[DIYbio] Re: DIY movement is being hijacked

The core philosophy is "Do It Yourself". You don't have to help anyone, and it seems counter intuitive to force that. I disagree with the statement "I perceive it as a moral obligation to create tools and knowledge that are accessible to everyone and ultimately for the benefit of all people", because the reason I am a DIYbiologist is to avoid all institutions forcing me to do things for the "greater good" (as perceived by the deans, granting agencies, and governmental institutions). I'll state this again: I believe that I have no moral obligation to help anyone with my knowledge and tools AND that noone has any moral obligation to help me with their knowledge or tools. I want to just "mind my own business". 

However, that doesn't mean I won't help others. I find personal satisfaction with helping build a new lab, and find great satisfaction having someone listen to my stories of experimentation. I am free to associate with some people, and free to disassociate with others. Some DIYers I would love to learn from, but I won't spam them to get answers to my questions. I like being a DIYer because it means that I have freedom to do what I want to, when I want to, without to be under the jurisdiction of someone else. I believe Eric Raymond put many of the concepts down better than I have for computer hacking, so I will leave this http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/ here. 

Why do companies invest in antibiotics? Obviously so they can make money. Most people WILL NOT do it themselves, and thus there is an open market. If it is profitable to make antibiotics (hint: it is), they will continue to make antibiotics. The only large agency that cares if we make antibiotics might be the FDA for health concerns. I don't really know how this could even be a concern. 

Both left wingers and right wingers believe in different versions of "mind your own business" (for example, gay rights, abortive rights, privacy rights, liberty of expression/press, rights of illegal immigrants, etc). Who cares? I just like modifying organisms. I don't really care if you are a redneck god-fearing southern Trump-loving conservative or a white-collar Berkeley-graduate Leninist, if you would like to learn about GFP and GMOs, I can try to teach you.  

No one is hijacking the DIY movement.

Koeng

On Monday, January 30, 2017 at 11:14:27 AM UTC-8, Pieter Waag wrote:

Today I wrote a blog about what has been bugging me for a while now. The "DIY" narrative of self-sufficiency and independency is somehow being hijacked by extreme protectionists and nationalists. 

For example, the DIY antibiotics project (BioStrike) that I've been working on for a long time to bring across the urgency of the antibiotics , can be easily used as an excuse not to invest in antibiotics development. You can "Do It Yourself" right? 

Have we becoming the advocate of our own antagonist? 

Here's the full blog: http://waag.org/en/blog/diy-maker-movement-being-hijacked

Is anyone on this list confronted with similar situations? In the US you've got Trump, in the EU the Brexit, and with elections in about a month we've got plenty of trouble heading for us over here as well.

This whole "[Country X] first" and "Buy [Country X] Made" ideology has too much in common with the "mind your own business" interpretation of "Do It Yourself". I've got the feeling that the pretty DIYBio code-of-ethics is not going to cut it in the big picture. We need to do something.

Anyone interested in joining a more explicit statement on the indispensable necessity of collaborations, open attitude and reciprocity in the DIY movement?