Synthetic Biology to Become a Major Economic Driver, Part 2 – Amy Webb : 914

Mar 10, 2022

In this enlightening conversation, Amy Webb, a quantitative futurist and professor at NYU, delves into the transformative potential of synthetic biology. She discusses the intersection of biology and AI, the ethical implications of genetic data, and the revolutionary prospects for food production. Webb also shares insights on the importance of informed governance and ethical standards in biotech. Her engaging anecdotes highlight the balance between curiosity and caution as we navigate this rapidly evolving landscape, emphasizing that innovation must serve humanity's best interests.

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INSIGHT

Quantitative Futurism

Amy Webb, a quantitative futurist, uses data and modeling to predict plausible futures.
She blends creative ideation with data analysis, focusing on volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.

ANECDOTE

OCD and Futurism

Amy Webb's OCD helps her recognize patterns, which is beneficial for futurism but can also lead to catastrophizing.
A cosmology class panic attack highlighted her non-beautiful mind status, proving she is not a mathematician.

ANECDOTE

Zen and Uncertainty

In Japan, Amy Webb learned about Zen Buddhism and sitting with uncertainty from a monk.
The monk's first Zen task involved confronting mortality by sitting with a corpse overnight.

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IN THIS EPISODE OF THE HUMAN UPGRADE™...

… you’ll get a look at synthetic biology (SYNBIO) through the lens of quantitative futurist Amy Webb in Part 2 of a special two-part episode. The Part 1 episode #913 explores the scientific perspective with microbiologist and geneticist Andrew Hessel.

Amy and Andrew recently authored, “The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology.” SYNBIO is the promising and controversial technology platform that combines biology and artificial intelligence. Amy investigates what SYNBIO means for people, commerce and the planet.

“This is a book about science,” Amy describes, “but I did not want to write a science book. This is also a business book. It's an understanding-your-own-body book.”

She’s a futurist who works with data and does predictive modeling. Her academic background includes game theory and economics

Amy founded the Future Today Institute to help companies understand the forces that will shape their futures. She’s a professor of strategic foresight at the NYU Stern School of Business and a Visiting Fellow at Oxford University’s Säid School of Business. She writes extensively about biotechnology, artificial intelligence, technology policy, and business strategy.

“This emerging field of science—synthetic biology—promises to reveal how life is created and how it can be recreated, for many varied purposes, as explained in “The Genesis Machine:”

to help us heal without prescription medications,
to grow meat without harvesting animals, and
to engineer our families when nature fails us.

With SYNBO developments come a slew of considerations about how to manage it responsibly.

“For the most part, in the US, the regulation is on the end product,” Amy says. “Nobody wants to regulate the process, because we don't want to hamper innovation. However, it does start to raise some gnarly questions when we're talking about alternative uses or different uses for some of these technologies, or cross-border use.”

“There's some alignment globally on what's called germline editing, which is when you edit the genome to make it heritable. So whatever that is passes on. At the moment, just about 190 countries have aligned [to agree] that they don't want that to happen. But outside of that, there's a lot of confusion.”

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