The Tale of Terra(Contd.)
As Terra was being prepared for her final surgery, the one procedure that held the promise of alleviating all her difficulties and granting her a glimpse of a normal life, both she and her parents were consumed by fear. The Wilsons had exhausted all their options in managing Terra's condition, realizing that a positive future and a successful career seemed out of reach while she remained confined to her room, attending virtual classes through VR headsets.
Driven by their determination, the Wilsons, aided by their "Sherlock" figure, embarked on a quest to find a groundbreaking solution. Sherlock used his connections to dig deep into latest research in the field. Their tireless research led them to a bone marrow technique, where new marrow infused with nanobots capable of combating the virus that plagued Terra held the greatest potential for a cure. Essentially, the nanobots and the new marrow would together strengthen her immune system. The nanobots would specifically fight off HIV and the new bone marrow would strengthen her system to fight off opportunistic infections. However, this experimental transplant carried significant risks, potentially leaving Terra in a worse state. As Mrs. Wilson watched Terra being wheeled into the operation theater, her hands trembled with anxiety. The advancements in biotechnology had granted Terra a glimpse of a better future, but the odds of survival stood at a mere 20%.
For the Wilsons, the decision was especially arduous as it was the first time this procedure was being attempted on a child. Courageously, they made a choice, fully aware of the uncertainty that lay ahead. The credit for this option predominantly belonged to James, their "Sherlock," who had discovered the technique.
Upon Terra's return from South Africa, she had underwent a liver transplant to combat her hepatitis, her unique circumstances necessitated a more tailored approach to minimize the risks of infection and rejection, both of which could prove disastrous in her case. To address this, doctors employed 3D printing technology to create a liver using Terra's own STEM cells, harvested from her hair follicles due to her preexisting AIDS condition. Basically, artificial organs created using her DNA was 3D printed for Terra. Her DNA had to be extracted such that it was free of HIV. The perfect spot was her hair follicle. While this solution offered a remarkable remedy for Terra's liver failure, it rendered her even more vulnerable to future challenges. Doctors realized that they couldn’t keep putting out fires as they came. They managed to find an innovative solution this time, but a long-term remedy was still needed to reduce the frequency of medical interventions.
As the doctor instructed Terra to count backward from 100, her subconscious mind wrestled with doubts about whether she would truly be able to attain normalcy. The countless trials she had endured had overshadowed the possibility in her mind that she might not survive this surgery. Nonetheless, she remained optimistic and eagerly anticipated a brighter future. As the anesthesia took hold and she slipped into a deep slumber, the doctors meticulously prepared the surgical site. Outside the operating room, James and the Wilsons anxiously waited, their hearts gripped by fear, desperately yearning for any update or glimmer of good news. While the procedure itself was relatively straightforward, the challenge lay in Terra's body accepting this new normal.
As Terra woke up mumbling water, thirsty from a long refuse of water she gained consciousness and the Wilsons gained life. The wait for Terra to wake up had sucked the life out of the Wilsons. As she came out of her slumber she was visibly happy and so was everyone around her. This solution might just work, unconventional yet effective. Her condition was already improving, she could feel her spirits lift up. She had a refreshing smile. James felt a load go away, he was satisfied that Terra was okay and well the Wilsons though scientists felt grateful to god and also felt indebted to James. Terra finally had a glimmer for a stable future where she defined herself not her disease. All she had to do was survive well for the next six weeks. Her track record with recovery had always been awesome. Imagine the odds of surviving in South Africa as an orphan infected with AIDS. The number is just too low yet she survived essentially setting a benchmark of survival.
In the coming weeks, Terra’s situation continued to improve. The doctors were all very confident of Terra’s prognosis. Terra had been responding well and her immune system already started to show improvements in its ability to ward off the infection.
As Terra was walking out of the hospital that day she reflected on her journey of the past so many years a journey which started from the ghettos of a beautiful region to an orphanage to a whole new land and finally to where she was today. Walking out with a real potential where her disease won’t define her anymore, her will will. In the car ride back home, the family for the first time felt like one, everyone was quiet and wondering in their own brains but with a smile on their faces, silently relishing the feeling of togetherness. They had achieved something substantial. They had conquered a fight that no one thought would ever be possible. A fight which neither Terra chose for herself nor did anything to instigate it. But the courage and wisdom with which the Wilsons took on the fight on themselves gave Terra meaning. It gave Terra a shot at a better future and most importantly it gave her a home, not a house but a home.
The future with advanced Biotechnology & Nanotechnology
The first argument to consider as to why we need advancing biotechnology and nanotechnology is the simple fact that we have more biological risks today than many years back, we have more diseases because of environmental challenges and most importantly of all because of the doomsday argument.
The doomsday argument is a pessimistic philosophical concept that states we are closer to the end of humanity than we are to the beginning. Let’s break it down sequentially. The doomsday argument firstly states that there will always be a fixed number of humans that will ever in totality exist. The probability of any single human being alive will be proportional to the number of humans alive at that point in time. If you take a probability density distribution curve between 0 and 1 and assume either we are at the 2.5% of humanity or at 97.5% of humanity then based on basic calculations one can see that the upper limit of humanity is 9120 years. This is a highly theoratical and probabilistic argument which all of us would like to be false, yet considering this in a positive light gives us motivation and reason to follow through with improvement in biotechnology and further colonizing space, the latter is something that we will discuss in the next few chapters but let’s focus on biotechnology for now.
I think this is more than enough reason to explore this advantageous technology to the fullest while not blurring certain lines and ensuring a safe and equitable access for the future. The following are the main lines along which arguments against biotechnology & nanobiotechnology can be made:
Socio-economic gap
Regulatory challenges
Bioethical concerns / Unintended consequences
Privacy & security
Health & safety risks
This has been a challenge with every technology and will continue to be so where the lower sections of the society are completely alienated and unincluded from such things not on purpose but by default due to the heavy costs incurred with these things. Another major challenge is if we wish to embrace diversity in the world and even manage to get costs down for those in the third world, they are uneducated on such matters and have superstitious beliefs. This causes them to be in denial of science and reject technologies. This skepticism needs to be addressed. An important thing to consider here is we may ward off the responsibility that its not our job if they wish to lead their lives in a certain way, but it is important to consider that a world that is interconnected by opportunities is also one interconnected by challenges and even a small ripple in the fabric of society can cause disturbance at the most extreme ends of that fabric. Herd immunity or herd health is a concept where an individual’s health is as strong as the community’s if majority of the community does not taken precautions in form of biotechnological interventions, we leave ourselves and the world vulnerable to a bigger problem. Since we are talking about futuristic technologies, consider this from the story if we do have such nanobots at a certain point and they are capable of fighting off infections in a precautionary way but not as a cure then everyone having such an intervention makes the world stronger than just a select few having.
Another possible intervention is precautionary monitoring of the parameters using biotech for certain markers that might be indicative of various health risks. This scrutiny can be extremely beneficial to save lives but can also destroy lives financially. Consider, the medical insurance coverage which is generally done after an extensive survey of risk factors with current technologies, if genetics and biotechnology progress to such a level where insurance companies have the advance ability to gauge the likelihood of diseases and timelines, it may encourage these companies to design the policy in a way where high risk patients are excluded or they purposely exclude disease coverage to those which they know the people are at risk of.
Regulating biotech/nanotech is of utmost important in this field, unregulated research & experimentation can definitely lead to extremely negative public health effects.
Consider a scenario where unregulated this technology has the potential to be extremely misused and exploited wherein advanced genetics can enable targeted delivery of drugs or diseases wherein imagine a virus that is genetically hardcoded to affect someone or a certain class of people. This can have lethal consequences and is all the more reason for this technology to be heavily regulated.
A primary concern with interventions such as this will be evolution. Evolution has led our bodies to evolve in a very specific way and this long term change is quite sustainable and short term change is often mercurial in nature. Introducing sudden changes genetically and artificially can disrupt our system and more specifically ecology. Firstly, we leave ourselves vulnerable in a new regime, the new genetically altered state is open to other sets of challenges, as for our current genetic systems humans have been studying them since ancient times so even crowd wisdom on current genetic system will be better than scientific wisdom on a new genetic wisdom. Genetic modification can affect the ecological balance which can have serious environmental challenges.
A similar bee hypothesis can occur in this domain as well, due the specific nature of this few companies control mass production and distribution of such technologies leading to a monopolization of power which is never good.
Another extremely disturbing ethical concern is the potentiality that this technology can also have soft power. This is a potential misuse of this capability that we would have gained in biotechnology where intentionally this technology can be used to alter genetics and divide humans further based on various characteristics including but not limited to a super race of humans. This will be quite similar to the Hitlerian ethnic cleansing. This would extremely divide humanity and lead us into a dark phase. This would be an existential risk not to humanity but the human civilization.
Another very serious family of challenges associated with biotech and nanotech is safety and privacy. Genetic information is extremely privileged because it holds a lot of personal information about a person and regulating genetic data is a huge challenge which should be undertaken extremely professionally and in an efficient manner.
Genetic discrimination is also something that needs to be taken seriously wherein people are discriminated against on the basis of their predisposition to diseases etc. especially in terms of employment and education.
A wider concern is to tactfully secure all genetic information, no individual should be allowed or have to publicly release or share anywhere their genetic information as it not only provides information about the individual but also the family which can be unethical. Effective policy to combat genetic sequencing and open sourcing of such information must be undertaken.
Health and safety are another crucial area to be thought of before mass implementation. Nanotechnology while effective and beneficial can also have toxic effects on a living being’s body and cause further deterioration. Nanotech should be free of any toxic chemicals which can have adverse effects. All research on nanotechnology and implantation of nanotechnology should be extremely transparent and under informed consent. Nanotechnology very futuristically may also be utilized maliciously to induce certain effects over a person’s health therefore there should be strict regulation.
A broader question in both the fields combined is the testing of this technology. This technology is often tested on animals which has always been in debate about its ethicality. The question is whether testing should from the start be done on humans who are willing. I think it is quite nonsensical to ask this question. A lot of humans will willingly be guinea pigs because of the greed. The amount of poverty there is in the world and the amount of money that would be given out as compensation in the trial will be just too equal for underprivileged to pass up. The deeper question is whether people should be allowed to make this choice for themselves of choosing money and basic needs for their family. The flip side is it ethical of us to use animals who have not chosen this for themselves to undergo such testing?
I know we all have our concerns about what should and shouldn’t be done. All I am doing is asking the questions: an analogy I am taking the horse to the water but drinking it up is upto him which in this case means thinking about such things is upto you as the reader.
I think these questions are indeed important and must be asked because of the complexity that goes into acceptance of such technologies.
If we want the whole world to accept these technologies in their ideal state then their shouldn’t be a single faction with concerns. Asking and answering these questions is the first step in removing this rejection of technology.
If you haven’t realized, the main question or the suggestive point of this last paragraph is how we develop technology is more important to people than the technology itself. Did we use an incorrect way? Did we do something wrong or perhaps things like that. As technologists, the questions we should ask ourselves is not what we see in the technology but what people and policy see in it.
Our world is already divided on many issues simply adding in more divisions through this is not worth the effect because it presents as I said an existential risk not to humanity but to human civilization which is far more important because the identity is what defines us and not our existence.
Policy recommendations:
A very clear dialogue between the scientists, policy and the people should exist, this helps with not only improving the flow of information but also with how policy and people interpret technology and the scientists shape the technology according to policy and the people. This can only begin when there is consensus and transparency on the how of the development. Majorly, how scientists develop it is something that plagues the people a lot and it also influences how policy around it is developed.
Our technology is progressively reaching a state where we can exhibit and interpret our world very accurately using brute force simulations. The first step to address ecological imbalance should be test out the ecology using brute force simulations, this capability especially comes to our hands as we move towards a quantum future. Really understanding how the complex interplay changes with genetic mutations or nanotech interventions can really help us figure out the kinks in the system.
Genetic testing companies should be held to a high standard and more importantly, any results that must be given to the people should simply be analysis not the exact in depth sequencing of somene’s genes. Moreover, such a sequence should be promptly deleted or atleast hashed and the original form be deleted to simply correspond the findings.
In regards to the insurance risks, there are laws against it, for instance in the US its known as the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act or GINA which promote non-discimrimination of patients on the basis of their genetic information by insurance companies. The challenge though is that the list of newer developments in technologies which don’t necessarily have genetic component to it but still have the ability to extract similar information is non-exhaustive. Sadly, development of technology outpaces the policy by a small gap in the first world and a larger gap in the second and third world countries. A possible intervention for such a pace inequity is adaptive laws for biological non-discrimination. Adaptive laws have clauses which enable amendments without the long legislative process thus helping policy keep up with technology.
All regulation in the biotech & nanotech field should be through a sophisticated mechanism. As discussed above development far outpaces legislation, for this reason all regulatory powers should be in control of an autonomous government agency which allows us to free regulation from the shackles of exhaustive legislative processes.
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