nettime Hackers 2.0 IGEM produces 'hacker ethic' for biology
???http://www.etcgroup.org/synthetic_biology_explained Certainly seems that the hipster grassroots bottom up ethic of the hacker is being brought to new places. Nettime participants have for some time been sceptical of the 'hacker ethic'; was it now being colonised? I remember a while back on this list discussion of security exploits, the remark that now days the State was more interested to keep exploits hidden and activists are the one most interested in making exploits public. Quite a reversal where the underdog (once associated with the hackers hidden exploit) becomes the locksmith calling for public discussion of security in the name of protecting democracy partisans in the middle-east. The biohacker movement gives a sort of grassroots chic to the biotech industry but they aren't really a maker's movement, they don't hold the means of production, only a few toys given to them by industry (you can make a bacteria that smells like spearmint). Key parts of the knowledge process needed for production of your own organisms (and of course the capital necessary to do so) are not distributed. At conferences like IGEM, kids are encouraged to think they are cool hackers, while the biotech industry recruits them to live the rest of their life imprisoned in a software programmers cubicle. but I don't think it is just the PR fakeness of the biohacker ethic being sold to young computer savvy kids. It's not just that corporate power controls all the cards and if you hack, you hack for them. Something new is leaking out. I think there is a qualitative difference between the ethic of hacking to learn about how your computer system works and the ethic of treating life as if it were a machine. Hacking life (into pieces). The ideology that everything is a machine manipulated in the same way that you program your computer (lego blocks of life, assemble or rearrange them yourself, program your brain). The original hacker ethic was domain specific. computers/phones/calculation and communication systems. But the biohacker ethic seems to have leaked out of its vat like an escaped microorganism now travelling (contaminating) the natural environment away from its factory site starting point Subject: [SynbioCritics] Fwd: SynBio Explained: Video Animation Explores Risks of Treating Life as a Machine ???For immediate release??? SynBio Explained Video Animation Explores Risks of Treating Life as a Machine MONTREAL, 29 Oct. 2014???On the eve of the largest annual gathering of synthetic biologists in the world, ETC Group and the Bioeconomies Media Project are launching a new animated explanation of the workings of this emerging ???SynBio??? industry, often dubbed extreme genetic engineering. Thousands of scientists, students and vendors will converge at the International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) Jamboree in Boston to share the latest advancements in what has become a multi billion dollar industry based on the industrialization of life at the molecular level. Increasingly, scientists and civil society are sounding the alarm about the risks posed by unregulated commercialization of SynBio???s untested, experimental and unprecedented manipulation of life forms. The new ten minute video, produced in collaboration with award-winning Canadian animator Marie-Jos??e Saint-Pierre and narrated by ETC???s Jim Thomas, is the first output from a new Bioeconomies Media Project. Featuring work of researchers from Canadian universities and funded by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the video provides a succinct introduction to the science and emerging industry of synthetic biology as well as some of the ethical, biosafety and economic impacts that these genetically engineered machines may have. The synthetic biology industry is already a multibillion dollar enterprise involving some of the worlds largest food, chemical and agribusiness companies, said Jim Thomas, ETC's Programme Director. The leaders of that industry are targeting markets supplied by small farmers in the around the world; this is likely to have real negative impacts on poorer communities in the global south. SynBio companies have commercialized several products already, including a vanilla substitute grown by synthetically modified yeast, a coconut oil replacement produced by engineered algae, and engineered versions of patchouli and vetiver fragrances. Less than two weeks ago, 194 nations at the United Nations convention on Biological Diversity unanimously urged governments to establish precautionary regulations and to assess synthetic biology organisms, components and products. Many countries had called for a complete global moratorium on the release of synthetic biology organisms. The video can be viewed at the following locations: http://www.synbiowatch.org/2014/10/synthetic_biology_explained/ http://www.etcgroup.org/synthetic_biology_explained
nettime the return of the network commons
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Hi, some of you have probably already noticed this via fb or rss, I am writing a new book on, working title, The Rise of the Network Commons. It returns to the topos of the wireless commons on which I worked during the early 2000s. In this new version, combining original research from my German book Freie Netze (2004) and new research conducted in the context of the EU funded project Confine, the exciting world of wireless community network projects such as Guifi.net and Freifunk, gets interspersed with philosophical reflections on the relationship between technology, art, politics and history. In chapters yet to come, I want to treat this topic more internationally, thus interested to learn about projects from all over the world. Currently, I am preparing the next chapter on social technologies starting with firmware hack of OpenWrt in 2003 aftre GPL violation. What interest me in particular is the relationship between development of a technology and its usage, follwoing notions such as participatory design and social technologies ... again, grateful for any useful hints, experiences, stories Here is the work in progress http://thenextlayer.org/NetworkCommons Even if a chapter is already written, it does not mean that it has achieved stable form. I am happy to accomodate input on all aspects of the project. Publishing early draft texts is part of my chosen methodology in this case looking foreard to hearing from you best Armin -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1 iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJUU28zAAoJELVKgddlPDStTJcIAIXYRxNJr+py6kAUg4Z6yoD7 FeefGG0b/r6rvz+ama2ID4B/DfxE+jcKdUfpfhXI0B2Oyb+DuV2ewwMa7TCg2eGg uBBuRU8jj25z4tzPCXRzzqqDXOJHxwKBpRjBzept+8LT6E2MUZIoOZONCRcTcUEb 3okPFI6VU7K0zTIeei7LcSwh+q92FiHqvSVhKAQ+iZuECAQ+oRxaJwsPJW1M4Gi4 z6EzMwvgVpHG/VpatohXBnrgMYUUGiVZgR/zT8kTtswRDo8gG6QYWV7ZZkdooA+C uV038ZZ0DDi2H1zS63OrCPwgC0bpEa7NKGVjgrKgduddJjbQM6DFkNKwaSUauOg= =lKpY -END PGP SIGNATURE- # distributed via nettime: no commercial use without permission # nettime is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
nettime Empyre list discussion on ISIS, Absolute Terror, Performance
Empyre list discussion on ISIS, Absolute Terror, Performance Please consider joining the November discussion on Empyre. All you have to do is join empyre; more information is below. The discussion starts this Monday, November 3rd, and runs until December. There are amazing presenters. From the precis: The world seems to be descending into chaos of a qualitatively different dis/order, one characterized by terror, massacre, absolutism. Things are increasingly out of control, and this chaos is a kind of ground-work itself - nothing beyond a scorched earth policy, but more of the same. What might be a cultural or artistic response to this? How does one deal with this psychologically, when every day brings new horrors? Even traditional analyses seem to dissolve in the absolute terror that seems to be daily increasing. We are moderating a month-long investigation on Empyre into the dilemma this dis/order poses. We will ask a variety of people to be discussants in what, hopefully, will be a very open conversation. The debate will invite the empyre community to a deep and uncomfortable analysis of abject violence, pain, performance, and ideology [taking further the October 2012 debate on Pain, Suffering, and Death in the Virtual], looking at the ambivalences of terror, incomprehensible emotions, and our own complicity in the production of 'common sense' around terror. Co-moderators: Johannes Birringer and Alan Sondheim. About the empyre email list: http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/ -empyre- is a global community of new media artists, curators, theorists, producers, and others who participate in monthly thematic discussions via an e-mail listserv. -empyre- facilitates online discussion encouraging critical perspectives on contemporary cross-disciplinary issues, practices and events in networked media. The list is currently co-managed by Renate Ferro (USA) and Tim Murray (USA). Melinda Rackham (AU) initiated -empyre- as part of her doctoral research in 2002. -empyre- welcomes guest moderators who organize discussions for one month. After more than ten years, -empyre- soft-skinned space continues to be a platform dedicated to the plurality of global perspectives reaching out beyond Australia and the Northern Hemisphere to greater Asia and Latin America. # distributed via nettime: no commercial use without permission # nettime is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
nettime Hackers 2.0 IGEM produces 'hacker ethic' for biology
???http://www.etcgroup.org/synthetic_biology_explained Certainly seems that the hipster grassroots bottom up ethic of the hacker is being brought to new places. Nettime participants have for some time been sceptical of the 'hacker ethic'; was it now being colonised? I remember a while back on this list discussion of security exploits, the remark that now days the State was more interested to keep exploits hidden and activists are the one most interested in making exploits public. Quite a reversal where the underdog (once associated with the hackers hidden exploit) becomes the locksmith calling for public discussion of security in the name of protecting democracy partisans in the middle-east. The biohacker movement gives a sort of grassroots chic to the biotech industry but they aren't really a maker's movement, they don't hold the means of production, only a few toys given to them by industry (you can make a bacteria that smells like spearmint). Key parts of the knowledge process needed for production of your own organisms (and of course the capital necessary to do so) are not distributed. At conferences like IGEM, kids are encouraged to think they are cool hackers, while the biotech industry recruits them to live the rest of their life imprisoned in a software programmers cubicle. but I don't think it is just the PR fakeness of the biohacker ethic being sold to young computer savvy kids. It's not just that corporate power controls all the cards and if you hack, you hack for them. Something new is leaking out. I think there is a qualitative difference between the ethic of hacking to learn about how your computer system works and the ethic of treating life as if it were a machine. Hacking life (into pieces). The ideology that everything is a machine manipulated in the same way that you program your computer (lego blocks of life, assemble or rearrange them yourself, program your brain). The original hacker ethic was domain specific. computers/phones/calculation and communication systems. But the biohacker ethic seems to have leaked out of its vat like an escaped microorganism now travelling (contaminating) the natural environment away from its factory site starting point Subject: [SynbioCritics] Fwd: SynBio Explained: Video Animation Explores Risks of Treating Life as a Machine ???For immediate release??? SynBio Explained Video Animation Explores Risks of Treating Life as a Machine MONTREAL, 29 Oct. 2014???On the eve of the largest annual gathering of synthetic biologists in the world, ETC Group and the Bioeconomies Media Project are launching a new animated explanation of the workings of this emerging ???SynBio??? industry, often dubbed extreme genetic engineering. Thousands of scientists, students and vendors will converge at the International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) Jamboree in Boston to share the latest advancements in what has become a multi billion dollar industry based on the industrialization of life at the molecular level. Increasingly, scientists and civil society are sounding the alarm about the risks posed by unregulated commercialization of SynBio???s untested, experimental and unprecedented manipulation of life forms. The new ten minute video, produced in collaboration with award-winning Canadian animator Marie-Jos??e Saint-Pierre and narrated by ETC???s Jim Thomas, is the first output from a new Bioeconomies Media Project. Featuring work of researchers from Canadian universities and funded by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the video provides a succinct introduction to the science and emerging industry of synthetic biology as well as some of the ethical, biosafety and economic impacts that these genetically engineered machines may have. The synthetic biology industry is already a multibillion dollar enterprise involving some of the worlds largest food, chemical and agribusiness companies, said Jim Thomas, ETC's Programme Director. The leaders of that industry are targeting markets supplied by small farmers in the around the world; this is likely to have real negative impacts on poorer communities in the global south. SynBio companies have commercialized several products already, including a vanilla substitute grown by synthetically modified yeast, a coconut oil replacement produced by engineered algae, and engineered versions of patchouli and vetiver fragrances. Less than two weeks ago, 194 nations at the United Nations convention on Biological Diversity unanimously urged governments to establish precautionary regulations and to assess synthetic biology organisms, components and products. Many countries had called for a complete global moratorium on the release of synthetic biology organisms. The video can be viewed at the following locations: http://www.synbiowatch.org/2014/10/synthetic_biology_explained/ http://www.etcgroup.org/synthetic_biology_explained
Re: nettime Hackers 2.0 IGEM produces 'hacker ethic' for biology
Hi Michael, that's quite an interesting take on biohacking. People who have witnessed the emergence of DIYbio (the do-it-yourself biology network that was started back in 2008 in the US) say that the direct intervention of the FBI was key in shaping the movement. The FBI attended DIYbio meetings, organized meetings of its own and flew amateurs there from all over the world, etc. Rather than a biosecurity concern, this was the FBI acknowledging they couldn't fuck up again after what they did to Steve Kurtz and the Critical Art Ensemble (if you don't remember the story: it happened in NY during the antrax attacks, google it). Yet as a result of this, the movement has taken the form of a very cautious, a-critical subject that is going towards mostly educational or entrepreneurial paths. Sara Tocchetti from LSE is writing a great piece on this but I don't think it's out there yet. Of course do-it-yourself biology's current shape is also linked to other genealogies, i.e. diybio was mostly born within scientific institutions and with their paternal blessing and is currently being co-opted and integrated at all institutional levels (museums, start-ups, scientific crowdsourcing projects). Althought it might be scientifically poor, biohacking is very important to the synbio industry, as it portraits it as a friendly, fun, open, creative activity and also reverses the spectrum of life privatisation through its copyleft ethos. It also creates new hopes after decades of promises (remember the human genome?) that have been only partially matched so far, to say the least. In fact I see synthetic biology as a project for re-moralizing biotech, and diybio is an integral part of it - which might help explain why high-end biologists care about those kids playing with cell cultures. Now the question is: will distributed creativity and hyper-individualized markets appear in biology? Well, probably no bio commercial breakthrough will come from a garage, but a new soul for the biotech industry is created there, and those references to a hacker ethos are a big part of it ???http://www.etcgroup.org/synthetic_biology_explained Certainly seems that the hipster grassroots bottom up ethic of the hacker is being brought to new places. Nettime participants have for some time been sceptical of the 'hacker ethic'; was it now being colonised? I remember a while back on this list discussion of security exploits, the remark that now days the State was more interested to keep exploits hidden and activists are the one most interested in making exploits public. Quite a reversal where the underdog (once associated with the hackers hidden exploit) becomes the locksmith calling for public discussion of security in the name of protecting democracy partisans in the middle-east. ... # distributed via nettime: no commercial use without permission # nettime is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
