Team:HZAU-China/Humanities

Beyond Artificial Evolution

--An exploration of “other” implications of our project

Overview

In this page we first explain the relationship between synthetic biology and artificial evolution-a term we came to define—and where our project stand in this picture; then, we explored the ethical, aesthetic and semiotic dimensions of our project in relation to synthetic biology itself.

Ethics

In the ethics part, we explored why most ethical concerns of synthetic biology even exist. We employed a top-down thinking style that reduced the reasons into a simple one of fear and doubt, and explored the psychological reasons of the specific fear and doubt that are related to synthetic biology, drawing support from psychoanalytic schools of thought.

Aesthetics

In the aesthetics part, we explored one of the greatest features of our project: the adventurous and intricate design: our Bio Brick is a Rubik’s Cube at your command speaking of functionality. Imagine the possibilities of using a Rubik’s Cube to build your building!

Semiotics

In the semiotics part, we explored the metaphysical meaning of the word iGEM in the context of Runic alphabet, the Elder Futhark, and discovered that by interpreting one letter differently, it translates smoothly into a description of our project, too.