Good Biodesign is

_____ Synthetic biology, genetic engineering, microbiology and molecular biology: The term biotechnology brings together a multitude of interlinked sub-disciplines that drive the use and research of organic matter. In the last 100 years, new so-called milestones have been announced at almost regular intervals and every step has been celebrated as a paradigm shift. In most minds, biotechnology is still an abstract term in which the technological processes are unknown, and the consequences of research will increasingly become part of everyday human life.
If in the external communication of research and companies noble objectives and buzzwords such as the revolution of medicine, tailor-made medicines to cure a multitude of diseases such as cancer, the fight against the threatening food shortage through nutrient-rich crops or also the elimination of accompanying symptoms of growth-oriented consumer and throwaway societies, then the successes in research also extend to all other areas of worldly life and accordingly pose great dangers for people and the environment.

In addition to start-ups and pharmaceutical companies, the speed at which research has been progressing in recent years has been driven not least by IT companies, which are playing an increasingly important role in the biotechnology market of the future through cooperation ventures and the establishment of their own subsidiaries. While a small number of these research results, such as the cloned sheep Dolly 1996, are widely communicated in the media, a large part of the findings is only published on a scientific level. In the everyday life of the individual such achievements are hardly visible or noticeable, although the latest breakthroughs in gene editing point the way from its infancy to a fundamental, all-encompassing technology of the 21st century. As the most modern form of life sciences, synthetic biology stands for scientific progress and omnipotence fantasies at the same time, since it pursues the artificial creation of unprecedented organisms as its goal. The significance of the possible consequences – both positive and negative – are in direct contradiction to the largely absent but necessary debate on a societal scale.

What role can design – a future biodesign – play in minimizing global risks?
Can it stimulate the social discus?
What are the advantages of education as a designer over those in the life sciences?
And what rules must such a biodesign follow in order to give people a good, positive future?

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