Sonnenfeld, N.A. (2015, September 16). Bioengineering and the future of politics. Lecture presented at the Learn After Dark! speaker series hosted by the ERAU Biomedical Engineering Society student chapter, Daytona Beach, Florida. DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.4054740.

1. BIOENGINEERING
AND THE FUTURE OF POLITICS

2. Current Political Landscape
Current political issues:
• Affordable Healthcare
• Abortion
• Immigration
• Public Pension
• School Testing (Common Core)
• Transportation Funding
• Cost of Water
• Carbon Emissions
• Tax Policy
• Deficit Spending
• Religious Business Freedom
• Middle East Foreign Policy
• Stem Cell Research

3. Current Technological Landscape
Top Technologies of 2015 (non-exhaustive)
• In Vitro Meat
• Powered Exoskeletons
• Brain-Computer Interfaces
• High-Speed Transportation
• Genome Editing
• Solar Power / Electrical Grid
• Tricorder (Stark Trek – Medical Apps)
• Bio-printing
• Organ-on-a-chip
• Biometrics
• Augmented Reality
• Virtual Reality
• Cryptocurrency
• Artificial Intelligence
• E-Learning
• Artificial Uterus
• Prostheses
• Cryonics
• De-Extinction
• Life Extension (Gene-Therapy)
• Nanomedicine
• Space Commercialization
• Autonomous Robotics
• Swarm Robotics
• Vertical Farming
• Closed Ecological Systems

4. Evolving Political Relevance
• Right (Republican)  Left (Democrat)
• Bioprogressive  Bioconservative
• Personal & Economic Liberty
• Technoprogressives – Access/Speed
• Transhumanists – Speed /Access
• Neither
• Bioconservative
• Economic Freedom (Military spending)  modern technologies
• Modern Technologies  personal & economic freedom
• DARPA/Internet  President Obama, LGBT Equality

5. Future Political Landscape
Issues:
• What defines citizenship?
• What defines personhood?
• How far do civil liberties go?
• “Yuck Factor” & Religious Freedom
• How do we handle technological risk?
• Resignation, Regulation, or Relinquishment
• Can we enhance ourselves?
• Universal, Legal, or Banned
• What is the role of parenthood?
• Reproductive Rights, Procreative Liberty, & Beneficence
• How do we stop climate change?
• Ban, Free Market Green, or TechnoGaian?
Issues:
• How do we treat unemployment?
• Universal Basic Income, Protectionism, Benefits,
or Luddite?
• Should we continue increasing individual sovereignty?
• Should globalization should be stopped, should
we globally ban enhancement tech, should we
continue economic globalization, or are we only
sustainable through economic and political
globalization?

6. For Certain:
• Engineering disciplines can solve many of our national and global issues
• Examples: (non-exhaustive)
• Bioengineering to solve and provide access to health and lifesaving or altering tech
• Aerospace Engineering to solve overpopulation and resource scarcity
• Civil Engineering to solve agriculture and water crises
• Electrical Engineering to solve energy and transportation crises
• Mechanical Engineering to provide support for development of all these technologies
• Complexity Science to support migration as solution to aging workforce
• Human Factors to make all technologies more accessible, processes efficient, and recreate Education
• Systems Engineering to support system efficiency and reorganize politics
• Computer/Software Engineering to increase automation, support development of all this tech
• But, this must likewise be supported by the political decisions to allow this to happen

7. Future Technological Landscape:
Hale, K.S., Stanney, K.M., Winslow, B. (2013). HSI emerging concepts: Developing an r&d agenda through 2050

8. Future Technological Landscape:
Hale, K.S., Stanney, K.M., Winslow, B. (2013). HSI emerging concepts: Developing an r&d agenda through 2050

9. Closing Words
• Technological development will have a huge impact on the political landscape
• Although the struggle of increasing political & economic freedom will continue
• Current political barriers are only superficial
• Being a republican or democrat in the American political system will be obsolete in the future
• So do what you can to evolve your own beliefs – issues are more complex than the media
portrays, and we understand this by looking at future trends, and developments in tech
• Whether a techno-progressive
or a transhumanist…
Just don’t be a Luddite!