Comments on: Synthetic biology, ethics and the hacker culture

By: daniel h pope

daniel h pope — Mon, 14 May 2012 07:18:31 +0000

I am very interested in the singularity issue. The discussions between parties is very interesting and somewhat disturbing (in that actually reaching the singularity creates many moral, ethical and practical issues). Meanwhile it was nice to see that Matt Kuchar won the golf tournament today.

dan Pope

By: daniel h pope

daniel h pope — Mon, 14 May 2012 07:14:52 +0000

This is a very interesting and important issue. I will delve into it further and provide comments in the future. I need to think about this very carefully before commenting further.

Thanks.

Dan Pope

By: Evan

Evan — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 06:39:16 +0000

In reference to Daisy’s comment, even tinkering with bacteria may raise ethical concerns associated with a wide range of dangers. Even the tools associated with biohacking could be potentially harmful if allowed to intermingle with wild genetic pools. Antibiotic resistance is a great example where releasing strains of non-harmful bacteria (whether by accident, or on purpose) with resistance to important antibiotics can lead to resistance in pathogenic species through horizontal gene transfer.

I think there should be some serious caution in all aspects of biology when mixing genes. I’m not against it at all, but the level of stringency by which the academic (and even industrial) standards are formed may not apply in a garage lab. As a lab assistant, I spend probably about 20% of my time autoclaving, sterilizing, disinfecting, and otherwise, simply to reduce the possibility of releasing recombinant organisms.

This doesn’t just apply to rats or plants or people; all it takes is one slip of a biohacker and one might change the biological landscape irreversibly.

By: Adam Eisenberg

Adam Eisenberg — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 04:06:15 +0000

I agree with you Timos, but if “biohacking” does infact grow and become something there will be war on it. It would start “biohacking wars” for there will be dispute and conflic within the “biohacking” community, like there is with digital hacking.

By: Synthetic biology, ethics and the hacker culture

Synthetic biology, ethics and the hacker culture — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:02:06 +0000

[...] Originally posted June 13 2008 [...]

By: Andrew Maynard

Andrew Maynard — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:14:43 +0000

Thanks Timos. It’s interesting that, since writing this, the “biohacker” movement has continued to grow rather rapidly. Think we could be in for some interesting times.

By: Timos Papagatsias

Timos Papagatsias — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:01:53 +0000

Very good article, indeed raising many questions.
I believe that science and technology could well be in the reach of aspiring “biohackers”, as you call them, and if not, there’s enough info out there and plenty of individuals that will somehow “innovate” and experiment with what is available to them.
I don’t know if we’ll see a “war” between “biohackers” with no ethics and the “bio-police” (or something equivalent) similar to the “war” between hackers (see virus, worms etc developers) and the “net-police”, but I think we should accept the possibility that it might happen.
Again, very good read!

By: 2020 Science in 2009 – and a chance to win a rather nifty 2020 Science Mug!

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 03:07:49 +0000

[...] Synthetic biology, ethics and the hacker culture (June 13) [...]

By: A new era for DIY science | lilykim.com

A new era for DIY science | lilykim.com — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:21:08 +0000

[...] Thoughtful post by Andrew Maynard of 2020science discussing the ethics of synthetic biology and biohackers [...]

By: No Irish at iGEM | Journalist.ie

No Irish at iGEM | Journalist.ie — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:22:14 +0000

[...] From Science Line: Now that Ireland finally has a large-scale effort in systems biology underway, maybe it’s time to establish a small-scale effort in building genetically engineered machines. The MIT-hosted International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM) for students is now in its seventh year – the final jamboree kicks off at Cambridge, Mass., on 30 Oct. However, an Irish team has yet to pull on the green jersey and splice some DNA for the nation – or, ahem, fiddle about with biobrick components for the nation. Synthetic biology – is it lego for genetic engineers or biology’s final frontier? Who knows? But the competition is one good way to get undergraduate students thinking along interdisciplinary lines, as their professors would have it; or thinking along biological hacker lines, as they would have it. Which is, of course, a whole other can of worms. [...]

By: links for 2009-10-11 « Blarney Fellow

links for 2009-10-11 « Blarney Fellow — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 01:07:01 +0000

[...] Synthetic biology, ethics and the hacker culture (tags: bio dna genetics hacking ethics community culture) [...]

By: Time to vote for your favorite science blogs

Time to vote for your favorite science blogs — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:17:54 +0000

[...] Synthetic biology, ethics and the hacker culture [...]

By: Are we ready for synthetic biology?

Are we ready for synthetic biology? — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:02:35 +0000

[...] And the current regulatory framework doesn’t even begin to touch on developments that lie outside its traditional sphere of control—including a growing “biohacking” community. [...]

By: A 2020 Science Taster

A 2020 Science Taster — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:01:34 +0000

[...] Synthetic biology, ethics and the hacker culture. What the heck is synthetic biology, is “biopunk” a real word, and are the 21st century equivalents of computer hackers going to reconfigure life as we know it? I can’t promise any easy answers, but hopefully this post from June 2008 helps set the scene. [...]

By: Biohacking—synthetic biology for the technologically marginalized « 2020 Science

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 02:44:48 +0000

[...] biology for the technologically marginalized Last June I wrote a short piece on biohacking, prompted by a UK report on the social and ethical challenges of synthetic biology. At the time, [...]

By: Andrew Maynard

Andrew Maynard — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 00:04:14 +0000

Thanks Daisy Hacker. The science and technology might still be beyond the reach of aspiring “biohackers,” but the possibilities here are intriguing – and raise a lot of questions.

By: Daisy hacker

Daisy hacker — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 22:10:03 +0000

I’m interested in the ethics of ‘biohacking’ If you are doing anything bigger then bactiria, it could be a potential ethical problem. However, that’s the kind of tricky stuff that would be interesting to do. I really liked this artical, it gave a lot of great links, and some good info.

By: Saints or synners? « 2020 Science

Saints or synners? « 2020 Science — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:02:23 +0000

[...] Synthetic biology, ethics and the hacker culture [...]

By: Blogroll » Links for 2008-10-11 [del.icio.us]

Blogroll » Links for 2008-10-11 [del.icio.us] — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 06:19:12 +0000

[...] Synthetic biology, ethics and the hacker culture " 2020 Science [...]

By: Synthetic biology and the public: Time for a heart to heart? « 2020 Science

Synthetic biology and the public: Time for a heart to heart? « 2020 Science — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 19:00:52 +0000

[...] J. Craig Venter Institute is racing ahead towards creating the first artificial bacteria, and “biohackers” are learning how to re-engineer life at an increasingly rapid [...]