Here Be Dragons: Governing a Technologically Uncertain Future

A Future Tense Event

Maps in the old days often included depictions of sea dragons or lions to connote unknown or dangerous terrain. Unfortunately, when it comes to a future that will be altered in unimaginable ways by emerging technologies, society and government cannot simply lay down a "Here Be Dragons" marker with a fanciful illustration to signal that most of us have no clue.

How does a democratic society both nurture and regulate -- and find the right balance between those two imperatives -- fast-evolving technologies poised to radically alter life?

Synthetic biology, with its potential to engineer and manipulate living organisms, and the Internet, which continues to alter how we live and relate to each other, offer two compelling cases in point.

Future Tense convened at Google DC a number of leading scientists, Internet thinkers, governance experts and science fiction writers to grapple with the challenge of governing an unchartered future. Video of one of the discussions -- "Will Synthetic Biology End Human History?" -- is featured above; links to video of ech and every panel are available in the agenda that follows.

Future Tense is a partnership of Arizona State University, the New America Foundation and Slate magazine.

Follow along on Twitter #futuretense

Agenda

Agenda: Thursday, February 3

8:30 am - Registration and Breakfast

9:00 am - Welcome

Andrés Martinez
Co-Director, Future Tense Initiative
Director, Schwartz Fellows Program, New America Foundation

9:05 am - Synthetic Biology 101: Can’t we make the Dragons? [Video]

Andrew Hessel
Co-Chair, Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, Singularity University
Founding Director, Pink Army Cooperative

9:35 am - The Promise and Perils of Synthetic Biology Today [Video]

George Church
Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School
Director, Center for Computational Genetics

Dan Sarewitz
Associate Director, Center for Nanotechnology in Society, Arizona State University
Co-Director of the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes

Robert J. Sawyer
Author, Flashforward, Mindscan, and Factoring Humanity

Moderator
Robert Wright
Future Tense Fellow, New America Foundation
Author, Nonzero, The Moral Animal, and The Evolution of God

10:50 am - Groping for the Online Master Switch: The Elusive Quest to Govern the Internet [Video]

Bruce Gottlieb
General Counsel, Atlantic Media Company
Former Chief Counsel to the Chairman, FCC

11:20 am - Connecting the Genes and the Bytes [Video]

Bruce Gottlieb
General Counsel, Atlantic Media Company
Former Chief Counsel to the Chairman, FCC

Andrew Hessel
Co-Chair, Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, Singularity University
Founding Director, Pink Army Cooperative

Moderator
Jacob Weisberg
Chairman and Editor-in-Chief,Slate Group

12:00 - Break

12:15 pm - Lunch: Can Technology Policy be Democratic? [Video]

George Church
Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School
Director, Center for Computational Genetics

Michael Crow
President, Arizona State University

Neal Stephenson
Author, Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, and Zodiac

Moderator
Jacob Weisberg
Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, Slate Group

1:30 pm - Bio, the Hollywood Treatment [Video]

Brian Malow
Science Comedian
Video Correspondent, Time.com

Robert J. Sawyer
Author, Flashforward, Mindscan, and Factoring Humanity

2:00 pm - Can Washington Keep Up With the Next Big Thing? [Video]

Larry Downes
Fellow, Center for Internet & Society, Stanford Law School
Author, The Laws of Disruption: Harnessing the New Forces that Govern Business and Life in the Digital Age

Gary Marchant
Lincoln Professor of Emerging Technologies, Law and Ethics, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Arizona State University
Senior Sustainability Scientist, Global Institute of Sustainability

Jim Thomas
Research Program Manager and Writer, ETC Group

Moderator
Brink Lindsey
Senior Scholar in Research and Policy, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

3:15 pm - Coffee Break

3:30 pm - The Curious Case of Wikileaks [Video]

Don E. Kash
Professor Emeritus, School of Public Policy, George Mason University

Rebecca MacKinnon
Senior Schwartz Fellow, New America Foundation
Co-Founder, Global Voices Online

Bruce Sterling
Author, Schismatrix, Distraction, and The Caryatids
Professor, Internet Studies and Science Fiction, European Graduate School

Moderator
Robert Wright
Future Tense Fellow, New America Foundation
Author, Nonzero, The Moral Animal, and The Evolution of God

4:45 pm - Brian Malow’s Footnotes [Video]

5:00 pm - Adjourn for the Day

Friday, February 4th

9:00 am - Stranger than Fiction: Technology’s Challenge for Storytellers [Video]

Sascha Meinrath
Director, Open Technology Initiative, New America Foundation

Neal Stephenson
Author, Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, and Zodiac

10:00 am - The Dragons Online: The Internet’s Coming Surprises [Video]

Alan Davidson
Director of Government Relations and Public Policy, Google

Tim Wu
Future Tense Fellow, New America Foundation
Professor, Columbia Law School
Author, The Master Switch: the Rise and Fall of Information Empires

Moderator
Andrés Martinez
Co-Director, Future Tense Initiative
Director, Schwartz Fellows Program, New America Foundation

11:00 am - Will Synthetic Biology End Human History? [Video]

Drew Endy
Synthetic Biologist, Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University

Francis Fukuyama
Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University

Moderator
Michael Specter
Staff Writer, The New Yorker
Author, Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives

12:15 pm - Break

12:30 pm - Lunch: Public Beneficence in the Pursuit of Science [Video]

Steve Coll
President, New America Foundation

Amy Gutmann
President, University of Pennsylvania
Chair, Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues