning smile and confident drawl but because I’ve seen what George Church is doing at Harvard in the field of synthetic biology. If Church can engineer living cells that make fuel, it’s not hard to imagine that experts in synthetic chemistry like Alan Heeger can continue
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Juan, is about the worst thing you can do. Mark Bedau, editor of MIT’s Artificial Life and a philosopher with a particular interest in synthetic biology, told me, ‘Change will happen and we can either try to influence it in a constructive way, or we can try to stop it from
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air. I remember how that CO2 can be used as a raw material to create liquid fuels that could replace gasoline, harnessing the power of synthetic biology. Maybe such fuels will one day power spacecraft like those I saw in Mojave? I think of Vicki Buck and her algae fixation and the
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Dr Emmanuel Skordalakes, Assistant Professor of Gene Expression and Regulation at the Wistar Institute (and co-incidentally my landlord) for reviewing the chapters relating to synthetic biology and genetics, as well as funding a new kitchen. I must also mention the brilliant writers Robert Kunzig, Bob Henson and Chris Goodall for looking
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–8 nonzero-sum game 149–51 telegraph 145–7 and violent deaths 149 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 171, 172, 179, 180 International Association Synthetic Biology 68 International Gene Synthesis Consortium 68 Internet 147, 151–64, 268, 302 invariants 99 Iran 157 Isasi, Rosario 27 IVF 106 J Jackson, Ron 64
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–9 Stoppard, Tom 281 Strong, Graham 237–8 StubbyGlove 228 Suel, Gurol 273 Suh, Yousin 53 Sun Tzu 40–1, 51–2 surveillance 127, 129 synthetic biology 55–8, 70 bacteria 56–8 bioterrorism 63–6, 68 control 66–70 genome engineering 60–3 viral gene therapy 58–60 Synthetic Genomics 56
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