Re: [DIYbio] "Biocoder" semantics; rambling aside

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux)
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=aiXq
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Congrats!
Will probably subscribe, looking forward to having regular reading
material for our field.

On the name; it's a classic O'Reilly-ism, rebranding something that
already has names in order to capture it. But, broadly, we've gotten
off light compared to stuff like the great Free Software downgrade, or
"Creativity" -> "Making".

However, I'm still not a fan. Biocoding emphasises mechanisation,
determinism, all the stuff we should be prepared to let go of as we
explore this alternative branch of technology.

DIYbio makes no assumptions about life, and is pretty broad as a label.
Biohacking is more narrow, generally implying genetic engineering, but
it's closer to the reality; what we do is all hacks, clever tweaks and
reshufflings of nature's hard work. We'll get to the point of "coding",
but that's not the reality right now, and I think it's oversimplistic.

You might say it's more media-friendly, but I disagree. While a few
people still find "hacking" threatening, the words don't carry an
objectionable ideology beyond that. But "biocoding" carries an ideology
that's proven very divisive between enthusiasts and detractors over the
years already; the deterministic view that living things are nothing
but programs or wind-up-toys. It's not a philosophical argument I have
much stake in, but I do think "biocoder" will be no more welcome in the
rhetorical soup of synbio/geneering than "biohacker".

Sorry to fork the conversation right away! ;)

On Thu, 10 Oct 2013 16:53:32 -0700
Ryan Bethencourt <ryan.bethencourt@gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> Today is the launch of O'Reilly's Biocoder, a quarterly free
> e-newsletter for DIYbio, synthetic bio, and anything edge biotech
> related that we're all really excited to launch (a bunch of us have
> been working on it for a few months now), please do let us know what
> you think and also if you have any ideas for future articles, Nina
> and Mike welcome any suggestions!
>
> Let us know what you think of the First Free newsletter (available in
> multiple formats) at:
> http://oreil.ly/1g3FYPG<http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Foreil.ly%2F1g3FYPG&h=TAQFomnHFAQFRRiCKqEesd94-v5xYd9VTifKKookT1eFYCQ&s=1>
>