Biocapitalism and the ‘temporal infrastructure’ of biotechnologies

Sergei Yu. Shevchenko
Insti­tute of Phi­los­o­phy, Russ­ian Acad­e­my of Sci­ences

Bio­cap­i­tal­ism and the ‘tem­po­ral infra­struc­ture’ of biotech­nolo­gies

Abstract. The con­cept of bio­cap­i­tal­ism was pro­posed to study spe­cif­ic forms of social dynam­ics aris­ing from the per­cep­tion of human biol­o­gy in the log­ic of invest­ment. The author shows that the phe­nom­e­non of bio­cap­i­tal­ism advances due to the dif­fer­ence in social, bio­log­i­cal, and oth­er “local times” con­sid­ered in the arti­cle from the view­point of the “time stud­ies” pro­gram pro­posed by Hel­ga Nowot­ny. Both social time and bio­log­i­cal time can lose uni­ty, break­ing up into the dura­tion of the dis­ease, the epi­demi­o­log­ic cycles, the dura­tion of preg­nan­cy or mat­u­ra­tion. On the oth­er hand, one “local time” can serve as a point of uni­fi­ca­tion, a medi­a­tor for the oth­er two. In addi­tion, our research per­spec­tive cor­re­sponds to the post-ELSI view on the role of phi­los­o­phy. In this regard, the sec­ond approach is the con­struc­tive phi­los­o­phy of tech­nol­o­gy, devel­oped by Philip Brey (Nether­lands) to achieve the objec­tives of respon­si­ble research and inno­va­tion. Through the use of these two approach­es, we make an attempt of trans­dis­ci­pli­nary exam­i­na­tion of mod­ern tech­no­log­i­cal cas­es and some aspects of the geneal­o­gy of tech­nol­o­gy. “Local time” areas are con­struct­ed and con­nect­ed along with devel­op­ment and dis­tri­b­u­tion of new tech­nolo­gies – biotech­nolo­gies, as a rule. The author sug­gests nam­ing this process the cre­ation of a “tem­po­ral infra­struc­ture” of biotech­nolo­gies. He pro­pos­es a pre­lim­i­nary mod­el of such infra­struc­ture, which ensures the devel­op­ment of bio­cap­i­tal­ism: biotech­nolo­gies cre­ate local times for bio­log­i­cal objects; the biotech­nol­o­gy mar­ket opens up the pos­si­bil­i­ty of glu­ing these local times to social ones. Through the study of these process­es, we can use the con­cept of bio­cap­i­tal­ism not only for exter­nal crit­i­cism of the social con­se­quences of new tech­nolo­gies, but also for a human­i­tar­i­an expert’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in the val­ue-sen­si­tive design of their “tem­po­ral infra­struc­ture”.

Key­words: bio­cap­i­tal­ism, social expec­ta­tions, post-ELSI approach­es, con­struc­tive phi­los­o­phy of tech­nol­o­gy, time stud­ies, ‘tem­po­ral infra­struc­ture’, human­i­tar­i­an exper­tise

DOI: 10.5840/dspl20192340

Acknowl­edge­ments
The report­ed study was fund­ed by RFBR and BRFBR accord­ing to the research project № 19–511-04003

Ref­er­ences:

  1. Afonasin, E.V., Afonasi­na, A.S. Ocher­ki istorii antich­noi med­itsiny [Essays on the His­to­ry of Ancient Med­i­cine]. Saint Peters­burg: Pub­lish­ing House RSAH, 2017. 339 pp. (In Russ­ian)
  2. Balmer, A.S., Bulpin, K. Left to Their Own Devices: Post-ELSI, Eth­i­cal Equip­ment and the Inter­na­tion­al Genet­i­cal­ly Engi­neered Machine (iGEM) Com­pe­ti­tion, BioSo­ci­eties, 2013, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 311–335. DOI: 10.1057/biosoc.2013.13.
  3. Balmer, A.S., Calvert, J., Mar­ris, C., Molyneux-Hodg­son, S., Frow, E., Kearnes, M., Bulpin, K., Schyfter, P., Macken­zie, A., Mar­tin, P. Tak­ing Roles in Inter­dis­ci­pli­nary Col­lab­o­ra­tions: Reflec­tions on Work­ing in Post-ELSI Spaces, Sci­ence and Tech­nol­o­gy Stud­ies, 2015, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 3–25.
  4. Bedi­ni, S.A. The Pulse of Time: Galileo Galilei, the Deter­mi­na­tion of Lon­gi­tude, and the Pen­du­lum Clock. Firen­ze: L.S. Olsch­ki, 1991. 132 pp.
  5. Brey, P.A.E. Con­struc­tive Phi­los­o­phy of Tech­nol­o­gy and Respon­si­ble Inno­va­tion. In: Franssen, M, Ver­maas, P.E., Kroe­sand, P., Mei­jers, A.W.M. (eds.), Phi­los­o­phy of Tech­nol­o­gy after the Empir­i­cal Turn. Phi­los­o­phy of Engi­neer­ing and Tech­nol­o­gy, no. 23. Cham: Springer, 2016, pp. 127–143. DOI: 10.1007/978–3-319–33717-3_8.
  6. Brey, P. The Strate­gic Role of Tech­nol­o­gy in a Good Soci­ety, Tech­nol­o­gy in Soci­ety, 2018, vol. 52, pp. 39–45. DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2017.02.002.
  7. Elias, N. Time: An Essay. Oxford: Wiley-Black­well, 1993.200 pp.
  8. Eshuis, J., van Buuren, A. Inno­va­tions in Water Gov­er­nance: The Impor­tance of Time, Inter­na­tion­al Review of Admin­is­tra­tive Sci­ences, 2014, vol. 80, no. 2, pp. 401–420. DOI: 10.1177/0020852313514518.
  9. Helm­re­ich, S. Species of Bio­cap­i­tal, Sci­ence as Cul­ture, 2008, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 463–478.
  10. Nowot­ny, H. Time and Social The­o­ry: Towards a Social The­o­ry of Time, Time & Soci­ety, 1992, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 421–454. DOI: 10.1177/0961463X92001003006.
  11. Pescosoli­do, B.A., Mar­tin, J.K., McLeod, J.D., Rogers, A. Hand­book of the Soci­ol­o­gy of Health, Ill­ness, and Heal­ing: A Blue­print for the 21st Cen­tu­ry. New York: Springer Sci­ence & Busi­ness Media, 2010. 571 pp.
  12. Rabi­now, P., Ben­nett, G. Design­ing Human Prac­tices: An Exper­i­ment with Syn­thet­ic Biol­o­gy. Chica­go: Uni­ver­si­ty of Chica­go Press, 2012. 200 pp.
  13. Tishchenko, P.D. Biovlast v epokhu biotekhnologii [Biopow­er in the Era of Biotech­nol­o­gy]. Moscow: IPHRAS Publ., 2001. 182 pp. (In Russ­ian)
  14. Val­le­ri­ani, M. Galileo Engi­neer. Dor­drecht: Springer Sci­ence & Busi­ness Media, 2010. 320 pp.

Comments are closed.