Safeguarding the Guardians to Safeguard the Bio-economy and Mitigate Social Injustices

Futural Appropriation

“…However, while the scale of the problem is increasing both numerically and in severity, and early diagnosis and intervention is critical, support and availability for mental health services is in decline, with the added risk of outsourcing clinical treatment to cost-cutting AI [27]. These mental health problems are both caused by, and exacerbated by, technological means, including cognitive deskilling, as young people increasingly delegate cognitive functions, of which they are perfectly capable, to personal digital assistants or LLMs; addiction by design, the deliberate design of addictive affordances to keep people's attention glued to screens (and thereby advertisements) [28]; deepfake videos, allowing distortion or deception of shared experience, history and narratives, creating opportunities for industrial-scale gaslighting and personal misery; and allostatic (over)load, the physical and mental deterioration that is a result of prolonged exposure to stress [7].…”

“…their brains, appetites, and well-being. For example, BigTech wants its share of cognitive attention, Big-Food wants its share of "stomach," BigPharma wants its share of wellness concern, etc., and all three are trying to leverage advances in neuroscience and neurobiology to maximize their share through personalized targeting, irrespective of the individual and collective costs [6], [7].…”

“…Similarly, the water "industry" in the United Kingdom is another egregious example: here is a critical national infrastructure owned by transnational organizations, whose concern for environmental protection and public health appears to be subordinate to profit, leading to dangerously polluted rivers and coastlines [16]; or with investing in maintenance or future-proofing-for example, not fixing leaks and not building new reservoirs to cope with future demand or climate-change induced droughts. 7 Sports: In the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher's 1981 Regulation 909 gave U.K. education authorities the right to sell school land that they deemed surplus to requirements, which was effectively an obligation once central government funding was severely cut. Consequently, access to recreational spaces for school sports was severely diminished, and it has been estimated that 5,000 playing fields have been sold, many lost as sports arenas forever through conversion into housing developments, supermarkets, or car parks [17].…”

“…This list is necessarily incomplete: it will not discuss further in particular the climate crisis, nor childcare provision, healthcare provision, transportation, pension provision, career progression (in the context of the "gig economy"), short-term and zero-hours contracts), and other civic rights (including, perhaps most pertinently, privacy[14]). 7 Starving polar bears are known to deliberately hunt humans as prey, unlike other wildlife attacks. Although, as the claws sink into the sacrificial metaphor, perhaps the…”