CAPAS RESEARCH PROJECT - Jan Cornelius Schmidt Late-Modern Technology and its biotechno-politics. On the emergence of a new type of technology and the apocalyptic potential (based on case studies from synthetic & systems biology, bioinformatics & AI)
For more than two decades, we have been experiencing a new technoscientific wave in fields such as synthetic biology, nanobioscience, bioinformatics, AI, and neuroscience. This wave was initiated by a new biotechno-politics with striking ascriptions of power and control—most prominently: “shaping the world atom by atom.” Many (biotechno)science policy programs aim at converging the life sciences (biology, biomedicine, bioinformatics, bionanoscience, neuroscience) with computer science.
In fact, this is not just hype. The main thesis of my project is that a new type of technology is emerging, which I will call “late-modern,” in order to distinguish it from the modern type. From a critical perspective, the objective is to characterize and critique “late-modern technology” and its various power relations. As will be shown, the novel (partly already realized) technical systems—from synthetic organisms to neuronal networks—exhibit high internal dynamics (self-organizing, emergent, based on instability). They show autonomous behavior, seem to act, and appear as—or are—life; they are hard to perceive as technology. They elude control: their behavior is difficult to predict, reproduce, or describe/explain. As such, they harbor an apocalyptic potential, including high risks for society and humans: there is a paradoxical or dialectical momentum of power potential and loss of power. My project is situated at the intersections of philosophy of science and technology, social epistemology, critical theory and concepts of power, philosophy of science policy, and complexity theory, as well as some elements of the life sciences and computer sciences. I will conduct three case studies: synthetic biology, neuroscience, and bioinformatics/AI.