When biotech comes home
Summary
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Freeman Dyson -- world renowned physicist and father of CNET editor at large Esther Dyson -- envisions that the "domestication" of biotechnology -- similar to the ways that computers moved into the household and took root for everyday tasks like homework, games and personal accounting -- will come to fruition in the coming decades. Speaking at O'Reilly Open Source Convention 2004, along with his son George, an historian of technology and author of Darwin Among the Machines: The Evolution of Global Intelligence, Dyson called biotech the "new art form of the 21st century." He predicted that the domestication of biotechnology will open up creativity to millions of people, with do-it-yourself kits for gardeners and snake breeders, for example. "Kids will buy seeds or eggs and compete with friends on who can grow the prickliest cactus or cutest dinosaur," Dyson said. He envisions low cost DNA synthesizers that teenagers will buy like iPods and GarageBand to exercise their creative genes.
However, George Dyson likened the state of biotechnology today to the computer industry in the 1960's, which I take to mean that the biotech artists and games will not have very sophisticated tools for a while, limiting access to the technology.
The Dysons acknowledged that there is a dark side to biotechnology that will have unpredictable and undesirable outcomes. As an example, George Dyson pointed to racial differentiation as an area the biotechnology could have an adverse impact, using bioengineering to create more "pure" races. "The interface with ethnicity is a hot issue. We make a big deal about small genetic differences." Rather than fostering openness and diversity, biotechnology could be used to pit races against one another in new and pernicious ways.
What will it take to prevent generally agreed upon unwanted uses of biotechnology? Freeman Dyson asked, "Is it possible to put a stop to it, or is it desirable to put a stop to it? Suppose we want control it; then what is the appropriate machinery for setting up boundaries, the rules of game so the creative process of biodiversity can be enjoyed and, at same time, you don't allow people to create harmful bugs?"
He suggests that there are no easy answers. "It's all based on luck, so we just have to make the best of things. If you want to live a risk free life, you just better swallow the pill and get it over with."
Freeman Dyson cited an article by microbiologist Carl Woese entitled "A New Biology for a New Century" (Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, June 2004), which posits that the Darwinian biology that has lasted 3 billion years has been an interlude, and we are entering a new era. "When life began, we had free software--no specialization, a community of cells sharing information," Dyson said. "Then one day, some little cell found some proprietary tricks and set up its own platforms and become a species. From there on, it was all downhill."
The Darwinian era of specialization will be replaced by a new era of freedom and creativity, Dyson said. "You can never tell how technology will grow--the beauty of it is that it's not predictable."
You can write to me at dan.farber@cnet.com. If you're looking for my commentaries on other IT topics, check out my blog Between the Lines or my column archives.
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