Controlling Genetic Destiny with Synthetic Biology, Part 1 – Andrew Hessel : 913
The Human Upgrade: Biohacking for Longevity & Performance
Dave Asprey
4.6 • 7.4K Ratings
🗓️ 9 March 2022
⏱️ 86 minutes
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IN THIS EPISODE OF THE HUMAN UPGRADE™...
… you’ll learn about the implications of synthetic biology in Part 1 of a special two-part episode.
Andrew Hessel and Amy Webb recently authored, “The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology.” This Part 1 episode gets into the scientific perspective with Andrew. Part 2 on episode #914 explores the futurist perspective with Amy.
Ask yourself, if you could edit your genes—to fix infertility, diabetes or even depression—would you do it? That’s the premise, and the promise, of synthetic biology. And a reality you’ll have to wrestle with. To make these decisions intelligently requires a deeper—and urgent—understanding of what’s happening in science.
Right now, scientists are rewriting the rules of our reality. They can use computers to gain access to the cells of any living organism and write new, potentially better, biological code.
Andrew—a microbiologist and geneticist—works on the leading edge of genomics and bioinformatics. He’s been immersed in the world of synthetic biology for years and joins the show to explain new advancements.
As a scientist, communicator, and investor, he explores the future of biology and biotechnology. He co-founded the Center of Excellence for Engineering Biology and the Genome Project-write. The Genome Project-write is an international scientific effort that designs and builds large genomes, including the human genome.
As we embrace that life no longer will be a game of chance, it will be the result of design, selection and choice, morechoices have to be made. Decisions like who gets to program life, create new life forms, and even bring former life back from extinction?
“The Genesis Machine" is a book about science, but it's not written for scientists, Andrew says. “It's about some amazing people and stories and we've got some fun scenarios that help you think about where some of this stuff is going. But really, this is a technology that we're all building day by day.”
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to the human upgrade with Dave Asprey. |
| 0:04.0 | Formerly, |
| 0:07.0 | Bulletproof Radio. |
| 0:09.0 | You're listening to the human upgrade with Dave Asprey. |
| 0:15.0 | This is going to be a really fun show to record |
| 0:21.0 | and just a fun interview because I am a futurist, |
| 0:24.0 | a big part of what I do with very, very early e-commerce |
| 0:27.0 | and cloud computing and so on. |
| 0:30.0 | Creating biohacking thing. |
| 0:31.0 | I kind of see a direction I go there. |
| 0:33.0 | So I self identify as a futurist. |
| 0:35.0 | I know it pronoun that makes me. |
| 0:37.0 | It's a then is my pronoun. |
| 0:39.0 | But what we're going to talk about today is the future of biotech |
| 0:45.0 | and what that means in synthetic biology. |
| 0:48.0 | And this is a double episode where the first part of the episode |
| 0:52.0 | we're going to talk about the science of it and the second part of it. |
| 0:54.0 | We're going to talk more about other aspects of it about what is the future look like. |
| 0:58.0 | But first let's roll up our sleeves and figure out what is synthetic biology. |
| 1:02.0 | What does it mean to us? |
| 1:04.0 | And later with a different expert co-author of the same book, |
| 1:08.0 | we're going to be able to go really, really deep on what's the world going to look like |
... |
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