Synthetic biology, metaphors and responsibility

McLeod, Carmen; Nerlich, Brigitte

doi:10.1186/s40504-017-0061-y

Cited by 42 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Moreover, RRI has been mobilized in relation to a set of emerging technologies, most notably nanotechnology, synthetic biology, and geoengineering (e.g. McLeod & Nerlich, 2017;Rip, 2014;Stilgoe, 2016). As these technological developments carry with them a great deal of scientific uncertainty and typically a widespread 'fear' by innovators of potential public unrest and lack of acceptability (Marris, 2015), articulations of RRI have sought to expand longstanding frameworks dealing with the ethical, legal and societal aspects to contribute to their governance (Balmer et al, 2016;Guston, 2014).…”

Section: Rri In the Context Of A Normative Turn In Innovation Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the normative turn in regional innovation policy: responsibility and the quest for public value

Uyarra

Ribeiro

Dale-Clough

2019

European Planning Studies

106

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The perceived ineffectiveness of traditional innovation policies in solving societal challenges such as poverty, ageing, climate change as well as problems of regional economic restructuring has motivated a recent 'normative turn' in innovation policy. This has shifted the debate on the rationales for intervention from market and system failures to accommodate more transformative views but also other approaches rooted in the notion of public value and has led innovation scholars to question not just the how and how much of innovation but also key issues of directionality, legitimacy and responsibility. By engaging the processes through which actors 'know, investigate and perform innovation', we argue that the concept of responsible research and innovation (RRI) offers a potentially useful lens for re-casting our understanding of innovationrelated decision making. We apply RRI to assessing the opportunities and challenges of public procurement as an instrument of challengeoriented and transformative innovation policy. More specifically, we look at how local authorities in the UK are using the Social Value Act to define priorities and articulate demand around social, environmental and community needs as well as coordinate different processes and actors, policy levers and processes. ARTICLE HISTORY

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Section: Rri In the Context Of A Normative Turn In Innovation Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the normative turn in regional innovation policy: responsibility and the quest for public value

Uyarra

Ribeiro

Dale-Clough

2019

European Planning Studies

106

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“…As Laura Otis argues about the connections nineteenth century scientists made between nerves and networks of telegraph lines, such analogies have real conceptual force: 'metaphors do not 'express' scientists' ideas; they are the ideas' ( [13]: p. 48). In the context of synthetic biology, McLeod and Nerlich ( [14]: p. 2) posit that 'the language we use to make a better world matters; words matter; metaphors matter'.…”

Section: Metaphors We Live Bymentioning

confidence: 99%

Living Machines: Metaphors We Live By

Vaage

2019

Nanoethics

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Within biology and in society, living creatures have long been described using metaphors of machinery and computation: 'bioengineering', 'genes as code' or 'biological chassis'. This paper builds on Lakoff and Johnson's (1980) argument that such language mechanisms shape how we understand the world. I argue that the living machines metaphor builds upon a certain perception of life entailing an idea of radical human control of the living world, looking back at the historical preconditions for this metaphor. I discuss how design is perceived to enable us to shape natural beings to our will, and consider ethical, epistemological and ontological implications of the prevalence of this metaphor, focusing on its use within synthetic biology. I argue that we urgently need counter-images to the dominant metaphor of living machines and its implied control and propose that artworks can provide such counterimages through upsetting the perception of life as controllable. This is argued through discussion of artworks by Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr, by Tarsh Bates and by Ai Hasegawa, which in different ways challenge mechanistic assumptions through open-ended engagement with the strangeness and messiness of life.

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“…258-260; [81], pp. 19-24; [86]). The technomorphic model of life-as we have already emphasised in 'From Opposition to Amalgamation: Natural and Cultural Life'-has been established since Descartes and the seventeenth century in terms of technical apparatus and automata ( [109], pp.…”

Section: What Is the Meta For? Risks Of Technomorphic Metaphors In Unmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Buzz to Burst—Critical Remarks on the Term ‘Life’ and Its Ethical Implications in Synthetic Biology

et al. 2019

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In this paper, we examine the use of the term 'life' in the debates within and about synthetic biology. We review different positions within these debates, focusing on the historical background, the constructive epistemology of laboratory research and the pros and cons of metaphorical speech. We argue that 'life' is used as buzzword, as folk concept, and as theoretical concept in inhomogeneous ways. Extending beyond the review of the significant literature, we also argue that 'life' can be understood as a Burstword in two concrete senses. Firstly, terms such as life easily turn into fuzzy, foggy and buzzy clouds of nonsense, if their use is not appropriately reflected. In these cases, the semantic orientation is detonated. This is the Burstword I characteristic of the concept of 'life' that we reveal for its unclear terminological use. Secondly, and in contrast to Burstword I, we show that the concept of 'life' can be used in a methodologically controlled way. We call this kind of use Burstword II.Here the concept of 'life' fulfils the function of expanding an inadequately narrow disciplinary or conceptual focus in different discursive contexts. In this second sense, 'life' receives an important operational function, for instance as a transdisciplinary research principle. It turns out that the innovative function and paradigm-changing power of metaphorical speech belong here as well. Finally, we illustrate three ethically relevant examples that show how 'life' can be applied as Burstword II in the context of synthetic biology. Keywords Life . Synthetic biology . Metaphors of life . Life as metaphor . Ethics of synthetic biology . Buzzword . Burstword From Review to Reaction: IntroductionAs a subdiscipline of biology (the natural science of life), synthetic biology engages by definition with 'life' and its metaphors. What makes it special and new is its constructive, engineering approach. It can be said that the groundbreaking aim of synthetic biology is, as Ruiz-Mirazo and Moreno put it, 'to learn more about the living by means of re-construction or fabricating it-in contrast to the analytical-descriptive work that has, so far, been the most important way of generation knowledge in biology' ([97], p. 378). It is exactly this combination-the engineering attitude and certain life forms as its objects-that raises a lot of questions and especially engenders ethical criticism. The special ethical relevance of synthetic biology is supposed to be

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Synthetic biology, metaphors and responsibility

Cited by 42 publications

References 66 publications

Exploring the normative turn in regional innovation policy: responsibility and the quest for public value

Exploring the normative turn in regional innovation policy: responsibility and the quest for public value

Living Machines: Metaphors We Live By

From Buzz to Burst—Critical Remarks on the Term ‘Life’ and Its Ethical Implications in Synthetic Biology

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