What happens when biology becomes technology? | Christina Agapakis

翻译人员: libraman libraman 校对人员: Yolanda Zhang

A briefcase full of poop changed my life.

一个装满便便的公文包 改变了我的人生。

Ten years ago, I was a graduate student

10 年前，我还是个研究生，

and I was helping judge a genetic engineering competition

当时我正帮忙给本科生的 基因工程竞赛评分。

for undergrads.

There, I met a British artist and designer named Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg.

在比赛中，我遇到了 一位英国艺术家兼设计师，

名叫亚历山大·黛西·金斯伯格 （Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg）。

She was wearing the white embroidered polo shirt

她穿着剑桥大学队的 白色绣花 polo 衫，

of the University of Cambridge team

and holding a silver briefcase,

手里拿着一个银色手提箱，

like the kind that you would imagine is handcuffed to your wrist.

感觉就跟手腕绑在了一起似的。

She gestured over from a quiet corner

她在一个僻静的角落向我示意，

and asked me if I wanted to see something.

问我想不想看样东西。

With a sneaky look, she opened up the suitcase,

她悄悄的打开公文包，

and inside were six glorious, multicolored turds.

里面是六条漂亮、多彩的便便。

The Cambridge team, she explained,

她解释道，剑桥大学队员们

had spent their summer engineering the bacteria E. coli

在利用暑假尝试改变

大肠杆菌的基因结构，

to be able to sense different things in the environment

以感知周围的环境变化，

and produce a rainbow of different colors in response.

并生成出各种颜色的菌株。

Arsenic in your drinking water?

饮用水里含有砷？

This strain would turn green.

这个菌株会变绿。

She and her collaborator, the designer James King,

她和她的合作伙伴， 设计师詹姆斯·金（James King）

worked with the students and imagined the different possible scenarios

与学生们一道工作，

设想人们会如何使用这些细菌， 以及各种可能的应用场景。

of how you might use these bacteria.

What if, they asked, you could use them

他们想知道，

as a living probiotic drink and health monitor, all in one?

是否可以将这些细菌同时用作 活体益生菌饮品和健康监测器？

You could drink the bacteria and it would live in your gut,

你喝掉的细菌 会在你的肚子里存活，

sensing what's going on,

时时监测你的健康状况，

and then in response to something,

当出现异常时，

就能产生出有颜色的大便。

it would be able to produce a colored output.

Holy shit!

我的天啊！（此处直译 也有“神圣的大便”之意）

The Cambridge team went on to win

剑桥大学的这支队伍 后来又赢得了

the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition,

国际基因工程器械比赛，

or iGEM for short.

简称 iGEM。

And as for me, those turds were a turning point.

于我而言，这些便便是一个转折点。

I am a synthetic biologist,

我是一位合成生物学家。

which is probably a weird term that most people aren't familiar with.

这个词可能有点儿奇怪， 大部分人都不太熟悉。

It definitely sounds like an oxymoron.

它听起来像极了矛盾修辞手法。

How can biology, something natural,

生物是个自然的东西，

be synthetic?

它怎么会是合成的呢？

How can something artificial be alive?

人造的东西怎么会具有生命呢？

Synthetic biologists sort of poke holes

合成生物学家就好像是 在我们划定的

in that boundary that we draw between what is natural and what's technological.

自然产物和技术加工产物的 分界面上戳了个洞。

And every year, iGEM students from all over the world

在每一年的 iGEM 大赛中， 来自全球的学生们

spend their summer

都会利用暑假

trying to engineer biology to be technology.

尝试将生物知识转化为技术。

They teach bacteria how to play sudoku,

他们教会了细菌如何玩数独游戏，

they make multicolored spider silk,

他们让蜘蛛吐出了五颜六色的丝，

they make self-healing concrete

还发明了有自愈能力的混凝土、

and tissue printers and plastic-eating bacteria.

肌体组织打印机， 以及吃塑料的细菌等等。

Up until that moment, though,

从那一刻开始，

I was a little bit more concerned with a different kind of oxymoron.

我开始对一个不同的矛盾情形 多了一丝担忧——

Just plain old genetic engineering.

即朴素传统的基因工程。

The comedian Simon Munnery once wrote

喜剧演员西蒙·穆娜瑞 （Simon Munnery）曾经写道，

that genetic engineering is actually insulting to proper engineering.

基因工程其实是对合理工程的侮辱。

Genetic engineering is more like throwing a bunch of concrete and steel in a river

基因工程就像是， 把一堆钢筋混凝土倒在河里，

and if somebody can walk across, you call it a bridge.

只要有人能走过去， 它就被称之为桥了。

And so synthetic biologists were pretty worried about this,

因此合成生物学家对此颇为担心，

and worried that genetic engineering was a little bit more art that science.

他们担心基因工程 更像是艺术，而非科学。

They wanted to turn genetic engineering into a real engineering discipline,

他们想把基因工程 变为一门真正的工程学科，

where we could program cells and write DNA

我们可以对细胞编程、构建DNA，

the way that engineers write software for computers.

正如工程师编写电脑程序一样。

That day 10 years ago started me on a path that gets me to where I am now.

10 年前的一天，我开始踏上这段旅程， 并且一直走到了今天。

Today, I'm the creative director

现在，我是一家合成生物公司， 银杏生物公司（Ginkgo Bioworks）的

at a synthetic biology company called Ginkgo Bioworks.

创意总监。

"Creative director" is a weird title

“创意总监”对于一家生物技术公司来说 是个奇怪的头衔，

for a biotech company were people try to program life

在这里，人们尝试对生命编程，

the way that we program computers.

就如同我们编写计算机程序一样。

But that day when I met Daisy,

但当我遇到黛西的那天，

I learned something about engineering.

我对工程有了新的理解。

I learned that engineering isn't really just about equations

我意识到工程并不仅仅与方程式、

and steel and circuits,

钢铁制品、电路相关，

it's actually about people.

实际上是与人相关的。

It's something that people do, and it impacts us.

它是人们所做的， 会对我们产生影响的事。

So in my work,

因此，在工作中，

I try to open up new spaces for different kinds of engineering.

我尝试开启各种新的工程领域。

How can we ask better questions,

我们该如何提出更好的问题，

and can we have better conversations

能否更好的探讨

about what we want from the future of technology?

我们希望从未来科技中得到什么？

How can we understand the technological

我们如何理解社会中 对于转基因两极化的看法，

but also social and political and economic reasons

其技术层面、社会层面、

that GMOs are so polarizing in our society?

政治层面的原因是什么？

Can we make GMOs that people love?

我们能创造出 人们更愿意接受的转基因技术吗？

Can we use biology to make technology that's more expansive and regenerative?

我们能通过生物手段获得 适用范围更广、可再生性能更好的技术吗？

I think it starts by recognizing that we, as synthetic biologists,

我觉得如果能意识到， 我们作为合成生物学家，

are also shaped by a culture that values "real engineering"

也同样受到了文化的影响， 我们对“真正的工程”的重视程度

more than any of the squishy stuff.

远高于对那些湿哒哒的东西。

We get so caught up in circuits and what happens inside of computers,

我们在电路和电脑技术方面 投入得太多了，

that we sometimes lose sight of the magic that's happening inside of us.

以至于我们时常会忽视 人体内部的神奇之处。

There is plenty of shitty technology out there,

虽然已经有很多差劲的技术了，

but this was the first time that I imagined poop as technology.

但我还是头一次把大便想象成技术。

I began to see that synthetic biology was awesome,

我开始认为合成生物学很厉害了，

not because we could turn cells into computers,

这倒不是因为我们 可以把细胞变为电脑，

but because we could bring technology to life.

而是因为我们可以将技术“唤醒”。

This was technology that was visceral,

这个是技术，那个是内脏——

an unforgettable vision of what the future might hold.

这可能是未来依然 无法摆脱的观念。

But importantly, it was also framed as the question

但重要的是，这也提出了一个问题，

"Is this the kind of future that we actually want?"

“这就是我们真正想要的未来吗？”

We've been promised a future of chrome,

我们总被灌输说， 未来是互联网的时代，

but what if the future is fleshy?

但万一未来有肉身呢？

Science and science fiction

科学和科幻小说

help us remember that we're made of star stuff.

让我们记住了， 人类是由星球上的物质组成的。

But can it also help us remember the wonder and weirdness

但这些能让我们知道

“由肉体组成”这件事的 美妙和奇异之处吗？

of being made of flesh?

Biology is us,

生物学就是我们自己，

it's our bodies, it's what we eat.

是我们的身体，是我们的食物。

What happens when biology becomes technology?

如果生物成为了技术， 会怎么样呢？

These images are questions,

这些图片提出了问题，

and they challenge what we think of as normal and desirable.

对我们习以为常的 事情提出了挑战，

And they also show us that the future is full of choices

也向我们展示了 未来是充满不同选项的，

and that we could choose differently.

而我们可以做出不同的选择。

What's the future of the body, of beauty?

人体的未来、审美的未来 会是怎样的？

If we change the body, will we have new kinds of awareness?

如果我们改变了身体， 我们能否获得某种新的感知？

And will new kinds of awareness of the microbial world

而如果我能感知到微生物的世界，

change the way that we eat?

我们的饮食会有所改变吗？

The last chapter of my dissertation was all about cheese that I made

我论文的最后一章就是关于

using bacteria that I swabbed from in between my toes.

利用从我脚趾中提取的 细菌培养制作的奶酪。

I told you that the poop changed my life.

我跟你们说过， 便便事件改变了我的一生。

I worked with the smell artist and researcher Sissel Tolaas

我和味觉专家西丝儿·托拉斯 （ Sissel Tolaas） 一起，

to explore all of the ways that our bodies and cheese are connected

通过味道和微生物来研究

我们的身体和奶酪之间 是通过什么方式产生关联的。

through smell and therefore microbes.

And we created this cheese

于是我们创造出了这种奶酪，

to challenge how we think about the bacteria

从而刷新了我们对

that's part of our lives

来自人体的细菌

and the bacteria that we work with in the lab.

和来自实验室的细菌的认知。

We are, indeed, what we eat.

实际上，我们吃的就是我们自己。

The intersection of biology and technology

生物和科技的交融，

is more often told as a story of transcending our fleshy realities.

经常被描述成一个 超越肉身的故事。

If you can upload your brain to a computer,

如果你能把大脑上传到计算机中，

you don't need to poop anymore after all.

你也就不再需要上厕所了。

And that's usually a story that's told as a good thing, right?

那种故事通常 被认为是好事儿，对吧？

Because computers are clean, and biology is messy.

因为计算机是“洁净的”， 而生物则是“脏乱的”。

Computers make sense and are rational,

计算机是“理性、合理的”，

and biology is an unpredictable tangle.

而生物则是不可预测的“一团乱麻”。

It kind of follows from there

由此得出

that science and technology are supposed to be rational,

科学也应该是理性的、

objective

客观的、

and pure,

纯粹的，

and it's humans that are a total mess.

而人类则是混乱不堪。

But like synthetic biologists poke holes

但正如合成生物学家

in that line between nature and technology,

在自然与科技的分界面上戳了个洞，

artists, designers and social scientists

艺术家、设计师和社会科学家

showed me that the lines that we draw between nature, technology and society

让我看到，我们在自然、科学 和社会之间划出的那条分割线

are a little bit softer than we might think.

比我们想象的更加脆弱。

They challenge us to reconsider our visions for the future

它迫使我们重新审视对未来的看法，

and our fantasies about controlling nature.

重新思考掌控自然的幻想。

They show us how our prejudices, our hopes and our values

它们向我们展示了， 我们的偏见、希望、价值观

are embedded in science and technology

是如何通过我们 所提的问题和做出的选择

through the questions that we ask and the choices that we make.

而体现在科学技术中的。

They make visible the ways that science and technology are human

它们使科学技术人性的一面、

and therefore political.

即政治性的一面， 变得更显而易见。

What does it mean for us to be able to control life

如果能够出于我们自身目的 而对生命进行控制，

for our own purposes?

意味着什么呢？

The artists Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr

艺术家奥龙·凯茨（Oron Catts） 和埃尔纳·祖尔（Ionat Zurr）

made a project called "Victimless Leather,"

创建了一个叫做 “无需牺牲生命的皮革”，

where they engineered a tiny leather jacket

他们用老鼠细胞

out of mouse cells.

研制出了一种微小的皮夹克。

Is this jacket alive?

这件皮夹克有生命力吗？

What does it take to grow it and keep it this way?

通过这种方式培养、保存 这些皮夹克需要付出什么代价？

Is it really victimless?

这真的无需牺牲生命吗？

And what does it mean for something to be victimless?

无需牺牲生命的物品意味着什么？

The choices that we make

我们所做出的选择，

in what we show and what we hide in our stories of progress,

关于在研发进程中 对外展示什么、隐藏什么，

are often political choices that have real consequences.

往往是带有真实影响的政治选择。

How will genetic technologies shape the way that we understand ourselves

基因技术会如何改变 我们对自身的理解、

and define our bodies?

改变我们对身体的界定？

The artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg made these faces

艺术家海瑟·戴维·海格伯格 （Heather Dewey-Hagborg）

利用她从路边垃圾堆提取出的 DNA 序列，制作了这些面孔，

based on DNA sequences she extracted from sidewalk litter,

forcing us to ask questions about genetic privacy,

这迫使我们提出基因隐私的问题，

but also how and whether DNA can really define us.

并提出了 DNA 如何改变我们， 以及能否改变我们的问题。

How will we fight against and cope with climate change?

我们该如何阻止 并应对气候变化问题？

Will we change the way that we make everything,

我们会改变我们的制造方式，

using biological materials that can grow and decay alongside us?

使用能跟我们一起生长 和降解的生物材料吗？

Will we change our own bodies?

我们会改变自己的身体，

Or nature itself?

或者改变自然界吗？

Or can we change the system that keeps reinforcing those boundaries

又或者，我们能改变那些不断强化

科学、社会、自然和 科技之间边界的系统，

between science, society, nature and technology?

Relationships that today keep us locked in these unsustainable patterns.

以及让我们困在不可持续的 发展模式中的关系吗？

How we understand and respond to crises

当自然、科技和社会灾难一起爆发时，

that are natural, technical and social all at once,

从冠状病毒到气候变化，

from coronavirus to climate change,

我们该如何理解和应对？

is deeply political,

这些都是深受政治影响的，

and science never happens in a vacuum.

科学从来都不是在真空中发生的。

Let's go back in time

让我们回过头

to when the first European settlers arrived in Hawaii.

看看当第一批欧洲移民者 抵达夏威夷时发生了什么。

They eventually brought their cattle and their scientists with them.

他们带去了牲畜， 科学家也一同前往。

The cattle roamed the hillsides,

牲畜在山上游走，

trampling and changing the ecosystems as they went.

所到之处，生态系统 都遭到了践踏和改变。

The scientists catalogued the species that they found there,

科学家们则把他们 发现的物种编入目录，

often taking the last specimen before they went extinct.

并在物种灭绝之前， 提取最后的样本。

This is the Maui hau kuahiwi,

这个是“Maui hau kuahiwi”，

or the Hibiscadelphus wilderianus,

或者称为“Hibiscadelphus wilderianus”

so named by Gerrit Wilder in 1910.

由格利特·韦德（Gerrit Wilder） 于 1910 年命名。

By 1912, it was extinct.

在 1912 年，它灭绝了。

I found this specimen in the Harvard University Herbarium,

我是在哈佛大学 植物标本中发现这个物种的，

where it's housed with five million other specimens from all over the world.

那里收藏着来自世界各地的 500 多万种标本。

I wanted to take a piece of science's past,

我希望通过科学过去的一个片段，

tied up as it was with colonialism,

把它和殖民主义联结起来，

and all of the embedded ideas

并且把关于生物、科学、 社会中根植的观念

of the way that nature and science and society should work together,

结合起来，

and ask questions about science's future.

对科学的未来提出疑问。

Working with an awesome team at Ginkgo,

通过银杏（Ginkgo）公司

and others at UC Santa Cruz,

以及加州大学圣克鲁兹分校的团队合作，

we were able to extract a little bit of the DNA

我们从这个植物标本叶片中

from a tiny sliver of this plant specimen

成功提取出了一小部分 DNA，

and to sequence the DNA inside.

并对 DNA 进行了排序，

And then resynthesize a possible version

之后对植物气味基因

of the genes that made the smell of the plant.

进行了人工合成。

By inserting those genes into yeast,

通过把这种基因注入酵母菌，

we could produce little bits of that smell

我们可以制造出一丝味道，

and be able to, maybe, smell

或许可以闻到

a little bit of something that's lost forever.

这种已经永远消失的物种的味道。

Working again with Daisy and Sissel Tolaas,

通过再次与黛西和 西丝儿·托拉斯合作——

my collaborator on the cheese project,

他们也是我在奶酪项目中的合作者——

we reconstructed and composed a new smell of that flower,

我们改组生成了那种花的新味道，

and created an installation where people could experience it,

并建造了一个设施—— 人们可以在那里闻到这种味道——

to be part of this natural history and synthetic future.

作为自然历史和人造未来的一部分。

Ten years ago, I was a synthetic biologist

10 年前，我是一位合成生物学家，

worried that genetic engineering was more art than science

担心基因工程更像是艺术而非科学，

and that people were too messy

担心人类太难以捉摸、

and biology was too complicated.

生物学太复杂。

Now I use genetic engineering as art

如今，我把基因工程技术 当作艺术来运用，

to explore all the different ways that we are entangled together

探索人与人之间建立关系的不同方式，

and imagine different possible futures.

设想未来的不同可能性。

A fleshy future

一个有肉身的未来

is one that does recognize all those interconnections

会认同所有那些连接

and the human realities of technology.

以及人类现实技术。

But it also recognizes the incredible power of biology,

但它也同样认同生物学的无穷力量，

its resilience and sustainability,

它的恢复性及持续性，

its ability to heal and grow and adapt.

它修复、生长和适应的能力。

Values that are so necessary

这些价值观对于 今天的我们对未来的愿景

for the visions of the futures that we can have today.

是非常必要的。

Technology will shape that future,

科技会改变未来，

but humans make technology.

但创造科技的是人类。

How we decide what that future will be

如何决定未来的样子，

is up to all of us.

取决于我们每一个人。

Thank you.

谢谢。