Amy Webb - The Genesis Machine

The Genesis Machine is a brilliant pairing of two visionaries who offer us a comprehensive take on making a better world through biology.

Jane Metcalfe, cofounder of Wired and CEO of NEO.LIFE

The Genesis Machine is a very readable story about how the DNA world is shifting from reading the genetic code to writing and editing it. Amy Webb and Andrew Hessel then take the reader on a journey of possible world changing events that could result from this new technology.

J. Craig Venter, PhD , author of Life at the Speed of Life: From the Double Helix to the Dawn of Digital and CEO of JCVI

This spectacular and highly accessible book clearly and thoughtfully examines the most important revolution of our livesand of life itself. Understanding how we and future generations will use the tools of synthetic biology to transform the worlds inside and around us is essential to being an informed and empowered person and citizen in the twenty-first century. The Genesis Machine is a guide to exactly that and a must-read book.

Jamie Metzl , member of WHO expert committee on human genome editing and author of Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity

You may not realize it yet, but your lifeand all of life itselfis about to change. From programmable genes to designer medicines, synthetic biology is going to transform everything. The Genesis Machine is a surprisingly intimate, incisive, and readable guide to the opportunities, risks, and moral dilemmas of the brave new world ahead.

Steven Strogatz, Cornell University, author of Infinite Powers

If future technologies arrive gradually and then seemingly all at once, then the biotech-driven future is poised to arrive in ways that are far beyond the reach of our imaginations and at the same time knocking at our doors right now. Amy Webb and Andrew Hessel offer an essential guide to understanding biotech frontiers, and they outline important questions and approaches to consider now. An essential book for business leaders.

Beth Comstock , author of Imagine It Forward and former vice chair, GE

The Genesis Machine is a tour de force! Amy Webb and Andrew Hessel masterfully reveal the emerging network of forcespeople, labs, computer systems, government agencies, and businessesthat will drive humanitys next great transformation. Their fascinating (and frightening) conclusionsthat the human ecosystem can actually become programmedwill touch every facet of our lives in the future. This brilliant work is an absolute must-read for national security professionals and defense planners who need to understand the complex dynamics at play in the future competition for bio-hegemony.

Dr. Jake Sotiriadis, chief futurist, United States Air Force

We can now program biological systems like we program computers, with artificial intelligence and machine learning accelerating the speed of innovation and applications of synthetic biology. In an accessible and fascinating narrative, The Genesis Machine lays out a roadmap for this interdisciplinary field of synthetic biology that is forever reshaping life as we know it.

Rana el Kaliouby , author of Girl Decoded: A Scientists Quest to Reclaim Our Humanity by Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology and deputy CEO of Smart Eye

Are latest innovations in synthetic biology simply a miracle that ends a crisis or a breakthrough to an entirely new way of living? Thats the question futurist Amy Webb and microbiologist Andrew Hessel reveal for us with this fascinating book. The history of the world is a history of unintended consequences, for better and for worse, and Webb and Hessel capture the coming fusion of tech and biology in vivid detail.

Ian Bremmer, author of Collision Course

The Genesis Machine is fantastic, explaining how genetic code is the alphabet in which much of the future will be written. Amy Webb and Andrew Hessel have taken the very complicated subject of synthetic biology and made it understandable with sharp prose and sharp analysis that cut through mysteries of science and twenty-first-century humanism.

Alec Ross, author of The Industries of the Future and The Raging 2020s

The Signals Are Talking: Why Todays Fringe Is Tomorrows Mainstream

The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans & Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity

Copyright 2022 by Amy Webb and Andrew Hessel

Cover design by Pete Garceau

Cover images iStock/Getty Images

Cover copyright 2022 Hachette Book Group, Inc.

Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the authors intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the authors rights.

PublicAffairs

Hachette Book Group

1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104

www.publicaffairsbooks.com

@Public_Affairs

First Edition: February 2022

Published by PublicAffairs, an imprint of Perseus Books, LLC, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The PublicAffairs name and logo is a trademark of the Hachette Book Group.

The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Webb, Amy, 1974- author. | Hessel, Andrew, author.

Title: The genesis machine: our quest to rewrite life in the age of synthetic biology / Amy Webb and Andrew Hessel.

Description: First edition. | New York: PublicAffairs, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021045281 | ISBN 9781541797918 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781541797932 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Synthetic biologyMoral and ethical aspects. | Synthetic biologySocial aspects. | GeneticsMoral and ethical aspects. | GeneticsSocial aspects.

Classification: LCC QH438.7 .W43 2022 | DDC 572.8/6dc23/eng/20211012

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021045281

ISBNs: 9781541797918 (hardcover); 9781541797932 (ebook)

E3-20211222-JV-NF-ORI

For Kaiya, sage and light. And for Steve, who rebooted me.
AW

For Hani, Ro, and Dax, for the lessons on life.
AH

A myThe first time I felt the sharp twinge in my belly was during an important client meeting. Seated around the table were senior executives from a multinational information-technology company. We were developing the companys long-term strategy when the twinge hit me again. I quickly handed the meeting off to one of my colleagues and ran to the bathroom. By then, a layer of sticky, dark blood had soaked through my black tights and adhered to my inner thighs. I couldnt breathe. I couldnt physically take in air. I slumped over on the toilet and finally allowed myself to sob, silently, so no one could hear.

Id been eight weeks along. I was scheduled the following week for an early ultrasound. Id already started thinking of names: Zev if the baby was a boy, Sacha if she was a girl. As I cleaned up the blood on my legs and the floor, I searched for answers, but kept arriving at the same place of anger and self-blame. It was my fault. I must have done something wrong.