the living web on the governance of biomics
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The Living Web On the Governance of Biomics. Jos de Mul , Erasmus University Rotterdam. Why biomics & Internet?. Biomics : genomics, proteomics, epigenomics , mentomics , bio-informatics, AL&AI, synthetic biology 1 Presence on the Internet: Information about biomics - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Biomics: genomics, proteomics, epigenomics, mentomics, bio-informatics, AL&AI, synthetic biology
1 Presence on the Internet:◦ Information about biomics◦ Discussions about biomics◦ Huge biomic databases on the Internet
2 Interesting parallels:◦ Commercial vs ‘open source’ ◦ Digital / genetic divide ◦ Security & safety issues
3 Transformation of the Internet:◦ Biomic software◦ The Internet of Living Things◦ From Web 2.0 to Web 3.0
1. The convergence of biology and i-sciences
2. Mechanistic & informationistic sciences3. Governance issues for biomics4. Governance of the unknow: from risk to uncertainty
1953: adequate description of dna Biology (Genetics):
◦ Theoretical: how is information coded and transmitted?◦ Practical: decoding 3 billion nucleotids
Information science (AL&AI):◦ Theoretical: what is life?◦ Practical: how to create life?
Emerging hybrids:◦ Genomics, proteomics, epigenomics, bio-informatics,
computational biology, synthetic biology◦ Genetic algorithms, cellular automata, emergent
systems, neural networks, molecular computers
20th century: Age of Physics◦Automobile, airplane, telephone,
television, nuclear power, computer
21st century: Age of BioTech◦Measured by size of research budgets,
number of scientists and impact already bigger than physics
◦
e.g. pV/T=constant e.g. Conway’s ‘Life’
Postulates:
1.Analizability2.Lawfulness3.Controllability
Postulates:
1.Synthesizability2.Programmability3.Manipulability
From atoms to living molecules Self-organization Emergent phenomena (inanimate nature, living nature, consciousness nature)
Neither ‘greedy reductionism’ nor ‘greedy transcendentalism’
Explaning a phenomenon is being able to program it (from soft to hard AL)
BioSPICE: simulation of life From in silico via in vitro to in vivo Minimal cells, metabolic pathway
engineering.
ABCD of ‘database ontology’: Add, Brows, Create, Delete
Not controlling nature by playing according the rules, but changing and creating the rules.
Synthetic biology: BioBricks, Bio-JADE xDNA (alien genetics)
i-sciences are modal sciences: not aiming at how reality is, but how it could be
Biomic food & fuel From gray to green technology Many new species of plants & animals (black silicon leaves)
Environmental friendly New global flowering of the countryside Open source (horizontal gene transfer) vs private ownership (species)
Biodiversity or monoculture?◦ Yulex Corp.: modified microbes
Local production or ‘bug sweatshops’?◦ Artemisia
Personal dna-printer or ‘mainframe’ genetic engineering?◦ $1000 DNA synthesizer + online BioBricks◦ 2002: polio virus (Eckhard Wimmer’s ‘wake up call’) ◦ 2005: Spanish flue (US Armed Forces Institute)
Peaceful world ‘militarization of biology?◦ Bio-hacking, bio-terror◦ Computer virus no longer a metaphor
Technologies produce both controls and risk Unforseen & unforseeable side effects due
human◦Human finitude◦Chaotic systems (sensitive dependence on initial
conditions In BioTech intentional systems, mutations &
complex interactions and feed mechanisms◦From Biotech to Biotech◦Latour’s acors really start to act◦Gray to goo and green goo
1. Laws & regulations2. Precautionary principle
Cogem 2008: Biological machines: Anticipating Developments in Genetic Biology
1+2 sufficient
However: in biomics extreme interpretative flexibility and unpredictability
1. WRR 2008: Uncertain safety2. From ‘risk society’ to ‘uncertainty life’3. “Need for early detection of uncertainties”
Isn’t that hubris?
“Playing God is indeed playing with fire. But that is what we mortals have done since Prometheus, the patron saint of dangerous discoveries. We play with fire and take the consequences, because the alternative is cowardice in the face of the unknown” (Dworkin, Sovereign Virtue, 2000, 446).