Humility and Synthetic Biology

• In Event: Heterogeneity, Humility and Hegemony: Reflections on Engineering Life

Abstract

It may seem unlikely that humility could be found in a field that aspires to engineer living things, to remove the detritus of evolution, to standardize, modularize and control. But humility is sometimes encountered in unexpected places. In synthetic biology the "hopeful contingencies of biology" (Davies 2011) require humility of the engineers. Their attempts to impose engineering principles on biological systems often fail and they then turn to working with these systems, harnessing evolution and adaptation, and resorting to tinkering rather than rational design. Humility is also central to any truly interdisciplinary endeavour, which synthetic biology aspires to be, because it requires a recognition of the multiplicity and heterogeneity of ways of knowing. But synthetic biology is far from being a "technology of humility" (Jasanoff 2003) – from recognising the limits of prediction and control and incorporating genuinely critical voices into its governance. Nevertheless, I will argue that drawing attention to humility can be valuable in STS interactions with synthetic biology. If identified and acknowledged it can expose dominant framings, and perhaps even help us rethink engineering.

Author

• Jane Calvert, Edinburgh University