Robin Mackenzie
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199545520
- eISBN:
- 9780191721113
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545520.003.0014
- Subject:
- Law, Medical Law
This chapter aims to map relatively unexplored territories within the discursive environment surrounding the ethics and regulation of (re)productive liberties associated with synthetic biology. It ...
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This chapter aims to map relatively unexplored territories within the discursive environment surrounding the ethics and regulation of (re)productive liberties associated with synthetic biology. It argues that new technologies place an obligation upon us to regulate with possible futures in mind. Reading path-dependence as opportunity cost, if the adverse consequences of unfortunate choices are to be minimized, we must engage in the continuous iterative evaluations of regulatory structures variously characterized in terms of being ‘smart’ regulation or the denaturalization of biorisk.Less
This chapter aims to map relatively unexplored territories within the discursive environment surrounding the ethics and regulation of (re)productive liberties associated with synthetic biology. It argues that new technologies place an obligation upon us to regulate with possible futures in mind. Reading path-dependence as opportunity cost, if the adverse consequences of unfortunate choices are to be minimized, we must engage in the continuous iterative evaluations of regulatory structures variously characterized in terms of being ‘smart’ regulation or the denaturalization of biorisk.
Gregory E. Kaebnick and Thomas H. Murray (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262019392
- eISBN:
- 9780262314961
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262019392.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Bioethics
Synthetic biology, which aims to design and build organisms that serve human needs, has potential applications that range from producing biofuels to programming human behavior. The emergence of this ...
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Synthetic biology, which aims to design and build organisms that serve human needs, has potential applications that range from producing biofuels to programming human behavior. The emergence of this new form of biotechnology, however, raises a variety of ethical questions—first and foremost, whether synthetic biology is intrinsically troubling in moral terms. Is it an egregious example of scientists “playing God”? This book takes on this key ethical question, as well as others that follow, offering a range of philosophical and political perspectives on the power of synthetic biology. The chapters consider the basic question of the ethics of making new organisms, laying out the conceptual terrain and offering opposing views of the intrinsic moral concerns. The chapters discuss the possibility that synthetic organisms are inherently valuable and address whether, and how, moral objections to synthetic biology could be relevant to policy making and political discourse. Variations of these questions have been raised before, in debates over other biotechnologies, but, as this book shows, they take on novel and illuminating form when considered in the context of synthetic biology.Less
Synthetic biology, which aims to design and build organisms that serve human needs, has potential applications that range from producing biofuels to programming human behavior. The emergence of this new form of biotechnology, however, raises a variety of ethical questions—first and foremost, whether synthetic biology is intrinsically troubling in moral terms. Is it an egregious example of scientists “playing God”? This book takes on this key ethical question, as well as others that follow, offering a range of philosophical and political perspectives on the power of synthetic biology. The chapters consider the basic question of the ethics of making new organisms, laying out the conceptual terrain and offering opposing views of the intrinsic moral concerns. The chapters discuss the possibility that synthetic organisms are inherently valuable and address whether, and how, moral objections to synthetic biology could be relevant to policy making and political discourse. Variations of these questions have been raised before, in debates over other biotechnologies, but, as this book shows, they take on novel and illuminating form when considered in the context of synthetic biology.
Ronald Cole-Turner
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823230693
- eISBN:
- 9780823237227
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823230693.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
The disappearance of nature as a normative framework for human thought and action is nowhere more tangibly felt than in the context of contemporary biological engineering. ...
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The disappearance of nature as a normative framework for human thought and action is nowhere more tangibly felt than in the context of contemporary biological engineering. Biological engineering, or “synthetic biology,” as it is often called to distinguish it from genetic engineering, functions precisely on the boundary between natural and artificial, living and nonliving, organic and synthetic. On the one hand, like any technology, synthetic biology must work in and with nature. It operates entirely within the sphere of living nature: biological systems from metabolic pathways to ecosystems. But the whole point of synthetic biology is to synthesize nature, to replace it with an engineered surrogate. When we take up the field of synthetic biology, nature may still be the matrix and the premise but it is hardly the norm or the telos of our actions. The first section of this chapter attempts to define and locate the field of synthetic biology within the context of recent work in the biological sciences. The second section describes a broader cultural and social context in which synthetic biology is being developed, first by reviewing some of the ethics discussion that has already arisen about this new field and then by turning to theological considerations about its religious and philosophical implications.Less
The disappearance of nature as a normative framework for human thought and action is nowhere more tangibly felt than in the context of contemporary biological engineering. Biological engineering, or “synthetic biology,” as it is often called to distinguish it from genetic engineering, functions precisely on the boundary between natural and artificial, living and nonliving, organic and synthetic. On the one hand, like any technology, synthetic biology must work in and with nature. It operates entirely within the sphere of living nature: biological systems from metabolic pathways to ecosystems. But the whole point of synthetic biology is to synthesize nature, to replace it with an engineered surrogate. When we take up the field of synthetic biology, nature may still be the matrix and the premise but it is hardly the norm or the telos of our actions. The first section of this chapter attempts to define and locate the field of synthetic biology within the context of recent work in the biological sciences. The second section describes a broader cultural and social context in which synthetic biology is being developed, first by reviewing some of the ethics discussion that has already arisen about this new field and then by turning to theological considerations about its religious and philosophical implications.
Domitilla Del Vecchio and Richard M. Murray
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691161532
- eISBN:
- 9781400850501
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691161532.003.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Biochemistry / Molecular Biology
This chapter provides a brief introduction to concepts from systems biology; tools from differential equations and control theory; and approaches to the modeling, analysis, and design of biomolecular ...
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This chapter provides a brief introduction to concepts from systems biology; tools from differential equations and control theory; and approaches to the modeling, analysis, and design of biomolecular feedback systems. It begins with a discussion of the role of modeling, analysis, and feedback in biological systems. This is followed by a short review of key concepts and tools from control and dynamical systems theory, which is intended to provide insight into the main methodology described in this volume. Finally, this chapter gives another brief introduction—this time to the field of synthetic biology, which is the primary topic of the latter portion of this book.Less
This chapter provides a brief introduction to concepts from systems biology; tools from differential equations and control theory; and approaches to the modeling, analysis, and design of biomolecular feedback systems. It begins with a discussion of the role of modeling, analysis, and feedback in biological systems. This is followed by a short review of key concepts and tools from control and dynamical systems theory, which is intended to provide insight into the main methodology described in this volume. Finally, this chapter gives another brief introduction—this time to the field of synthetic biology, which is the primary topic of the latter portion of this book.
William R. Clark
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195336214
- eISBN:
- 9780199868537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336214.003.0004
- Subject:
- Biology, Ecology
It is likely that within not too many years, we will have effectively neutralized most if not all of the CDC A-list agents as potential bioterror weapons. But for some time now scientists have been ...
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It is likely that within not too many years, we will have effectively neutralized most if not all of the CDC A-list agents as potential bioterror weapons. But for some time now scientists have been asking what the next generation of bioweapons might look like, and how we can prepare ourselves to defend against them. It is now possible, using molecular biology techniques, to genetically alter existing pathogens to make them more deadly, easier to weaponize, more resistant to drugs or vaccines, or even to create new pathogens that have not existed before. Chapter 4 looks at what has been done to date along these lines, and possibilities for the future. In addition to inserting extra toxic genes into pathogens, researchers have been able to rebuild in the laboratory copies of the extremely deadly 1918 flu virus. Such research is beginning to worry many people, and may be in violation of exisiting bioweapons treaties.Less
It is likely that within not too many years, we will have effectively neutralized most if not all of the CDC A-list agents as potential bioterror weapons. But for some time now scientists have been asking what the next generation of bioweapons might look like, and how we can prepare ourselves to defend against them. It is now possible, using molecular biology techniques, to genetically alter existing pathogens to make them more deadly, easier to weaponize, more resistant to drugs or vaccines, or even to create new pathogens that have not existed before. Chapter 4 looks at what has been done to date along these lines, and possibilities for the future. In addition to inserting extra toxic genes into pathogens, researchers have been able to rebuild in the laboratory copies of the extremely deadly 1918 flu virus. Such research is beginning to worry many people, and may be in violation of exisiting bioweapons treaties.
Gregory E. Kaebnick
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199347216
- eISBN:
- 9780199347247
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199347216.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, General
This chapter considers canvasses and evaluates claims that synthetic biology—the application of the principles of engineering to biological systems—is intrinsically concerning. It first briefly ...
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This chapter considers canvasses and evaluates claims that synthetic biology—the application of the principles of engineering to biological systems—is intrinsically concerning. It first briefly reviews the disparate lines of research referred to as synthetic biology. The objections considered include concerns that synthetic biology will enforce a reductionist view of life, that it violates the proper human role in the cosmos (that it is “playing God”), that it does not conform to the meaning of life, and that it is not true to the value of nature. The chapter argues, however, that none of these positions is compelling.Less
This chapter considers canvasses and evaluates claims that synthetic biology—the application of the principles of engineering to biological systems—is intrinsically concerning. It first briefly reviews the disparate lines of research referred to as synthetic biology. The objections considered include concerns that synthetic biology will enforce a reductionist view of life, that it violates the proper human role in the cosmos (that it is “playing God”), that it does not conform to the meaning of life, and that it is not true to the value of nature. The chapter argues, however, that none of these positions is compelling.
Gregory E. Kaebnick and Thomas H. Murray
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262019392
- eISBN:
- 9780262314961
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262019392.003.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Bioethics
The Introduction contextualizes the purpose of the book, which is to discuss the ethical questions and concerns that arise in synthetic biology about the idea of creating a “synthetic cell.” ...
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The Introduction contextualizes the purpose of the book, which is to discuss the ethical questions and concerns that arise in synthetic biology about the idea of creating a “synthetic cell.” Synthetic biology has wider implications for the human relationship to the natural world, because discoveries like the M. mycoides cell at the J. Craig Venter Institute show a degree of human control over the basic mechanisms of life that humans have never attained before. Ideas that will be addressed in the book about the potential for synthetic biology and the moral and ethical debates around it are introduced.Less
The Introduction contextualizes the purpose of the book, which is to discuss the ethical questions and concerns that arise in synthetic biology about the idea of creating a “synthetic cell.” Synthetic biology has wider implications for the human relationship to the natural world, because discoveries like the M. mycoides cell at the J. Craig Venter Institute show a degree of human control over the basic mechanisms of life that humans have never attained before. Ideas that will be addressed in the book about the potential for synthetic biology and the moral and ethical debates around it are introduced.
Joachim Boldt
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262019392
- eISBN:
- 9780262314961
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262019392.003.0003
- Subject:
- Biology, Bioethics
This chapter assesses the development of synthetic biology, and the idea that in comparison to genetic engineering, synthetic biology represents the shift away from the paradigm of observational ...
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This chapter assesses the development of synthetic biology, and the idea that in comparison to genetic engineering, synthetic biology represents the shift away from the paradigm of observational analysis and manipulating existing organisms, to the ability to build, initiate, and direct DNA-based processes. It highlights the ethical significance and debate surrounding synthetic biology and creating novel entities, and sees synthetic biology as spearheading scientific progress.Less
This chapter assesses the development of synthetic biology, and the idea that in comparison to genetic engineering, synthetic biology represents the shift away from the paradigm of observational analysis and manipulating existing organisms, to the ability to build, initiate, and direct DNA-based processes. It highlights the ethical significance and debate surrounding synthetic biology and creating novel entities, and sees synthetic biology as spearheading scientific progress.
Gregory E. Kaebnick
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262019392
- eISBN:
- 9780262314961
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262019392.003.0004
- Subject:
- Biology, Bioethics
If synthetic biology represents an important step forward in the human ability to design, build, and use living organisms, how does this change the human relationship to nature? Does it lead to ...
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If synthetic biology represents an important step forward in the human ability to design, build, and use living organisms, how does this change the human relationship to nature? Does it lead to humans “playing God” with nature? This chapter addresses moral and philosophical concerns about whether synthetic biology and investigation into life leads to human over-confidence in understanding, changing, and potentially damaging nature and argues that it does not lead to a devaluing of life. The varying levels of influence these concerns could have on public policy are discussed.Less
If synthetic biology represents an important step forward in the human ability to design, build, and use living organisms, how does this change the human relationship to nature? Does it lead to humans “playing God” with nature? This chapter addresses moral and philosophical concerns about whether synthetic biology and investigation into life leads to human over-confidence in understanding, changing, and potentially damaging nature and argues that it does not lead to a devaluing of life. The varying levels of influence these concerns could have on public policy are discussed.
John H. Evans
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262019392
- eISBN:
- 9780262314961
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262019392.003.0010
- Subject:
- Biology, Bioethics
It has been claimed in public policy bioethics that synthetic biology will teach people to accept a different notion of what it means to be human, and generate a shift in self-perception. This ...
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It has been claimed in public policy bioethics that synthetic biology will teach people to accept a different notion of what it means to be human, and generate a shift in self-perception. This chapter discusses “teaching humanness” claims made about other scientific innovations as well as synthetic biology, and why these claims are ignored as people are unsure how to evaluate their legitimacy. It examines these claims and discusses the ethical options if they were found to be legitimate.Less
It has been claimed in public policy bioethics that synthetic biology will teach people to accept a different notion of what it means to be human, and generate a shift in self-perception. This chapter discusses “teaching humanness” claims made about other scientific innovations as well as synthetic biology, and why these claims are ignored as people are unsure how to evaluate their legitimacy. It examines these claims and discusses the ethical options if they were found to be legitimate.
Bruce Jennings
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262019392
- eISBN:
- 9780262314961
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262019392.003.0009
- Subject:
- Biology, Bioethics
This chapter focuses on the moral and ethical reception of biotechnology in society and the contested cultural and social meanings of synthetic biology as well as concerns about it. As this chapter ...
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This chapter focuses on the moral and ethical reception of biotechnology in society and the contested cultural and social meanings of synthetic biology as well as concerns about it. As this chapter highlights, these factors play a key role in shaping science policy, as governance in a democracy is based not only on expert knowledge and opinion, but on broader public perception and legitimacy.Less
This chapter focuses on the moral and ethical reception of biotechnology in society and the contested cultural and social meanings of synthetic biology as well as concerns about it. As this chapter highlights, these factors play a key role in shaping science policy, as governance in a democracy is based not only on expert knowledge and opinion, but on broader public perception and legitimacy.
Gregory Kaebnick
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199682676
- eISBN:
- 9780191763168
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199682676.003.0044
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
The commentaries raise questions about the appropriate intellectual property framework and the appropriate moral framework for synthetic biology. These are both important issues. Among the issues ...
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The commentaries raise questions about the appropriate intellectual property framework and the appropriate moral framework for synthetic biology. These are both important issues. Among the issues raised by the intellectual property framework are concerns analogous to those raised by “bioprospecting.” A moral framework for synthetic biology is probably not best understood as a framework that is unique to synthetic biology, but as an extension of the frameworks that have been developed for other biotechnologies.Less
The commentaries raise questions about the appropriate intellectual property framework and the appropriate moral framework for synthetic biology. These are both important issues. Among the issues raised by the intellectual property framework are concerns analogous to those raised by “bioprospecting.” A moral framework for synthetic biology is probably not best understood as a framework that is unique to synthetic biology, but as an extension of the frameworks that have been developed for other biotechnologies.
Osamu Kanamori
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199682676
- eISBN:
- 9780191763168
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199682676.003.0043
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
In this commentary, the author argues that artificially and intentionally provoked disasters are hardly justified. As such, the design and realization of synthetic organisms must naturally ...
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In this commentary, the author argues that artificially and intentionally provoked disasters are hardly justified. As such, the design and realization of synthetic organisms must naturally incorporate deliberate consideration and regulation. This is especially true because the organism as a whole moves and grows in an uncontrollable manner when released in a given environment. At the same time, we must consider the manner in which human beings actively and constructively attempt to improve their lives when presented with insufficient conditions of nature, by ameliorating other organisms through processes such as the domestication of wild animals. In this larger context, proper characteristics of synthetic biology become less clear, and we must revisit our tendency towards modification of organisms in general. Regardless, given its rather inchoative nature, it is certainly premature to talk of “an ethics of synthetic biology.”Less
In this commentary, the author argues that artificially and intentionally provoked disasters are hardly justified. As such, the design and realization of synthetic organisms must naturally incorporate deliberate consideration and regulation. This is especially true because the organism as a whole moves and grows in an uncontrollable manner when released in a given environment. At the same time, we must consider the manner in which human beings actively and constructively attempt to improve their lives when presented with insufficient conditions of nature, by ameliorating other organisms through processes such as the domestication of wild animals. In this larger context, proper characteristics of synthetic biology become less clear, and we must revisit our tendency towards modification of organisms in general. Regardless, given its rather inchoative nature, it is certainly premature to talk of “an ethics of synthetic biology.”
Gregory Kaebnick
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199682676
- eISBN:
- 9780191763168
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199682676.003.0041
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Synthetic biology refers to a set of technological advances that seek to bring the principles of engineering to bear on the field of biology and make possible the construction of organisms that serve ...
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Synthetic biology refers to a set of technological advances that seek to bring the principles of engineering to bear on the field of biology and make possible the construction of organisms that serve various human ends. It has potentially very significant benefits, but it also poses a variety of questions that will be a challenge to evaluate fully and to address in public policies. Is the synthesis of organisms intrinsically troubling, and should any concerns about the synthesis of organisms affect public policy? How should we strike the right balance between risks and benefits? How do we—indeed, how can we—ensure that the changes wrought by the field are just and environmentally beneficial? How do we manage risks in light of the complexity of microorganisms and ecosystems? This paper outlines the growth of the field of synthetic biology and develop some of the questions that arise in it.Less
Synthetic biology refers to a set of technological advances that seek to bring the principles of engineering to bear on the field of biology and make possible the construction of organisms that serve various human ends. It has potentially very significant benefits, but it also poses a variety of questions that will be a challenge to evaluate fully and to address in public policies. Is the synthesis of organisms intrinsically troubling, and should any concerns about the synthesis of organisms affect public policy? How should we strike the right balance between risks and benefits? How do we—indeed, how can we—ensure that the changes wrought by the field are just and environmentally beneficial? How do we manage risks in light of the complexity of microorganisms and ecosystems? This paper outlines the growth of the field of synthetic biology and develop some of the questions that arise in it.
Alain Pottage
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262012621
- eISBN:
- 9780262255301
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262012621.003.0010
- Subject:
- Biology, Bioethics
This chapter determines some distinctive aspects of protocell patents, and explores how protocell patents disturb the political and institutional foundations of the current intellectual property ...
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This chapter determines some distinctive aspects of protocell patents, and explores how protocell patents disturb the political and institutional foundations of the current intellectual property practices. It shows that the Mycoplasma laboratorium patent application looks like an instrument of bad modularity, or an example of precisely the kind of patenting strategy that the open-source biology movement seeks to mitigate or overcome. This chapter suggests that the hierarchies of synthetic biology are complicated by a legal technique that makes the modularity and granularity of parts dependent on the institutional negotiations through which recursive trajectories of innovation are patterned.Less
This chapter determines some distinctive aspects of protocell patents, and explores how protocell patents disturb the political and institutional foundations of the current intellectual property practices. It shows that the Mycoplasma laboratorium patent application looks like an instrument of bad modularity, or an example of precisely the kind of patenting strategy that the open-source biology movement seeks to mitigate or overcome. This chapter suggests that the hierarchies of synthetic biology are complicated by a legal technique that makes the modularity and granularity of parts dependent on the institutional negotiations through which recursive trajectories of innovation are patterned.
Paul Rabinow and Gaymon Bennett
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262012621
- eISBN:
- 9780262255301
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262012621.003.0014
- Subject:
- Biology, Bioethics
This chapter explores the two main existing modes in which professional ethicists interface with the scientific, regulatory, and policymaking communities, and advocates adopting a new, third mode of ...
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This chapter explores the two main existing modes in which professional ethicists interface with the scientific, regulatory, and policymaking communities, and advocates adopting a new, third mode of interaction that is especially appropriate for synthetic biology. It analyzes the existing modes of interaction and engagement between and among the human sciences, the biosciences, ethics, and organizational forms. It examines three predominant modes of engagement: the representation of technical experts, the facilitation of “science and society,” as well as inquiry and equipment. This chapter is oriented toward understanding how potentially viable design strategies emerge, how these strategies might inform synthetic biology, and what efforts are undertaken to integrate them into a comprehensive approach to the near future.Less
This chapter explores the two main existing modes in which professional ethicists interface with the scientific, regulatory, and policymaking communities, and advocates adopting a new, third mode of interaction that is especially appropriate for synthetic biology. It analyzes the existing modes of interaction and engagement between and among the human sciences, the biosciences, ethics, and organizational forms. It examines three predominant modes of engagement: the representation of technical experts, the facilitation of “science and society,” as well as inquiry and equipment. This chapter is oriented toward understanding how potentially viable design strategies emerge, how these strategies might inform synthetic biology, and what efforts are undertaken to integrate them into a comprehensive approach to the near future.
Sophia Roosth
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226440323
- eISBN:
- 9780226440637
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226440637.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
Life is not what it used to be. Synthetic is an anthropological story about how it got that way. Living things bearing genomes streamlined or cobbled together from synthesized DNA now scurry, swim, ...
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Life is not what it used to be. Synthetic is an anthropological story about how it got that way. Living things bearing genomes streamlined or cobbled together from synthesized DNA now scurry, swim, and flourish in test tubes and bioreactors: viruses named for computer software, bacteria encoding passages of James Joyce, yeast buckling under the metabolic strain of genes harvested from sweet wormwood, petunias, and microbes from Icelandic thermal pools. This bestiary is the creation of synthetic biologists: émigrés from mechanical and electrical engineering and computer science who, in the final years of the twentieth century, resolved that if the aim of biology was to understand life, then making life would yield better theories than would experimentation. They advocate not experiment but manufacture, not reduction but construction, not analysis but synthesis. Anthropologically tracking the growth of synthetic biology over eight years, Synthetic invites readers into bioengineering research laboratories and synthetic biology start-up companies, biohackers’ garages, even to meetings devoted to resurrecting extinct species. Synthetic demonstrates that synthetic biology is the latest instantiation of a centuries-long debate as to whether nature may be known through artifice. Making stuff—synthesis—has become a mode of analysis. Working to engineer the living world, from microbes to mammoths, synthetic biologists smuggle conventional ideas about creation, kinship, property, labor, democracy, and species into their redesigned organisms. These brave new organisms grow, mutate, metabolize, divide, and die. They also speak eloquently of their times, of nature and artifice, analysis and synthesis, life and its limits.Less
Life is not what it used to be. Synthetic is an anthropological story about how it got that way. Living things bearing genomes streamlined or cobbled together from synthesized DNA now scurry, swim, and flourish in test tubes and bioreactors: viruses named for computer software, bacteria encoding passages of James Joyce, yeast buckling under the metabolic strain of genes harvested from sweet wormwood, petunias, and microbes from Icelandic thermal pools. This bestiary is the creation of synthetic biologists: émigrés from mechanical and electrical engineering and computer science who, in the final years of the twentieth century, resolved that if the aim of biology was to understand life, then making life would yield better theories than would experimentation. They advocate not experiment but manufacture, not reduction but construction, not analysis but synthesis. Anthropologically tracking the growth of synthetic biology over eight years, Synthetic invites readers into bioengineering research laboratories and synthetic biology start-up companies, biohackers’ garages, even to meetings devoted to resurrecting extinct species. Synthetic demonstrates that synthetic biology is the latest instantiation of a centuries-long debate as to whether nature may be known through artifice. Making stuff—synthesis—has become a mode of analysis. Working to engineer the living world, from microbes to mammoths, synthetic biologists smuggle conventional ideas about creation, kinship, property, labor, democracy, and species into their redesigned organisms. These brave new organisms grow, mutate, metabolize, divide, and die. They also speak eloquently of their times, of nature and artifice, analysis and synthesis, life and its limits.
Paul Rabinow
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226701691
- eISBN:
- 9780226701714
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226701714.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Theory and Practice
In this culmination of his search for anthropological concepts and practices appropriate to the twenty-first century, the author contends that to make sense of the contemporary, anthropologists must ...
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In this culmination of his search for anthropological concepts and practices appropriate to the twenty-first century, the author contends that to make sense of the contemporary, anthropologists must invent new forms of inquiry. He begins with an extended rumination on what he gained from two of his formative mentors: Michel Foucault and Clifford Geertz. Reflecting on their lives as teachers and thinkers, as well as human beings, the author poses questions about their critical limitations, unfulfilled hopes, and the lessons he learned from and with them. This spirit of collaboration animates this book, as the author assesses the last ten years of his career, largely spent engaging in a series of intensive experiments in collaborative research and often focused on cutting-edge work in synthetic biology. He candidly details the successes and failures of shifting his teaching practice away from individual projects, placing greater emphasis on participation over observation in research, and designing and using websites as a venue for collaboration. Analyzing these endeavors alongside his efforts to apply an anthropological lens to the natural sciences, the author lays the foundation for an ethically grounded anthropology ready and able to face the challenges of our contemporary world.Less
In this culmination of his search for anthropological concepts and practices appropriate to the twenty-first century, the author contends that to make sense of the contemporary, anthropologists must invent new forms of inquiry. He begins with an extended rumination on what he gained from two of his formative mentors: Michel Foucault and Clifford Geertz. Reflecting on their lives as teachers and thinkers, as well as human beings, the author poses questions about their critical limitations, unfulfilled hopes, and the lessons he learned from and with them. This spirit of collaboration animates this book, as the author assesses the last ten years of his career, largely spent engaging in a series of intensive experiments in collaborative research and often focused on cutting-edge work in synthetic biology. He candidly details the successes and failures of shifting his teaching practice away from individual projects, placing greater emphasis on participation over observation in research, and designing and using websites as a venue for collaboration. Analyzing these endeavors alongside his efforts to apply an anthropological lens to the natural sciences, the author lays the foundation for an ethically grounded anthropology ready and able to face the challenges of our contemporary world.
Talia Dan-Cohen
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781501753442
- eISBN:
- 9781501753459
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501753442.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter takes synthetic biology as the latest permutation in a history of mutual incursions between nature and culture. It explains the “synthetic” in synthetic biology as a reference to the ...
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This chapter takes synthetic biology as the latest permutation in a history of mutual incursions between nature and culture. It explains the “synthetic” in synthetic biology as a reference to the synthesis of new life-forms and the tenuous gluing together of disparate sorts of stuff that accompanies efforts to bring new techno-epistemic projects into existence. It also talks about concepts, rationalities, expert practices, institutions, materials, techniques, aesthetics, forms, and values as a highly curated selection of disparate stuff that is seen at a moment of extraordinary uncertainty and viewed at ethnographic close range. The chapter shows the tackiness of the glue that holds together a hastily synthesized field. It looks at various techno-epistemic practices and forms of reason with which practitioners attempt to maneuver by leveraging different relations between knowledge and intervention.Less
This chapter takes synthetic biology as the latest permutation in a history of mutual incursions between nature and culture. It explains the “synthetic” in synthetic biology as a reference to the synthesis of new life-forms and the tenuous gluing together of disparate sorts of stuff that accompanies efforts to bring new techno-epistemic projects into existence. It also talks about concepts, rationalities, expert practices, institutions, materials, techniques, aesthetics, forms, and values as a highly curated selection of disparate stuff that is seen at a moment of extraordinary uncertainty and viewed at ethnographic close range. The chapter shows the tackiness of the glue that holds together a hastily synthesized field. It looks at various techno-epistemic practices and forms of reason with which practitioners attempt to maneuver by leveraging different relations between knowledge and intervention.
Andrew Lustig
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262019392
- eISBN:
- 9780262314961
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262019392.003.0002
- Subject:
- Biology, Bioethics
This chapter examines appeals to nature and their relevance to public policy debates about whether to ban, regulate, or support synthetic biology. The key religious, philosophical, and moral concerns ...
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This chapter examines appeals to nature and their relevance to public policy debates about whether to ban, regulate, or support synthetic biology. The key religious, philosophical, and moral concerns which invoke the language of “playing God” have deep cultural roots. They express the idea that certain boundaries in nature are “off limits𠄭 to human action and ambition, reserved as “God's domain.” As this chapter argues, these boundaries between the organic and the synthetic are no longer clear or fixed. Other interpretations of religious teachings see humans as “created co-creators” with God, enhancing and restoring nature. Additionally, the interaction between human culture and nature has taken place since the beginning of organized agriculture.Less
This chapter examines appeals to nature and their relevance to public policy debates about whether to ban, regulate, or support synthetic biology. The key religious, philosophical, and moral concerns which invoke the language of “playing God” have deep cultural roots. They express the idea that certain boundaries in nature are “off limits𠄭 to human action and ambition, reserved as “God's domain.” As this chapter argues, these boundaries between the organic and the synthetic are no longer clear or fixed. Other interpretations of religious teachings see humans as “created co-creators” with God, enhancing and restoring nature. Additionally, the interaction between human culture and nature has taken place since the beginning of organized agriculture.
