Jos de Mul , Erasmus University Rotterdam

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).