What happens when biology becomes technology? | Christina Agapakis

譯者: Lilian Chiu 審譯者: Helen Chang

A briefcase full of poop changed my life.

一個裝滿便便的公事包 改變了我的人生。

Ten years ago, I was a graduate student

十年前，我還是研究生時，

and I was helping judge a genetic engineering competition

我在一個大學生基因工程 競賽中幫忙當評審。

for undergrads.

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

在那裡，我遇見了英國的藝術家 和設計師亞歷山卓戴西金斯堡。

She was wearing the white embroidered polo shirt

她穿著劍橋大學隊的 白色刺繡馬球衫，

of the University of Cambridge team

and holding a silver briefcase,

拿著一個銀色的公事包，

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

就是你想像中用手銬 銬在你手腕上的那一種。

She gestured over from a quiet corner

她從一個安靜的角落向我示意， 問我想不想看個東西。

and asked me if I wanted to see something.

With a sneaky look, she opened up the suitcase,

她掛著鬼崇的表情， 打開了公事包，

and inside were six glorious, multicolored turds.

裡面有六塊壯觀的多色糞塊。

The Cambridge team, she explained,

她解釋，劍橋隊

had spent their summer engineering the bacteria E. coli

整個夏天都在針對 大腸桿菌做基因工程，

to be able to sense different things in the environment

讓它能感測到環境中的不同事物，

and produce a rainbow of different colors in response.

並產生出不同顏色的 彩虹做為回應。

Arsenic in your drinking water?

你喝的水當中有砷？

This strain would turn green.

這種菌種就會轉為綠色。

She and her collaborator, the designer James King,

她和她的合作夥伴 設計師詹姆士金恩

worked with the students and imagined the different possible scenarios

和學生合作，想像出各種可能情境

of how you might use these bacteria.

來使用這些細菌。

What if, they asked, you could use them

他們問，如果你可以把這些細菌

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

做成活的益生菌飲料加上 健康監控器，合而為一，如何？

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

你可以喝下細菌， 讓它生活在腸道中，

sensing what's going on,

感測發生的狀況，

and then in response to something,

接著它會產生出有顏色區別的輸出 表示對某種狀況的反應。

it would be able to produce a colored output.

Holy shit!

天（字面：神聖的屎）！

The Cambridge team went on to win

劍橋隊接著贏得了

the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition,

國際遺傳工程機器設計競賽，

or iGEM for short.

簡稱 iGEM。

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

對我來說，那些糞塊是個轉捩點。

I am a synthetic biologist,

我是合成生物學家，

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

這可能是個大部分人 不熟悉的怪詞。

It definitely sounds like an oxymoron.

它聽起來肯定很像矛盾修飾。

How can biology, something natural,

生物是很天然的， 怎麼可能是合成的？

be synthetic?

How can something artificial be alive?

人工的怎麼會有生命？

Synthetic biologists sort of poke holes

合成生物學家算是

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

在天然和科技之間的那界線上戳洞。

And every year, iGEM students from all over the world

每年，來自各地的 iGEM 學生都會花一整個夏天

spend their summer

trying to engineer biology to be technology.

試圖透過工程 把生物學轉變為科技。

They teach bacteria how to play sudoku,

他們教細菌如何玩數讀，

they make multicolored spider silk,

他們製造出多色的蜘蛛絲，

they make self-healing concrete

他們製造出會自癒的混凝土、

and tissue printers and plastic-eating bacteria.

組織列印機，及會吃塑膠的細菌。

Up until that moment, though,

不過，在那一刻之前，

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

我比較在意另一種矛盾修飾。

Just plain old genetic engineering.

就是單純的老式基因工程。

The comedian Simon Munnery once wrote

喜劇演員西蒙穆內瑞寫過，

that genetic engineering is actually insulting to proper engineering.

基因工程其實是在侮辱正統的工程。

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

基因工程比較像是把一堆 混凝土和鋼材丟到河裡，

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

如果有人能這樣走過河， 就能稱它是一座橋。

And so synthetic biologists were pretty worried about this,

所以合成生物學家很擔心這一點，

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

擔心基因工程比較 像是藝術而不是科學。

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

他們想要把基因工程轉變成 一門真正的工程學科，

where we could program cells and write DNA

讓我們可以用工程師 為電腦寫軟體的方式，

the way that engineers write software for computers.

替細胞寫程式及寫入 DNA。

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

十年前的那一天讓我踏上一條路， 才會走到今天這一步。

Today, I'm the creative director

現在，我是創意總監，

at a synthetic biology company called Ginkgo Bioworks.

在合成生物公司 Ginkgo Bioworks 工作。

"Creative director" is a weird title

在這間生物科技公司裡 「創意總監」是個蠻奇怪的職稱，

for a biotech company were people try to program life

我們用為電腦寫程式的方式 來為生命寫程式。

the way that we program computers.

But that day when I met Daisy,

但那天，當我見到戴西，

I learned something about engineering.

我對工程有了更多了解。

I learned that engineering isn't really just about equations

我了解到，工程的重點 並不只是方程式、

and steel and circuits,

鋼筋、電路，

it's actually about people.

其實重點是在人。

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

重點是人會做的事， 及此事對我們的影響。

So in my work,

所以，在我在研究中

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

試著為不同類型的工程開創新空間。

How can we ask better questions,

我們要如何問更好的問題？

and can we have better conversations

針對我們希望有怎樣的科技未來， 我們要如何做更好的討論？

about what we want from the future of technology?

How can we understand the technological

我們要如何同時了解科技

but also social and political and economic reasons

以及社會、政治、經濟的理由，

that GMOs are so polarizing in our society?

造成我們社會中基因改造生物 如此兩極化的各種理由？

Can we make GMOs that people love?

我們能做出大家喜愛的 基因改造生物嗎？

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

我們能用生物學來做出 更廣泛、更革新的科技嗎？

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

我認為起始點是要承認

我們合成生物學家 還受到一種文化的薰陶，

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

這種文化對「真正的工程學」的 重視程度勝於任何骯髒的東西。

more than any of the squishy stuff.

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

我們太專注在電路 及電腦內部發生的狀況，

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

以致於有時我們沒有注意到 我們自己內在所產生的魔力。

There is plenty of shitty technology out there,

外頭有許多屎級的科技，

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

但這是我頭一次 把便便想像成科技。

I began to see that synthetic biology was awesome,

我開始發現，合成生物學很棒，

not because we could turn cells into computers,

不是因為我們能把細胞轉變成電腦，

but because we could bring technology to life.

而是因為我們能讓科技活過來。

This was technology that was visceral,

那裡有種發自內心的科技，

an unforgettable vision of what the future might hold.

對於未來的樣貌， 有種讓人難忘的遠景。

But importantly, it was also framed as the question

但重要的是它也被包裝成一個問題：

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

「我們真的想要這樣的未來嗎？」

We've been promised a future of chrome,

我們被許諾網路瀏覽器般的未來，

but what if the future is fleshy?

但如果未來是有血肉的呢？

Science and science fiction

科學和科幻小說

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

幫我們記得我們是星塵之軀。

But can it also help us remember the wonder and weirdness

但它也能幫我們記得身為 血肉之軀的驚奇和不可思議嗎？

of being made of flesh?

Biology is us,

生物學就是我們，

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

是我們的身體，是我們吃的東西。

What happens when biology becomes technology?

當生物學變成科技時，會如何？

These images are questions,

這些圖片代表著問題，

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

且挑戰我們認定的正常和合意。

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

它們也讓我們看到未來滿是選擇，

and that we could choose differently.

以及我們能做不同的選擇。

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

身體的未來，美麗的未來是什麼？

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

如果我們改變身體， 我們會有新的意識嗎？

And will new kinds of awareness of the microbial world

關於微生物的新意識

change the way that we eat?

會改變我們吃的方式嗎？

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

我論文的最後一章， 全都在談我做的起司，

using bacteria that I swabbed from in between my toes.

它的成份是從我的 腳趾間拭取的細菌。

I told you that the poop changed my life.

我說過，那些便便改變了我的人生。

I worked with the smell artist and researcher Sissel Tolaas

我和氣味藝術家及研究者 西塞爾托拉斯合作，

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

研究我們的身體和起司透過氣味

（因此也是透過微生物） 連結的各種方式。

through smell and therefore microbes.

And we created this cheese

我們創造出了這種起司， 來挑戰我們的想法，

to challenge how we think about the bacteria

重新思考我們生活中的細菌，

that's part of our lives

and the bacteria that we work with in the lab.

以及我們在實驗室中使用的細菌。

We are, indeed, what we eat.

的確，你吃什麼就是什麼樣的人。

The intersection of biology and technology

生物學與科技的交會點

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

通常都被當成一個關於 超越肉體現實的故事來訴說。

If you can upload your brain to a computer,

若你能把你的大腦上傳到電腦， 你就不再需要上大號了。

you don't need to poop anymore after all.

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

通常說這種故事時 是當好事在說，對吧？

Because computers are clean, and biology is messy.

因為電腦很乾淨，

而生物學一團亂。

Computers make sense and are rational,

電腦有道理，是理性的，

and biology is an unpredictable tangle.

生物學既無法預測又糾結在一起。

It kind of follows from there

從這大概就衍生出

that science and technology are supposed to be rational,

科學和科技應該要理性、

objective

客觀，

and pure,

且純粹，

and it's humans that are a total mess.

會一團亂的是人類。

But like synthetic biologists poke holes

但，就像合成生物學家在大自然

in that line between nature and technology,

和科技之間的那條線上戳洞一樣，

artists, designers and social scientists

藝術家、設計師 以及社會科學家讓我見識到

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

我們在大自然、科技 及社會之間所畫下的線，

are a little bit softer than we might think.

比我們想像的還要軟一些。

They challenge us to reconsider our visions for the future

他們挑戰我們，去重新思考 我們對於未來的遠景，

and our fantasies about controlling nature.

以及我們對於控制大自然的幻想。

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

他們讓我們見識到，我們的 偏見、希望，以及價值觀

are embedded in science and technology

都透過我們發問的問題 以及我們做出的選擇，

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

被置入在科學和科技中。

They make visible the ways that science and technology are human

他們揭露出科學和科技 如何具有人性，

and therefore political.

也因而具有政治性。

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

我們能夠依據自己的目的 來控制生命，這代表什麼意義？

for our own purposes?

The artists Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr

藝術家歐倫凱茲和艾奧納祖爾

made a project called "Victimless Leather,"

有個專案計畫叫 「無受害者的皮革」，

where they engineered a tiny leather jacket

他們用基因工程， 將老鼠細胞做成小型皮夾克。

out of mouse cells.

Is this jacket alive?

這件夾克是活的嗎？

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

要花什麼代價才能將它 栽培出來並保持這個樣子？

Is it really victimless?

真的沒有受害者嗎？

And what does it mean for something to be victimless?

某樣東西「無受害者」， 那是什麼意思？

The choices that we make

我們在我們的發展故事中 針對我們要展現什麼、

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

隱藏什麼所做出的選擇，

are often political choices that have real consequences.

通常都是政治考量的選擇， 會導致真實的後果。

How will genetic technologies shape the way that we understand ourselves

基因科技會如何形塑出 我們了解自己的方式

and define our bodies?

及定義我們身體的方式？

The artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg made these faces

藝術家海瑟杜威黑格伯格 創作了這些臉孔，

based on DNA sequences she extracted from sidewalk litter,

創作的根據是她從人行道 垃圾中取出的 DNA 序列，

forcing us to ask questions about genetic privacy,

迫使我們要詢問 關於基因隱私的問題，

but also how and whether DNA can really define us.

也要問 DNA 如何以及是否 真的能夠定義我們。

How will we fight against and cope with climate change?

我們要如何對抗及處理氣候變遷？

Will we change the way that we make everything,

我們是否會改變製造東西的方式？

using biological materials that can grow and decay alongside us?

使用會和我們一樣 生長和腐爛的生物材料？

Will we change our own bodies?

我們會改變我們自己的身體嗎？

Or nature itself?

或者大自然本身？

Or can we change the system that keeps reinforcing those boundaries

抑或我們能否改變那個

不斷強化科學、社會、大自然 與科技之間界線的那個系統呢？

between science, society, nature and technology?

Relationships that today keep us locked in these unsustainable patterns.

現今將我們鎖在這些 不永續模式當中的關係。

How we understand and respond to crises

對於同時牽涉大自然、 科技和社會的危機，

that are natural, technical and social all at once,

我們去了解和因應它們的方式，

from coronavirus to climate change,

如，從新型冠狀病毒到氣候變遷，

is deeply political,

都是非常政治化的，

and science never happens in a vacuum.

而科學絕對不會在真空中發生。

Let's go back in time

咱們回到過去，

to when the first European settlers arrived in Hawaii.

回到第一批歐洲移居者 抵達夏威夷的時期。

They eventually brought their cattle and their scientists with them.

他們最終把他們的小牛 及科學家都一起帶過去。

The cattle roamed the hillsides,

小牛在山坡上閒晃，

trampling and changing the ecosystems as they went.

所經之處的生態系統 被牠們踐踏了、改變了。

The scientists catalogued the species that they found there,

科學家將他們在那裡 找到的物種做分類，

often taking the last specimen before they went extinct.

通常會在這些物種絕種 之前取走最後的樣本。

This is the Maui hau kuahiwi,

這是茂宜島上的山芙蓉，

or the Hibiscadelphus wilderianus,

或稱魏氏岳槿，

so named by Gerrit Wilder in 1910.

1910 年蓋瑞特魏爾德取的名稱。

By 1912, it was extinct.

1912 年，這種植物絕種了。

I found this specimen in the Harvard University Herbarium,

我在哈佛大學的植物 標本室找到這個樣本，

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

標本室中還有五百萬個 來自世界各地的其他樣本。

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

我想要取科學的部分過往，

tied up as it was with colonialism,

緊緊綁在一起， 就像它與殖民主義那樣，

and all of the embedded ideas

還有所有置於其中的想法，

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

關於大自然、科學，及社會 要如何同心協力的想法，

and ask questions about science's future.

並針對科學的未來提出問題。

Working with an awesome team at Ginkgo,

和 Ginkgo 及加大聖塔克魯茲的 優秀團隊合作，

and others at UC Santa Cruz,

we were able to extract a little bit of the DNA

讓我們能夠從這一小片植物樣本中

from a tiny sliver of this plant specimen

粹取出一些 DNA，

and to sequence the DNA inside.

並將內部的 DNA 做定序。

And then resynthesize a possible version

接著，我們針對造成 這種植物氣味的基因，

of the genes that made the smell of the plant.

重新合成出了一個可能的版本。

By inserting those genes into yeast,

將那些基因置入到酵母中，

we could produce little bits of that smell

我們就能製造出一點那種氣味，

and be able to, maybe, smell

且也許還能夠聞到一些 已經永遠失去的氣味。

a little bit of something that's lost forever.

Working again with Daisy and Sissel Tolaas,

我和戴西及我在起司專案中的夥伴

my collaborator on the cheese project,

西塞爾托拉斯再次合作，

we reconstructed and composed a new smell of that flower,

我們重新建構出那種花的新氣味，

and created an installation where people could experience it,

並建造了一個裝置， 讓大家能去體驗它，

to be part of this natural history and synthetic future.

參與這段大自然歷史及合成未來。

Ten years ago, I was a synthetic biologist

十年前，我是個合成生物學家，

worried that genetic engineering was more art than science

擔心著基因工程比較 像是藝術而非科學，

and that people were too messy

人實在太凌亂，

and biology was too complicated.

而生物學實在太複雜。

Now I use genetic engineering as art

現在，我把基因工程 當作藝術來使用，

to explore all the different ways that we are entangled together

來探索我們糾纏連結 在一起的各種不同方式，

and imagine different possible futures.

想像不同的可能未來。

A fleshy future

有血肉的未來

is one that does recognize all those interconnections

是能夠承認所有這些 相互連結的未來，

and the human realities of technology.

能承認科技的人類現實，

But it also recognizes the incredible power of biology,

也能承認生物學的驚人力量——

its resilience and sustainability,

它的恢復力和永續性，

its ability to heal and grow and adapt.

能治癒、成長和適應的能力——

Values that are so necessary

是我們現今對未來願景 所亟需的價值觀。

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

Technology will shape that future,

科技會形塑出那個未來，

but humans make technology.

但科技是人類創造出來的。

How we decide what that future will be

要如何決定未來的樣貌

is up to all of us.

就看我們了。

Thank you.

謝謝。