The convergence of biological and digital technologies is one of the most significant aspects of the world we inhabit -- perhaps the most significant, since from this convergence we can plausibly extrapolate to near futures featuring everything from the elimination of poverty, want and death to the end of life on earth. This trend has been evident for a while, but CRISPR puts it in our faces.
Unlike, say, nuclear technology, biodigital technology is inherently democratic. We are in a biohacking maker world, and we're not going back.
The positive uses for these technologies are limitless, and many of them easy to imagine. The dangers are a little less obvious, but many of them can be anticipated, and there are certain to be unanticipated dangers as well. The potential for societal disruption, among others, has been widely underestimated.
What ethical responsibilities do biohackers and scientists bear? And do artists and intellectuals, writers in particular, have an obligation to take on these subjects, maybe even provide some guidance?
John Sundman has been writing about hacking in general and biohacking in particular, in both fiction and nonfiction genres, for twenty years. His 1999 novel Acts of the Apostles anticipated many of the developments we're seeing today. Of Sundman's novels, the legendary synthetic biologist George Church said, "Sundman is a master of machines —computing, biological and political — and his books include details that will convince an expert, and yet enchant a distant outsider with a compelling page-turner plot. Not just plot and mechanisms, but unforgettable personalities that haunt us long after the pages stop." A 1+ hour conversation between me & Church can be found here.